gtk apps sluggish in kde
 

i have a pretty decent config and have tweaked the shite out of everything possible...running slackware 10.0, kde 3.3.2 and dropline-gnome 2.8.0...i use kde most of the time, and qt apps are pretty snappy, but gtk based apps(firefox,thuhderbird,azureus,gaim...) take a while to load and things like tab switching in firefox exhibits visible 'drawing' when i switch tabs...gtk just doesnt feel snappy in kde...(firefox,TB take abt 6-10 seconds to load...but the slow drawing problem is a bigger PITA)

my config anyway:
kernel 2.6.9mm1
athlon xp 2400
geforce ti 4600
1 GB DDR Ram

things like hdparm and stuff have been tweaked to enable DMA..blah blah...and the kernel has been recompiled to suit my system requirements..

so once again...how do i make gtk apps speed up in kde?

anyone?

The simple answer: When you load up KDE it also loads the libraries and such for QT (the KDE interface stuff) so programs won't take years to load up. GTK stuff is going to take a little while to load up because the GTK libs aren't in memory, KDE has to open that stuff up every time you run a GTK app. If you ran gnome you would run into the same problem with KDE apps.

i think that's right, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

yes i know that...but why should gtk apps behave sluggish even AFTER theyve been loaded...like i said i dont care much about improving loading time....i just want to increase the responsiveness if its possible...

oh and am using the gtk-qt engine from www.kde-look.org ..maybe the sluggishness is cause of dropline gnome?

hmm....im beginning to wonder if im the only one having the problem...i tried yoper and suse a while back and they werent that bad..is it a slackware specific thing?

oh and fyi im running the latest gtk+-1.2.10 /gtk+-2.6.0...compiled from source..

looks like im talking to myself...anyway i read somewhere that freedesktop.org has a partial workaround to this ....does anyone know what it is?

i did some research ..if i do a

export GDK_USE_XFT=0

and then open any GTK app things seem much smoother...BUT..it looks like crap cause of the shitty fonts(anti-aliasing off :-(

any suggestions?

Have you got the latest graphics card drivers installed ok? Have you tried the default gtk engine if that gtk-qt one isnt?

yeah...latest and best nvidia drivers..default theme doesnt make a difference...and when i start the gnome-theme-manager i get the following output..anyone know what it means...

varun@AcharyaX:~$ gnome-theme-manager
*** attempt to put segment in horiz list twice

(gnome-theme-manager:27807): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_get_from_drawable: assertion `gdk_window_is_viewable (src)' failed

(gnome-theme-manager:27807): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_get_n_channels: assertion `pixbuf != NULL' failed

(gnome-theme-manager:27807): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_get_bits_per_sample: assertion `pixbuf != NULL' failed

(gnome-theme-manager:27807): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_get_width: assertion `pixbuf != NULL' failed

(gnome-theme-manager:27807): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_get_height: assertion `pixbuf != NULL' failed

(gnome-theme-manager:27807): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_get_rowstride: assertion `pixbuf != NULL' failed

(gnome-theme-manager:27807): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(gnome-theme-manager:27807): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_get_from_drawable: assertion `gdk_window_is_viewable (src)' failed


....and so on...

anyone know what this crap means?

bump

update: minor performance boost on installing glibmm and gtkmm...is it because "gtkmm is the official C++ interface for the popular GUI library GTK+."

my reasoning is that since qt is written in C++ and GTK in C, the "official C++ interface for the popular GUI library GTK+." should do something good right?

or am i high?anyway the speed diff is mild and am still looking for better ways to tackle the problem

Yep, anyone got solutions to this?
 

You're not talking to yourself, I have exactly the same problem - see my thread at http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=254820

As a complete non-techie I can't really offer any solutions, and I kinda gave up on it after no-one came up with anything.

Anyone......?

this annoyance is kinda like the black mark for linux in my head...when anyone comes up to me and asks 'what do u think about linux?' ....i say 'amazing,awesome...blah blah'....but in the back of my mind 'if it werent for those ^%%&%% GTK apps ...grrr..'


just tried firefox on my moms laptop(p3 1ghz, win xp) and its still faster than firefox on my box :-(

just installed suse 9.2 ...happy to report that thisdoes NOT happen in suse! i think the only way for me to change this in my beloved slack is to uninstall dropline gnome completely, and install all the gtk stuff from the slack cd..

So it doesn't happen in Suse 9.2 but it does in Suse 9.1 - can that be right?

This problem alone is worth upgrading for, but still... What a hassle.

Anyone?
 

Had resolved to just put up with this problem, but it's not possible... It's driving me up the wall.

Anyone got ideas, on either -

1. How to stop this sluggish 'drawing' of menus and the like in GTK apps - i.e. Firefox - without changing the operating system (Suse 9.1)

2. Whether upgrading to Suse 9.2 (see above) stands a decent chance of doing the trick - would be good to know, given the hassle / expense of doing this...

New ideas really appreciated as ever.

Rollo

im going to try installing arch now...will let you know if it behaves any better...

opera/firefox/thunderbird are all MUCH more responsive in windows..$%^#

What's 'arch'? Might not be much use to me, as a total non-techie. I had trouble just getting Suse installed... Oh well.

To significantly improve app loading speed try prelink . For me it reduced app loading speed almost 2x. :)
Some HOW-TO's :
http://www.crast.us/james/articles/prelink.php
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/prelink-howto.xml
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1971

PS.:
ArhLinux ( I think it is what he had in mind ).

Thanks for that, but this is nothing to do with app-loading speed.

It's about the performance of the programs once loaded - specifically, the slow drawing of menus and buttons etc and slow reaction times when mouse-clicking.

I would just like to know why no-one else is having these problems (except me and ganja_guru).

It's about GTK apparently... But that is already beyond my competences. :(

my problems in slack were probably due to dropline gnome/swaret/slapt-get...cant really blame slack at all for GTK sluggishness...as for ARCH Linux i let the dependency checker handle packages..firefox is MUCH faster than what ive ever seen in linux, BUT still about 15-20% slower than windows...i guess well never get to the bottom of this....... : (

Just can't believe no-one else seems to be having this problem... Everyone uses Firefox. What's going on?

And the worst bit is that, from what you say, I might not even solve the problem by getting a new computer (even if I could afford one...) because it still happens on a decent spec system.

Not quite ready to switch to Konqueror yet but the day is coming. :(

if u can ignore a tiny ad at the top of the screen...give opera 8 beta 2 a try..its juicy...much much more responsive than firefox..remember to set the skin to "windows native" for fastest performance in opera...(mildly ironic, isn't it?)

Opera's a non-starter
 

Just tried Opera and yep, it works fine. Just as responsive as Firefox should be. (Ironic - Opera seems to me to be much more feature-bloated than Firefox.)

Opera's failings:

1 - Tons of sites look really bad - because they were designed for IE, then Mozilla, and only then Opera. (Not least, my own site.)

2 - There are several Firefox plugin functions I can't live without.

3 - The stupid banner ad. (And I'm not paying money for a product with failings 1 and 2 above.)

So, back to the drawing board.

One obvious workaround for Firefox... Changing the skin (or "theme") speeds things up a little.

"Microfirefox" makes the most difference, but it isn't very nice to look at.

Would still like to know why so few people seem to be having this problem... Googling "firefox slow draw GTK" etc turns up hardly anything relevant.

update: it seems theres some sort of gtk2 focus bug, and if firefox is compiled against gtk1 this bug disappears...

can somebody help me plz
 

How can i map a network drive to linux, i'm using linux xandros 3, ang how can i change my gateway, i can't surf the net!

plz help me

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