Hi! I’ve just upgraded from 11.1 to 11.2. My KDE apps (Firefox, Yast, Kmail) are now excruciatingly slow - particularly Kmail which is now virtually unusable. Before the upgrade on my 3GB RAM laptop the response was great - so something has broken during the upgrade process. What is interesting is when I open in Failsafe - the speed is fine.
My thoughts are maybe graphics card acceleration but why would it be ok in failsafe?
Not really sure where to start looking here. Any help greatly appreciated.
First, create a new user. If that user’s OK, then it’s your configuration.
Get into runlevel 3, then move your original user’s .kde4 directory to a backup place
mv ~/.kde4 ~/.kde4.bak
Then try to recover individual important directories within it (again within runlevel 3), hopefully isolating the problem (or at least getting to a point where you don’t mind setting up again).
Thanks for the suggestion. The created second user has the same problems as the first user. It makes me think this could be graphics card hardware acceleration - I’ll do a google search see if it sheds some light.
I am moving forward on this. I have solved why the problem isn’t happening in failsafe mode. The boot kernel flags in /boot/grub/menu.lst determine how the kernel is loaded, and without the x11failsafe flag my system runs excruciatingly slow.
So, the problem lies within x11failsafe. That flag I believe determines whether /etc/X11/xorg.conf or /etc/X11/xorg.conf.install is used when loading X11. So therefore the issue is in the xorg.conf file created during the upgrade process from openSUSE 11.1 and 11.2
That’s my next point of inquiry. If anyone else has encountered this, please feel free to chip in and help me
On failsafe (i.e. with x11failsafe flag) my CPU is 0.5%
On normal (i.e without x11failsafe) my CPU is 100%, Xorg is using everything. Which is interesting, because it means the cycles are not being used by the apps (Kmail, Firefox etc) but by Xorg itself.
Not sure where to go from here.
Further information - my graphics card is the Intel Mobile 4 Series Express. Perhaps the driver was ‘upgraded’ during the openSUSE 11.2 development. Unfortunately I’ve lost my 11.1 xorg.conf file so can’t compare what it was like before the upgrade.
>
>On failsafe (i.e. with x11failsafe flag) my CPU is 0.5%
>
>On normal (i.e without x11failsafe) my CPU is 100%, Xorg is using
>everything. Which is interesting, because it means the cycles are not
>being used by the apps (Kmail, Firefox etc) but by Xorg itself.
>
>Not sure where to go from here.
>
>Further information - my graphics card is the Intel Mobile 4 Series
>Express. Perhaps the driver was ‘upgraded’ during the openSUSE 11.2
>development. Unfortunately I’ve lost my 11.1 xorg.conf file so can’t
>compare what it was like before the upgrade.
Well it is certainly narrowed down to X somewhere. Try reinstalling
your display driver.
Just FYI, there is no xorg.conf in 11.2
You have to run sax2 to initiate that file, which might be necessary, but I have not had to do so on either of my machines. (see sig)
>
>Just FYI, there is no xorg.conf in 11.2
>You have to run sax2 to initiate that file, which might be necessary,
>but I have not had to do so on either of my machines. (see sig)
I should migrate from my 10.3 KDE machine to my 11.1 KDE 3.5 machine.
But i am working more overtime than i can really handle and that is
too much like work.
I had a very similar problem. After the upgrade from 11.1 to 11.2 Kmail was extremely slow (I have an IMAP account, whether that matters or not I could not test). Other KDE components such as Kwrite seemed not to be affected.
I did not go through the hassle to create a new user or use the failsafe mode. I found a simple workaround: I uninstalled everything connected to the scim input method. Now Kmail is back to normal. I guess the problem resides within scim or the kmail integration of scim.
Hello, I’m reviving this thread because I have what seems to be the same problem, and I’ve been unable to solve it.
It is definitely connected to the graphics driver, I have also found that running with x11failsafe gives me a useable system, however I can’t run 3D apps really.
I have an integrated Intel G41 chipset, running in a tower, 11.2 all system repositories synched to pacman and up to date.
Without x11failsafe even the login screen is excruciatingly slow to echo typed characters. The system monitor or top show high 90s % being used by xorg for a simple window pop or focus change.
I am “administrating” (within my simple means!) 4 systems running 11.2, the other 3 are nvidia or ATI and have no issues. I’ve tried running sax2 -r multiple times, various options, no joy.
I would certainly appreciate any help, or to know if badzilla found a solution.
You definitely have the symptoms I had. My solution was to do with the upgrade process. I believe that the 11.1 to 11.2 upgrade process it is supposed to automatically upgrade the boot sequence with the new kernel. It didn’t for me and that’s what caused the problems.
Thanks for the link, I haven’t followed the genesis of Intel graphics before. In fact this machine (which is core2) is the first with Intel gear I’ve had for years and years.
However, I’ve tried all that before. Actually there’s no problem detecting the G41, sax2 seems to automagically configure for it, and it came up in the install that way. It sets the driver to “intel.” I’ve tried the vesa driver but it is not any faster.
BZ, glad to hear your problem was solved. Sadly for me the solution isn’t pertinent because this machine is spanking new and has a clean install of 11.2 on a blank disk. (I don’t do windows, or pay for it. ;))
As for kernel version,
vesta:/home/emery # uname -a
Linux vesta 2.6.31.12-0.1-default #1 SMP 2010-01-27 08:20:11 +0100 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
Is this not the right one somehow?
I’ve used Suse since 10.0, on more than a few machines, and although I’ve had a few problems this one is perhaps the most annoying one since it’s on my own “fast” desktop!
The 2.6.31 kernel has problems with a number of Intel chipsets. This is true not only for openSUSE but also for pretty much every other Linux distribution with that Kernel version.
We have a family laptop with Intel Graphics, which is running openSUSE-11.1, and I tested with an openSUSE-11.2 liveCD prior to making a decision to install 11.1. It was not pleasant. … you can read about it here: Intel 855GM graphics problems w/openSUSE-11.2s 2.6.31 kernel - openSUSE Forums I left that laptop on 11.1.
… a friend also asked I install openSUSE on their laptop PC (with Intel graphics) and I had problems there as documented here: Looking for alternatives to sax2 for Intel graphics ? - openSUSE Forums That laptop still has a pathetic 800x600 with fbdev driver running 11.2 , although when I get my hands on it I hope that I can improve that slightly, although I doubt I will ever get special desktop effects running on it.
Frankly, dependant on the details relevant to your specific Intel graphic hardware, you may be better off with an older openSUSE version (possibly 11.1) and then if you are a KDE fan, update from KDE-4.3.1 to KDE-4.3.5. The repository for 11.1 KDE update to 4.3.5 is here:
Note, I normally do not recommend a KDE update, nor will I normally support users who have updated their KDE beyond the “official” KDE version for a release, but in this case I believe the update from KDE-4.1.3 (in openSUSE-11.1) to KDE-4.3.5 is worth risking wrt any problems one may encounter. Also note KDE-4.3.5 is now the “official” KDE version for 11.2, and I believe the fixes one will see in KDE-4.3.5 for 11.2 may appear in that unofficial repository for 11.1.
Edit - of course if you are a Gnome user, then all these KDE work arounds are a mute point.
Thanks for the information, even if it is depressing. It appears what you’re saying is 11.2 is “just broken” for a whole range of graphics…
Downrevving the machine at this point isn’t a great option; I do use KDE, it’s a professional machine that’s all loaded, configured and working (if graphically crippled, but my work is numerical so that’s not a barrier beyond comfort); the other machines I maintain for our organization are at 11.2. It might make more sense to buy a cheap card from another vendor. (Not my favorite idea either for the simple reason that the box was pretty cheap, under 300 EU.)
Is there any hope of a patch coming along, or something? (I understand there might not be a good answer to that question).
Anyway thanks much for the information, very helpful.
… my apologies for this being scattered all over that thread, but its only recently I have turned my focus/attention to graphics. Before then I focussed on only solving sound problems … but openSUSE-11.2 with the alsa-1.0.21 version is significantly superior than any previous alsa, and I now actually have a bit of time to help in other areas (and hence the “practical theory” guide for graphic hardware). However I am a volunteer, this is my spare time, and it will take me time to learn.
