openSUSE 11 performance issues

Hi All,

I’m hoping someone can help.

I am having serious performance issues with my install of open SUSE 11. It is installed on Lenovo T60 with a dual core processor and 1GB RAM. I have tried turning off all the visual effects but it still runs slowly (Strangely more slowly than Windows on the same hardware).

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can try to get more out of it. I am convinced I have missed something.

Cheers.

> Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can try to get more out of
> it. I am convinced I have missed something.

why don’t start by telling us which (of many versions) of SuSE you
installed…

and, have you yet installed the proprietary ATI driver…

and, might as well tell us which Windows™ (of many) runs faster on it
than the SuSE you installed…for, if it is slower than Vista, XP,
Win2000, NT, ME, w98, w95, w3.11, w3.1 then for SURE you have
certainly missed something!! maybe a lot!

or, you have a hardware problem…what model do you have?

and, you will probably find more laptop gurus in the laptop forum…but,
since you are here, give us a shot at it… :wink:


DenverD (Linux Counter 282315)
A Texan in Denmark

I have installed openSUSE 11 with the Gnome desktop. I have also installed all the latest updates.

The video card is an intel 945. The version of Windows I am comparing it to is XP sp2.

Thinking it might be a graphics card issue I have tried disabling all the effects but to no avail.

Thanks for your help and sorry to be vague but I am new to Linux having only had limited exposure to it in a server environment.

Hi & Welcome!

Have a look here (post 17 & 23): OpenSuSE 11 and Xorg update - openSUSE Forums
If you are using intel the latest xorg video update seems to stir things up.

hope that helps,
Wj

Thanks, I have tried that but it doesn’t seem to have made a difference.

I have managed to narrow the issue down however. It only occurs after I have used the Gnome Terminal, if I look in system monitor I can see the process ‘X’ is using 90% of the processor.

FYI I moved this thread so you can expect better help response.

Have fun:)

I am also facing the same issue. I am using the same graphics card as you, on a dual core 1.86gz laptop with 2gb ram. I have not been able to find any solution to this yet, I would be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.
I have noticed that firefox seems to play a big role in slowing my desktop down. But my computer seems to slow down even when its only using around 20% of both processors.

Thanks, Tom.

That is steep… Is this always after using Gnome Terminal or only running certain apps or actions?

Have you changed any default Gnome Terminal settings or added any extra plugins?

Instead of using Gnome terminal, see what happens when using xterm.

If I use Xterm its fine, and if I go into the Gnome Terminal and come straight back out its fine.

However if I use VI or something in Gnome thats when the problems start and don’t end if I close the terminal. I haven’t changed any of the settings and don’t beleive I’ve installed any plugins.

not sure what to make of that…

The VI and other actions you do, do you switch to root first or is it in the same environment.

Maybe try creating a new user so you can test what happens when doing the same things in a ’ clean ’ user environment.

> I have managed to narrow the issue down however. It only occurs after
> I have used the Gnome Terminal, if I look in system monitor I can see
> the process ‘X’ is using 90% of the processor.

ok…maybe we are making progress…maybe not…

if you boot up and look at the system monitor…after many 10 minutes
or so of doing NOTHING (i say that so the system has a chance to do all
its after startup housekeeping chores) :slight_smile:

what do you see on the system monitor as far as CPU usage? write that
down, and THEN

open a gnome terminal and type top and hit enter…and watch it a
while…it will be reporting all kinds of stuff…like (at the top)
number of running/sleeping/stopped/zombie tasks
CPU usage in %, memory total/used/free and same for swap space…

then, a LONG list of ‘processes’ each with a process number, user who
started it, and (skip some i don’t know about and ) CPU and Memory usage
of THAT process, in %…and on the far right the name of the
thing/command that is that process…like thunderbird, Xorg, init, all
KINDs of stuff…

watch it for a while, up in one corner…use your mouse to do other
stuff, read mail or whatever… and if it is not already a SLOW system
when you first open the terminal, then when it becomes slow, RIGHT THEN,
immediately notice the NAME of the process HOGGING your CPU, and how
much cpu and memory it is using…

then, come back here and tell us what you found…

oh, and tell me: which video/graphics driver are you running?
one more thing, while watching the readout from top, if you ever see
beagle or kerry near the top of the list, tell me that you did, or not…


DenverD (Linux Counter 282315)
A Texan in Denmark

I have tried it using the current user, and SU to root, it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

I’ll try creating a new user but to be honest this was only installed 3 days ago.

I understand what you are saying, but it’s good to do so just to troubleshoot if it’s a system wide issue or something happening when in your current user environment.

Are you having any other issues that might be related?

-Wj

Hi,

just read the thread and I can confirm that the issue exists. I have exactly the same experience. OpenSuse 11.0 is just slow. I have upgraded from 10.3 (kde3) to 11.0, now with kde 4.1. The fey reason for me to upgrade was that kde 4 promised a much better performance:(

Im my case the Xorg process eats up 15-25% of CPU time no matter what goes on with other apps.

I have a HP laptop with an Intel 915GM card in it.

I am seriously considering downgrading back to 10.3. Or I may try the kde3 desktop.

Doma

Hi Doma, (& welcome!)

Have you seen this thread for Intel based video performance issues: OpenSuSE 11 and Xorg update - openSUSE Forums

What works well is to revert the xorg-X11-driver-video package back to 7.3-138.2.

Other than that using KDE 4.x … you have seen all the warnings on that one haven’t you? Only use it if you’re comfortable running into a bug a two… three… … :wink:

KDE version 4.2 (due December this year) will probably be a better point to step in if your looking for a stable day to day use DE.

Cheers,
Wj

Hi Magic31,

thanks for the quick repply. I tried to downgrade, but there is no difference at all.

I know that this is a less stable environment.

Thanks for the help.

Doma

There are also the settings you could try setting in xorg.conf - also in that thread.

Cheers,
Wj

The solution described here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/177492

solved the issue for me completely. I can recommend trying it.

Doma

Hi Doma,

Thanks for this feedback as EXA is the preferred setting (over Xaa)!

Do you mean you have these settings?:


Option "AccelMethod" "exa"
Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
Option "ExaNoComposite" "true"
  *or* Option "ExaNoComposite" "false"

& also add INTEL_BATCH=“1” to /etc/environment ?

As for the Option “ExaNoComposite”, have you set it to true or false?

Thanks,
Wj

edit: warning for the INTEL_BATCH=“1” setting, as there is a possibility of crashing in games ( see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/195843 )?