Feisty: Screensavers Run Slowly During Idle Time, and Fast During screen Saver Test.
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Feisty: Screensavers Run Slowly During Idle Time, and Fast During screen Saver Test.
Hi all,
I've recently installed the ATI proprietary drivers for my Radeon 9800 pro video card. I've found the open source drivers can cause my display to lock up. At any rate, the proprietary drivers work quite well.
That said, I have noticed a problem with my screen savers (I am using the default KDE screensavers -- specifically the OpenGL screensavers). When I am in the "Configure Desktop" dialogue, and select "Test" on a any OpenGL screensaver, it runs perfectly fine. When the screensaver comes on after a few minutes of idle time, the screen saver runs slowly -- at only a few frames per second.
I can't really understand what the issue is. I do have direct rendering enabled, and I have a great frame rate in glxgears.
Here is a copy of my xorg.conf file:
Code:
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Default Screen" 0 0
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection
Section "Files"
# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "macintosh"
Option "XkbLayout" "macintosh_vndr/ch(en-altmeta)"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Identifier "stylus"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Identifier "eraser"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# /dev/input/event
# for USB
Identifier "cursor"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Cinema HD Di"
HorizSync 28.0 - 96.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 60.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Driver "fglrx"
Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon R350 NH [Radeon 9800 Pro]"
Option "AGPMode" "8"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon R350 NH [Radeon 9800 Pro]"
Monitor "Cinema HD Di"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "0"
EndSection
Thanks for the suggestion, but I've already tried that. I even bounced up the priority of each screen saver, but to no avail. This definitely looks like a rendering speed issue to me; you can actually see it chugging along, trying to draw the screen. In fact, the screen savers run EXACTLY like they did before I enabled direct rendering (ie by installing ATI's drivers). That said, when I "Test" the screen saver, it runs perfectly. Only when it comes on after a few minutes of idle time does it run slowly.
I found a bug report that relates to the 2.6.15 restricted modules, which reports GLX can run slowly during idle times. However, I'm running 2.6.20-15-386. I'm not sure if this bug has anything to do with what I am experiencing. The bug report is here:
I just got the latest update of the fglrx driver, and this seems to have resolved the issue. Thanks to everyone who looked at this post. I'm glad to say that the issue was solved by the driver's maintainers!
Perhaps I was wrong... fglrx performs slowly when screen saver starts on its own
Hmm...
It would appear that after installing the new fglrx module, the screen savers worked... once. Now, it seems that every time the screen saver starts on its own, I'm right back to my original problem; that is, the screen saver runs as though it has no 3D accelleration whatsoever. Invoking the screen saver to start manually works fine. Also, glxgears shows that I am getting almost 300 fps.
This is really becoming annoying, as I can't seem to narrow down what the problem is! Does anyone have a suggestion?
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Feisty: Screensavers Run Slowly During Idle Time, and Fast During screen Saver Test.
Tried that...
Update seems to resolve it...
