I've got the X blues

RangerDude · Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Posts: 301

I've got this P4@2Ghz and GF4. Still- I notice choppy refreshment when moving apps around the screen (like aterm). It's very noticable when moving a white app on a dark background.
I just got the blues now. I use gentoo to optimize linux to my hardware- still, a PII@400MHz with GF2MX running WinXP refreshes moving windows faster than my gentoo system. It just can't be true! :cry:

I use agpart, nvidia-4349, XFree 4.3.
Changing to the nv driver gives the same result.

You may call me a whiner- but I'm a fan of software being optimized, so when I see this kind of choppy refreshment it breaks my heart.

Does anyone know how to optimize Xfree, because I can't find anything anywhere.
Or maybe XFree is lacking behind? But what then? DirectFB are incomplete and aren't real alternatives.

Korean Ian · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 95

What brand is your card? Can you link us to some specs?

KI

RangerDude · Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Posts: 301

Cossins · Posted: Thu May 22, 2003 3:04 pm Post subject:

Have you tried using NVIDIAs own AGP support in place of AGPGART?

- Simon

Dolio · l33t Joined: 17 Jun 2002 Posts: 650

Try the 4363 drivers (you'll need ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86"). The 4349 drivers were slow for me (and lots of other people, I believe), but the 4363s are back to their old selves.
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JoeW71 · n00b Joined: 07 May 2003 Posts: 27 Location: Umea, Sweden

Check out the readme that comes with the NVidia driver, it contains some really good info on driver usage and options to put in the XF86Config..

Mmmm,

sitting on my moms XP install, can´t seem to remember where it is located .... check /usr/docs or /usr/share/docs and look for nvidia
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Cossins · Posted: Thu May 22, 2003 6:11 pm Post subject:

The NVIDIA documentation is in

RangerDude · Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Posts: 301

I tried NvAGP and almost all different nvidia drivers. I don't think it's driver related, because it's just as good/bad wether I choose nvidia, nv or even vesa driver. I'm just this is X related in some way.
I'm sure other ppl are having this, but just living with it. Seems I might have to also. It's just a shame to have that kind of hardware and still lagging in a simple GUI like openbox.

My screen is running at 106Hz- so it ain't 60Hz "screen-lag".

m0sk · n00b Joined: 18 Apr 2003 Posts: 39 Location: Belgium

RangerDude · Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Posts: 301

I have no functinality problems. I can work just fine. It's just.... when we'll have 10GHz cpu's, will we still accept 2D gui laggs?!?

Safrax · Guru Joined: 23 Apr 2002 Posts: 422

Use the 3123 drivers. The 4XXX's are absolute crap and should never have been released.

Cossins · Posted: Fri May 23, 2003 4:20 pm Post subject:

Cut that crap, will ya?

curtis119 · Posted: Fri May 23, 2003 7:03 pm Post subject:

You're problem may not be hardware related or even driver related. It may be your kernel. I have been reading the kernel mailing list lately and they have discussed this problem quite a bit. The new kernel is optimized to run X so this problem will go away. What they suggested for the 2.4 series is to nice X and use the pre-empt patch (which is already in the gaming sources).

Hope this helps.

how to nice X:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=55492&highlight=nice
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aethyr · Veteran Joined: 06 Apr 2003 Posts: 1085 Location: NYC

I think there's a couple of points to make here.

First, do you think sitting there and dragging a window around is a good way to judge system speed? Well, it's not. It's known by almost everyone that X isn't the best at redraw speeds when moving and resizing, however, this doesn't mean X is slow.

Second, like someone else said, try a different set of NVidia drivers if you're having problems with 2d speed.

Third, try a different kernel. Personally I use 2.4.20-ck6, and I find it to be an excellent kernel. That being said, I can still drag windows around quickly to see the redraw issue, but like I previously pointed out, redraw doesn't mean your system is slow.

I think you need to actually sit down and start using your desktop rather than just dragging windows around. I find my desktop to be responsive, and this is on a p3-850mhz, TNT2 Ultra.

[edit] as per instructions on Con Kolivas's page, http://kernel.kolivas.org , you shouldn't renice X if you use the ck-kernel patch.

aardvark · Guru Joined: 30 Jun 2002 Posts: 576

Hmm I always thought these "shortcomings" where a "feature" of Xfree

Seriously, xfree is major bummer for some of the basic graphic stuff...

Nevertheless it's usable enough though, even on my 800 mhz cpu and a golden oldy TNT II PRO

Cossins · Posted: Fri May 23, 2003 8:06 pm Post subject:

Yes, I agree that X doesn't seem very elegant at the moment. The whole client-server approach is like shooting at pigeons with a gatling gun, at least considering the current status of DE's.

I'm in for a complete rewrite...

- Simon