Compiz slow when run in DE (Gnome/Xfce), fast on its own

Ogi · 04-08-2008, 12:33 PM

Hello,

I have a problem with Compiz.

When I run Compiz within a desktop environment such as Xfce and Gnome, it sometimes gives me horrible performance. It can take up to a minute for simple things such as resizing or moving a window.

Other times it will work splendidly, with no slowdowns/stuttering/etc... A real pleasure to use.

The problem is that this happens intermittently, sometimes when I log in Compiz works great, other times it is so slow it locks up X and I have to do a hard-reset.

Once, when it was being really slow, I logged in via ssh to see what the cause could be, but was surprised to find my CPU and memory were mostly unused (load at 0.01, RAM at ~1800MB free).

I also have glx running with direct rendering enabled, so there seem to be no problems there.

Next thing I tried was logging into a failsafe terminal and running:

compiz-start &
emerald --replace &

And lo-and-behold, works great. I can use all the eye-candy,it is all smooth, and if I run other programs they work great as well with no slowdown.

So I tried running gnome from the failsafe terminal like this:

gnome-session &

And it worked in a way. Some things failed, but I got gnome running with near perfect performance. Some issues running it this way include stuttering of things like switching desktops and alt+tabbing.

Now there are essentially two things I would like help with:

1. Getting Compiz to run when I login normally (i.e. via Gnome/Xfce) without the slowdowns.

2. Solving problems like the stuttering when it is running (before I would never have stuttering or any performance issues, so I know my hardware is up to the task).

My Specs:

OS: Gentoo Linux
Kernel: 2.6.23-gentoo-r8

CPU: AMD 64 X2 4200+ @2.2GHz
RAM: 2048MB DDR2
Graphics: nVidia Quadro NVS 285 (Dual 1440x900 screens, using binary drivers)

lspci output:

Code:

00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP55 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 LPC Bridge (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP55 SMBus (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP55 USB Controller (rev a1)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP55 USB Controller (rev a2)
00:04.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP55 IDE (rev a1)
00:06.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI bridge (rev a2)
00:08.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 Ethernet (rev a2)
00:09.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 Ethernet (rev a2)
00:0a.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0d.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0f.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 11)
01:00.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 11)
01:01.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
01:01.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 07)
01:04.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)
07:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV44 [Quadro NVS 285] (rev a1)

And my Xorg.conf

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "X.org Configured"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
	RgbPath      "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
	ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc/"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/OTF"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "wfb"
	Load  "xtrap"
	Load  "record"
	Load  "GLcore"
	Load  "dbe"
	Load  "dri"
	Load  "freetype"
	Load  "type1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"

	Option "XkbLayout"    "en"
	Option "XkbModel"     "pc105"   

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	
	Identifier  "Card0"
	Driver      "nvidia"
	VendorName  "nVidia Corporation"
	BoardName   "NV44 [Quadro NVS 285]"
	BusID       "PCI:7:0:0"


#other options I recommend:
    Option     "RenderAccel"
    Option     "HWcursor"
    Option     "CursorShadow"
    Option     "CursorShadowAlpha" "32"
    Option     "CursorShadowXOffset" "3"
    Option     "CursorShadowYOffset" "3"
#if you want Composite and GLX (they don't cooperate):
    Option     "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
#the TwinView stuff
    Option     "TwinView"
    Option     "MetaModes"  "1440x900,1440x900; 1440x900"
    Option     "TwinViewOrientation"      "LeftOf"
    Option     "SecondMonitorHorizSync"   "UseEdidFreqs"
    Option     "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "UseEdidFreqs"

    Option      "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "true"
    # This option must be either undeclared or
    # false, in order to avoid periodic short-term
    # freezes on beryl and other OpenGL intensive
    # programs
    Option      "UseEvents"         "false"
    Option      "RenderAccel"       "true"

EndSection

Section "Extensions"
        Option      "Composite"   "enable"
EndSection


Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Card0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     1
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     4
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     8
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     15
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     16
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

I have had these issues for a few months now, so I decided to ask for some help

If any further information is needed, let me know!

Thanks.