Arch Linux

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,804

Lost keystrokes on console -- seems to be Slim related

I am never fully content with my system.  I had moved from kdm and mostly KDE4 and have been playing with Slim with xfce4 and Awesome.

When I need root access, I tend to pop over to vt1 (console) and login in there as root.

Last night, I had a hard time logging in as root.  I noticed that when I typed root, it wold come out as rot, oot, or maybe, roo.
With some persistence, I got through the login process.  Once logged in, it seems the system missed around 1 in 3 keystrokes.  firing up htop showed about 5% cpu usage with mpd playing audio.  I was logged into xfce4 as a user on vt7.  Slim occasionally popped to the top of the cpu usage list.

terminal sessions in xfce4 worked perfectly (no dropped keystrokes)

For fun, I edited inittab to use kdm for run level 5 instead of slim.  Rebooted.  Logged into xfce4. poped over to vt1.  No problems.

Aside from the observations above, I am curious as to why slim was using processor time at all when there were no log in screens active.

My system:

ewaller@odin:~/build[127] 1061 %uname -a
Linux odin 2.6.35-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Aug 27 17:14:28 CEST 2010 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6400 @ 2.00GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
ewaller@odin:~/build 1063 %pacman -Qs video-intel
local/xf86-video-intel 2.12.0-1 (xorg-video-drivers)
    X.org Intel i810/i830/i915/945G/G965+ video drivers

I use compiz instead of xfwm or kwin

Any ideas?

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
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How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

codycarey

Member

Registered: 2009-08-21

Posts: 154

Re: Lost keystrokes on console -- seems to be Slim related

Seems the problem has been around a while. https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=691909

Are you using KMS or anything?

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,804

Re: Lost keystrokes on console -- seems to be Slim related

Seems the problem has been around a while. https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=691909

Wow, i can't believe I missed that.  My search karma just took a hit. Thanks for the link.

Yes, I am using KMS. 
I'll be off digesting that thread.

---

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

codycarey

Member

Registered: 2009-08-21

Posts: 154

Re: Lost keystrokes on console -- seems to be Slim related

Seems the problem has been around a while. https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=691909

Wow, i can't believe I missed that.  My search karma just took a hit. Thanks for the link.

Yes, I am using KMS. 
I'll be off digesting that thread.

Don't forget to post back anything you find. It seems like the other thread just died off without resolution so it might be a good idea to continue it here.

I also use SLiM but with the open source nouveau and the proprietary Catalyst (on notebook and desktop respectively). My laptop has a hybrid graphics setup with an Intel and an Nvidia G210m so I might try switching over to xf86-video-intel later to see if I experience the same issue.

Last edited by codycarey (2010-09-15 21:13:21)