Terminal startup very slow

dlinux · 11-16-2008, 01:31 PM

Whenever i try to open the Terminal application it takes approximately 10 seconds, but if i open another/several Terminals after the first one with the first Terminal process still open, it starts in a snap (instantly). CPU usage is always very low, so i dont understand the delay.

Im using Slackware 12.1 and this happens in all environments (KDE,xfce,etc..).
What could be causing such slow startup??

Note that if i close all Terminals and try to open "the first" again, it takes about 10 seconds again.

Thanks in advance.

kukibl · 11-16-2008, 03:35 PM

I guess you think on XFCE's Terminal...? Same thing happens to me. What's more interesting - it only happens with 'nvidia' driver, not with 'nv'.

I guess it has something with X configuration.:-/

shadowsnipes · 11-16-2008, 08:54 PM

Could be related to the issue specified in the CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT. Here is an excerpt from Part 2 of my Slackware Upgrade HowTo
:
Fix slow Xfce Terminal
I noticed after the upgrade that having Terminal open caused workspace switching to be slower and Terminal also resized slower than normal.
This is easily fixed by creating /etc/profile.d/x-fix.sh

Code:

#!/bin/sh 
# This should fix slow Xfce Terminal in Slackware 12.1 
export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1

Do not forget to make it executable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT

If you notice Xfce's Terminal and perhaps some other applications being drawn
very slowly in X, then you should try explicitly disabling the Composite
extension in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, or set XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 in your
environment prior to starting X. For more information on this, see:
http://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2792

dlinux · 11-17-2008, 11:58 AM

Thanks for the reply, guys.
I have tried the XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 trick but it does not remove the problem, which i think it should not because i dont have any trouble resizing or moving windows whatsoever, the problem is just the delay before starting the first Terminal process.

I have just noticed that the same happens with mozilla firefox, maybe it's something related with gnome libs??
So the delay only occurs when opening the first GNOME dependent application.

Note as i said before, that when i close *all* Terminals(or firefox), the next time i open it, another 10-sec delay.

dugan · 11-17-2008, 12:00 PM

Post deleted. Please accept my apologies.

rworkman · 11-17-2008, 02:47 PM

I don't know if it will result in anything useful, but maybe start Terminal with "strace Terminal" from an xterm or rxvt window and see if anything sticks out.

dlinux · 11-18-2008, 01:18 PM

I managed to work around the problem.If i start xfrun4 _once_ , then everything goes smoothly afterwards, even after closing xfrun4.

So i have put this in XFCE's autostarted applications: xfrun4 --daemon

Im pretty sure this must be some library loading problem, when loading XFCE
probably, but hey for now this will do.