From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from lists.gentoo.org (pigeon.gentoo.org [208.92.234.80]) by finch.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B1D051397F2 for ; Sat, 22 Aug 2015 02:09:34 +0000 (UTC) Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 5204FE089B; Sat, 22 Aug 2015 02:09:22 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail.web-xs.org (mail.web-xs.org [148.251.4.204]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 63C90E088C for ; Sat, 22 Aug 2015 02:09:20 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.web-xs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6BB2C6EC29DC for ; Sat, 22 Aug 2015 04:09:17 +0200 (CEST) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at mail.web-xs.org Received: from mail.web-xs.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (mail.web-xs.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id OL794+sqWamu for ; Sat, 22 Aug 2015 04:09:15 +0200 (CEST) Received: from server-1.localdomain (p54A70898.dip0.t-ipconnect.de [84.167.8.152]) (Authenticated sender: lukas@der-erste-sinn.de) by mail.web-xs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPA id BA40D6EC29BB for ; Sat, 22 Aug 2015 04:09:15 +0200 (CEST) Received: from hal9000.localdomain (hal.localdomain [192.168.0.2]) by server-1.localdomain (Postfix) with ESMTP id 78E773F25C for ; Sat, 22 Aug 2015 04:09:15 +0200 (CEST) Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 04:08:41 +0200 From: To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone using xfce4 with compositing turned off? Message-ID: <20150822040841.1ffe9595@hal9000.localdomain> In-Reply-To: <20150819191820.6aa6d015@a6> References: <20150819191820.6aa6d015@a6> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: 573b64c4-4da4-40af-b30b-058587463400 X-Archives-Hash: 8023d727cd57f2a1e388ab80f9e162ca walt wrote: > I'm seeing horrible performance from the xfce window manager (xfwm4) > on my main, everyday machine, but not on an older backup machine or > on any of the linux virtual machines I run on virtualbox. > > The symptoms: moving a window with the mouse is so slow as to be > painful, and the CPU usage (on one of four CPUs) jumps to 100% almost > immediately (xfwm4 is the culprit, see below). I'm using XFCE as DE and xfwm4 as WM. Since I bought a new GPU (Radeon R7 250), I don't use compositing any more because it causes tearing when I watch videos in fullscreen with 3840x2160. With this GPU I also had some random freezes when compositing was enabled. Beside this, performance is very good, regardless compositing is enabled or disabled. Scrolling text or moving windows around is a bit faster and smoother with compositing enabled, especially when other windows are in the foreground. With my old GPU (Radeon HD4550) I always had compositing enabled. Everything was smoother and I saw absolutely no glitches, but performance was also good with compositing disabled, just not quite as smooth as with compositing enabled. > If I open an xterm and run (for example) "/usr/bin/marco --replace", > this sluggish behavior returns to normal immediately. > > After wasting hours on google I finally noticed that I had compiled > x11-wm/xfwm4 with the xcomposite useflag disabled, so I enabled it and > re-emerged xfwm4. > > Now I can get decent performance from xfwm4, but only if first I turn > on compositing by running xfwm4-tweaks-settings. (No, not by running > the puny and feeble xfwm4-settings app: I need to invoke a "tweak" > to make xfce4 an acceptable Desktop Environment on my main desktop > machine. As long as I use XFCE (many years) xfwm4-tweaks-settings is the program to toggle compositing. It's just a name, what is the problem? :-) Or do you mean, that you must enable compositing every time you start XFCE? > > I remember going through this same frustration with gnome3, which was > (and is) unusable without installing the gnome-tweak-tool package and > using it to customize settings that I still don't understand. > > (That's why I finally gave up on gnome3, and I may yet give up on > xfce4 and go back to mate.) > > Note that I'm not turning off yet, but I should > mention that this machine is ~amd64 with ati-drivers-15.7 and vanilla > kernel 3.14.51. (Same problem with gentoo-sources-3.18.19, BTW.) I'm using stable xf86-video-ati and stable hardened-sources. I never used ati-drivers because I don't like to have proprietary software on my gentoo box. For me xf86-video-ati works well and has a sufficient 2D and 3D performance. -- Regards wabe