Arch Linux

friedrich

Member

Registered: 2009-05-07

Posts: 26

[SOLVED] xfce4 terminal is slowing down Xmonad

Hi everyone,

I am using Xmonad (xmonad-0.8.1, xmonad-contrib-0.8.1) as my WM and I fire up a xfce4-session via .xinitrc when starting the X-Server, through:

xfce4-session &
xfce4-panel &
exec xmonad

I told xfce4 not to fire up xfwm4, so that it's not conflicting with Xmonad.  I like using the terminal of xfce4 as its got nicer fonts than xterm.  However, every time I start a terminal on a workspace, changing the layout of that workspace and switching to or from that workspace gets extremely slow.  Like REALLY slow.  I don't even know where to start looking to find the problem.  Otherwise Xmonad is working nice and fast as usual.  If I use xterm instead of terminal, everything is fine too.

Has any one of you got an idea, where this problem could come from and how to solve it?

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,
Thomas

Last edited by friedrich (2009-05-20 15:16:17)

pogeymanz

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 1,020

Re: [SOLVED] xfce4 terminal is slowing down Xmonad

Okay, I'm probably not helpful, but have you tried urxvt instead of Terminal?

Everytime I have a problem with xfce4 glitching up or slowing down, I just delete ~/.cache/ and there is a good chance it would help. So, if you can't figure it out, try that.

friedrich

Member

Registered: 2009-05-07

Posts: 26

Re: [SOLVED] xfce4 terminal is slowing down Xmonad

No, deleting ~/.cache/ didn't work

I installed urxvt, and, yeah, it works.  But, to be honest, it looks really ugly, just like xterm.  I want my nice fonts back...

pogeymanz

Member

Registered: 2008-03-11

Posts: 1,020

Re: [SOLVED] xfce4 terminal is slowing down Xmonad

Well, you can have some nice fonts in urxvt also. This is my .Xdefaults for urxvt:

URxvt.tabbed.tabbar-fg: 4
URxvt.tabbed.tabbar-bg: 0
URxvt.tabbed.tab-fg:    3
URxvt.tabbed.tab-bg:    0
URxvt.perl-ext-common: tabbed
URxvt*urlLauncher: links
URxvt*depth: 32
URxvt*background: rgba:0000/0000/0000/eeee
URxvt*foreground:  #aaaaaa
URxvt*geometry: 120x35
URxvt*scrollBar:true
URxvt*scrollBar_right:true
URxvt*font: xft:Terminus:size=8

Which gives it tabs, makes it slightly transparent, give a scrollbar on the right, makes it start with a size of 120x35 pixels, and uses Terminus font, which is a really 1337 font.

Maybe try some of these?

friedrich

Member

Registered: 2009-05-07

Posts: 26

Re: [SOLVED] xfce4 terminal is slowing down Xmonad

Now, that's interesting.

I put your suggestions in my .Xdefaults.  (@pogeymanz: It actually looks really nice, thanks.)  However, now I am back to my original problem.  Switching to and from that workspace gets really really slow, when urxvt is running on it.  Also, swapping the terminal between slots/panels of different size is very slow (e.g. putting the terminal in the master slot.)

Seems to be a problem of Xmonad.  Only that this seems to only occur with terminal windows.  All other applications are fine!

Cheers,
Thomas

Lexion

Member

Registered: 2008-03-23

Posts: 510

Re: [SOLVED] xfce4 terminal is slowing down Xmonad

Try turning off xcompmgr and see if it's compositing.

---

urxvtc / wmii / zsh / configs / onebluecat.net
Arch will not hold your hand

friedrich

Member

Registered: 2009-05-07

Posts: 26

Re: [SOLVED] xfce4 terminal is slowing down Xmonad

I don't have xcompmgr running!!  Never had, that is long time ago I did, but not since I switched to archlinux.

friedrich

Member

Registered: 2009-05-07

Posts: 26

Re: [SOLVED] xfce4 terminal is slowing down Xmonad

Ok, it seems to have something to do with compositing.

When I remove the line

URxvt*depth: 32

then the urxvt resizes as quick as it should and I can shuffle it around the workspace in no time.  Nice.

So, I wonder what's wrong with the xfce4-terminal?  Transparency is switched off.  When the above line for urxvt is slowing down Xmonad, what configuration in the xfce4-terminal is causing the problem?

Cheers,
Thomas

friedrich

Member

Registered: 2009-05-07

Posts: 26

Re: [SOLVED] xfce4 terminal is slowing down Xmonad

I started using SAKURA as my terminal now.  It is reasonable fast and has nice fonts.  I will close this thread.  The problem I started with is not really solved, xfce4-terminal is slow and I don't know why.  However, I have a working terminal with nice fonts.  So, I would say, I don't have a problem any more.