Sluggish graphics after Xorg upgrade

rollo · 12-03-2006, 06:58 PM

I did an apt installation which involved an upgrade of Xorg to v7.0. In the first place this messed up the font configuration and caused Xorg to fail on boot. I resolved that (by reinstalling the xfonts-base package and tweaking font paths). But something in the upgrade has slowed my graphics right down. In particular, scrolling is jerky as hell and interferes with the performance of other applications.

Any ideas where I should start in order to solve this?

My xorg.conf hardware configuration was originally generated by the Kanotix/Knoppix script mkxf86config (and before the upgrade performance was fine).

Thanks.

Dutch Master · 12-03-2006, 07:25 PM

You could start by looking at the installed drivers for your hardware in the Xorg config file.

rollo · 12-04-2006, 02:39 PM

Thanks.

The thing is, my xorg.conf hardware configuration has not changed at all. It's just a straightforward laptop config generated by Knoppix (and it worked fine).

The only thing that has changed is fonts.

I've eliminated most of the font-related error messages, but the some remain:

Code:

(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Mon Dec  4 21:14:57 2006
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(==) ServerLayout "XFree86 Configured"
(**) |-->Screen "Screen0" (0)
(**) |   |-->Monitor "Monitor0"
(**) |   |-->Device "Card0"
(**) |-->Input Device "Keyboard0"
(**) |-->Input Device "PS/2 Mouse"
(**) |-->Input Device "USB Mouse"
(**) |-->Input Device "ALPS TouchPad"
(WW) Duplicate core pointer devices.  Removing core pointer attribute from "USB Mouse"
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Speedo" does not exist.
        Entry deleted from font path.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/PEX" does not exist.
        Entry deleted from font path.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
        Entry deleted from font path.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/latex-ttf-fonts" does not exist.
        Entry deleted from font path.
(**) FontPath set to:
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc:unscaled,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi:unscaled,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi:unscaled,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi,
        /usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,
        /usr/share/fonts/ttf/western,
        /usr/share/fonts/ttf/decoratives,
        /usr/share/fonts/truetype,
        /usr/share/fonts/truetype/openoffice,
        /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera,
        /var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID,
        /var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType

[...]

Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/truetype, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/truetype/openoffice, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID, removing from list!

All fonts seem to be available and performing fine. But I can't see what else this problem could be related to.

Any more ideas?

sleekmason · 12-05-2006, 04:05 PM

it sounds as though you may be using something like a nvidia card with the vesa driver rather than the nvidia driver. upgrade to whatever driver you need to have.

Dutch Master · 12-05-2006, 05:01 PM

Usually nVidia hardware works well with the vesa driver. In fact, I had to use the vesa driver for my nForce2 based desktop machine as the nVidia driver made the screen shaky...

rollo · 12-06-2006, 12:04 PM

Hi, and thanks.

What I don't understand is how the overall performance could be affected if all that has changed in xorg.conf is fonts - except if there's some problem with font rendering.

As for the graphics driver particulars, this is a subject I have never quite understood properly. The Monitor section of my xorg.conf starts like this:

Code:

# Auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Monitor0"
        Option  "DPMS"  "true"
#       HorizSync    28.0 - 78.0 # Warning: This may fry very old Monitors
        HorizSync    28.0 - 96.0 # Warning: This may fry old Monitors
        VertRefresh  50.0 - 75.0 # Very conservative. May flicker.
#       VertRefresh  50.0 - 62.0 # Extreme conservative. Will flicker. TFT default.
        #  Default modes distilled from
        #      "VESA and Industry Standards and Guide for Computer Display Monitor
        #       Timing", version 1.0, revision 0.8, adopted September 17, 1998.
        #  $XFree86: xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xorg/etc/vesamodes,v 1.4 1999/11/18 16:52:17 tsi Exp $
        # 640x350 @ 85Hz (VESA) hsync: 37.9kHz
        ModeLine "640x350"    31.5  640  672  736  832    350  382  385  445 +hsync -vsync
        # 640x400 @ 85Hz (VESA) hsync: 37.9kHz
        ModeLine "640x400"    31.5  640  672  736  832    400  401  404  445 -hsync +vsync
        # 720x400 @ 85Hz (VESA) hsync: 37.9kHz [etc...]

And the Device section like this:

Code:

Section "Device"
        Option      "RenderAccel"       "1"
        ### Available Driver options are:-
# sw_cursor is needed for some ati and radeon cards
        #Option     "sw_cursor"
        #Option     "hw_cursor"
        #Option     "NoAccel"
        #Option     "ShowCache"
        #Option     "ShadowFB"
        #Option     "UseFBDev"
        #Option     "Rotate"
        Identifier  "Card0"
# The following line is auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config
        Driver      "vesa"
        VendorName  "All"
        BoardName   "All"
#       BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

How would I check if that is optimum for the hardware? (Just to say again: this config worked beautifully before the xorg upgrade.)

sleekmason · 12-06-2006, 03:46 PM

I just did the upgrade to my nvidia card . . . have a look at my post here:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...32#post2529432

note the second to last post where I stated what worked. This may fix your problem. you are currently using the "vesa" driver. I have noticed problems with this on my nvidia card . . don't know why. Most of the time it worked just fine. The guide should solve your problem . . . let me know.

rollo · 12-08-2006, 06:29 PM

Thanks for the advice.

It turns out my hardware is the VIA Unichrome VN800 chip, which is not supported by the via kernel module (at least not reliably). So the only way to access its hardware acceleration feature is to compile a work-in-progress driver from Openchrome.

I am annoyed about this. I have reinstalled my distro with the latest kernel, and the graphics are as horribly sluggish as before. Just scrolling is unbearably jerky. The overhead must be coming from the Xorg 7 upgrade, because I had no problems before, and I was using the same vesa driver.

Does this really mean a budget laptop bought six months ago (1.5gHz, 512Mb) is now too slow to run the latest KDE? If so, that is a problem.

sleekmason · 12-09-2006, 03:05 PM

I've noticed the same thing after the update using the vesa drivers. primarily when I am scrolling. updates to the driver software will keep occuring, and your card may be better supported soon. on the other hand, I just bought a nvidia geforce 7300 for about $90, which isn't cheap, but does solve the problem. Also, while I'm not sure this could help, but SEEMS like it should, you can try dpkg-reconfigure x11-common and dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg . . . . just make sure you know your harware first.

davcefai · 12-09-2006, 11:59 PM

I suggest you try the via driver. I have found it works better than vesa on my system.

mike10 · 12-10-2006, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rollo

Does this really mean a budget laptop bought six months ago (1.5gHz, 512Mb) is now too slow to run the latest KDE? If so, that is a problem.

wish that would fix the problem

my desktop - amd64 athlon x2 2GH with 2G ram onboard graphics card set to 256ram same problem - the problem is the graphics driver I think but - when I switch to an anchint graphics card the problem is fixed old card has 32mb I think

===========

what I forgot to say Is my laptop dose just fine and it has 1.8gh and 512 mb ram :-)

rollo · 12-11-2006, 11:16 AM

Thanks for the input guys.

The solution was indeed the Via driver. But NOT the one which comes with Xorg - I had already tried that and it doesn't cooperate with my chip (VN800).

The VN800 (and there must be a lot of these around by now) needs a special version of the Via driver. The most popular is provided by OpenChrome (instructions at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OpenChrome). Result: No more jerky scrolling. Yippee!

sleekmason: Yep, I read somewhere that this chip is going to be supported in the Via driver in future. Pity it isn't yet, because compiling can be a real minefield for newbies (and that includes me sometimes).

Oh yes - one more thing. The Via driver solved the scrolling issue but caused the mouse pointer to disappear while hovering over certain apps. Solved this by checking the "sw_cursor" Device option in xorg.conf.