Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone using xfce4 with compositing turned off?

[Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com>]

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On Saturday 22 Aug 2015 03:08:41 wabenbau@gmail.com wrote:
> walt <w41ter@gmail.com> 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?
> 
> > <official rant mode>
> > 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 <official rant mode> 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

Hmm ... interesting.  I have a PC with the Kaveri APU, which also uses the R7 
graphics engine, but compositing has no problems for general desktop usage 
(with two monitors).

00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] 
Kaveri [Radeon R7 Graphics] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Kaveri [Radeon R7 Graphics]
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 25
	Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
	Memory at f0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=8M]
	I/O ports at f000 [size=256]
	Memory at feb00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
	Expansion ROM at feb40000 [disabled] [size=128K]
	Capabilities: [48] Vendor Specific Information: Len=08 <?>
	Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [58] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00
	Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
	Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=010 <?>
	Capabilities: [270] #19
	Capabilities: [2b0] Address Translation Service (ATS)
	Capabilities: [2c0] #13
	Capabilities: [2d0] #1b
	Kernel driver in use: radeon

I don't know if your card is significantly different, but can share settings 
if you are interested.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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