[gentoo-user] Xscreensaver is very slow

[gentoo-user] Xscreensaver is very slow

[Philip Webb]

Recently, I updated to Xscreensaver 5.42 & now it's very slow :
some savers aren't moving at all.

Has anyone else experienced this ?  Does anyone have a solution ?

-- 
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT     ___________//___,   Philip Webb
ELECTRIC   /] [] [] [] [] []|   Cities Centre, University of Toronto
TRANSIT    `-O----------O---'   purslowatchassdotutorontodotca

[gentoo-user] Re: Xscreensaver is very slow

[Ian Zimmerman]

On 2019-06-18 05:36, Philip Webb wrote:

> Recently, I updated to Xscreensaver 5.42 & now it's very slow :
> some savers aren't moving at all.
> 
> Has anyone else experienced this ?  Does anyone have a solution ?

Does CPU use seem to go way up when xscreensaver starts?
Is glxgears running as it should?

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Xscreensaver is very slow

[Philip Webb]

190618 Ian Zimmerman wrote:
> On 2019-06-18 05:36, Philip Webb wrote:
>> Recently, I updated to Xscreensaver 5.42 & now it's very slow :
>> some savers aren't moving at all.
> Does CPU use seem to go way up when xscreensaver starts?

No.  The problem seems to be with the 3-D savers :
Gkrellm shows heavy use of  1  CPU (out of  8  ) at a time when they run.

> Is glxgears running as it should ?

I can't find an executable or pkg called 'glxgears',
but the saver called 'gears' small preview runs at  60 fps ,
but the big preview runs at  14 fps ;
previously, the latter also did  60 fps .

-- 
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT     ___________//___,   Philip Webb
ELECTRIC   /] [] [] [] [] []|   Cities Centre, University of Toronto
TRANSIT    `-O----------O---'   purslowatchassdotutorontodotca

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Xscreensaver is very slow

[Dale]

Philip Webb wrote:
> 190618 Ian Zimmerman wrote:
>
>> Is glxgears running as it should ?
> I can't find an executable or pkg called 'glxgears',
> but the saver called 'gears' small preview runs at  60 fps ,
> but the big preview runs at  14 fps ;
> previously, the latter also did  60 fps .
>


If it helps:

root@fireball / # equery b glxgears
 * Searching for glxgears ...
x11-apps/mesa-progs-8.4.0 (/usr/bin/glxgears)
root@fireball / #

Dale

:-)  :-) 

[gentoo-user] Re: Xscreensaver is very slow

[Ian Zimmerman]

On 2019-06-18 11:54, Philip Webb wrote:

> > Does CPU use seem to go way up when xscreensaver starts?
> 
> No.  The problem seems to be with the 3-D savers :
> Gkrellm shows heavy use of  1  CPU (out of  8  ) at a time when they run.
> 
> > Is glxgears running as it should ?
> 
> I can't find an executable or pkg called 'glxgears',
> but the saver called 'gears' small preview runs at  60 fps ,
> but the big preview runs at  14 fps ;
> previously, the latter also did  60 fps .

These findings harden my suspicion that the *GL* stuff (of which I have
only the minutest clue) is broken for you.

Do install the mesa-progs package that Dale found and run glxgears.  It
should have almost no effect on CPU use if things are working right.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Xscreensaver is very slow

[Jack]

On 6/18/19 1:11 PM, Ian Zimmerman wrote:
> On 2019-06-18 11:54, Philip Webb wrote:
>>> Does CPU use seem to go way up when xscreensaver starts?
>> No.  The problem seems to be with the 3-D savers :
>> Gkrellm shows heavy use of  1  CPU (out of  8  ) at a time when they run.
>>> Is glxgears running as it should ?
>> I can't find an executable or pkg called 'glxgears',
>> but the saver called 'gears' small preview runs at  60 fps ,
>> but the big preview runs at  14 fps ;
>> previously, the latter also did  60 fps .
> These findings harden my suspicion that the *GL* stuff (of which I have
> only the minutest clue) is broken for you.
>
> Do install the mesa-progs package that Dale found and run glxgears.  It
> should have almost no effect on CPU use if things are working right.
What does "eselect opengl list" show?
>

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Xscreensaver is very slow

[Philip Webb]

190618 Ian Zimmerman wrote:
> Does CPU use seem to go way up when xscreensaver starts?
>> No.  The problem seems to be with the 3-D savers :
>> Gkrellm shows heavy use of  1  CPU (out of  8  ) at a time when they run.
> Is glxgears running as it should ?
>> I can't find an executable or pkg called 'glxgears',
>> but the saver called 'gears' small preview runs at  60 fps ,
>> but the big preview runs at  14 fps ;
>> previously, the latter also did  60 fps .
> These findings harden my suspicion that the *GL* stuff
> (of which I have only the minutest clue) is broken for you.
> Do install the mesa-progs package that Dale found and run glxgears.
> It should have almost no effect on CPU use if things are working right.

I've installed Mesa-progs & run Glxgears, which is running properly.
It can show GL info as below.  'eselect' shows :

  root:625 ~> eselect opengl list
  Available OpenGL implementations:
    [1]   xorg-x11 *

  817: ~> glxgears -info
  Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
  approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
  GL_RENDERER   = NVD9
  GL_VERSION    = 4.3 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 18.3.6
  GL_VENDOR     = nouveau
  GL_EXTENSIONS = GL_ARB_multisample GL_EXT_abgr GL_EXT_bgra ...
    -- very long line snipped : ask if you need it --
  VisualID 943, 0x3af
  302 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.376 FPS

I am using Mesa-18.3.6 .

The flags I use are shown by :

  root:630 ~> eix xscreensaver
    [I] x11-misc/xscreensaver
    Available versions:  5.38 5.40 5.42
     {gdm jpeg new-login offensive opengl pam +perl selinux suid xinerama}
    Installed versions:  5.42
  (jpeg opengl -gdm -new-login -offensive -pam -perl -selinux -suid -xinerama)

Something seems to have changed in 5.42 :
I haven't merged anything else which would affect it.
I can restore 40 or 38 , but does anyone have further suggestions first ?

-- 
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT     ___________//___,   Philip Webb
ELECTRIC   /] [] [] [] [] []|   Cities Centre, University of Toronto
TRANSIT    `-O----------O---'   purslowatchassdotutorontodotca

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Xscreensaver is very slow

[Philip Webb]

190619 Philip Webb wrote:
> Something seems to have changed in 5.42 :
> I haven't merged anything else which would affect it.
> I can restore 40 or 38 , but does anyone have further suggestions first ?

I've reverted to 5.40 & the speed is back to normal.
Does anyone have a suggestion what might have been changed ?
The next step seems to be a bug report.

-- 
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT     ___________//___,   Philip Webb
ELECTRIC   /] [] [] [] [] []|   Cities Centre, University of Toronto
TRANSIT    `-O----------O---'   purslowatchassdotutorontodotca

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Xscreensaver is very slow

[Mick]

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On Thursday, 20 June 2019 11:55:07 BST Philip Webb wrote:
> 190619 Philip Webb wrote:
> > Something seems to have changed in 5.42 :
> > I haven't merged anything else which would affect it.
> > I can restore 40 or 38 , but does anyone have further suggestions first ?
> 
> I've reverted to 5.40 & the speed is back to normal.
> Does anyone have a suggestion what might have been changed ?
> The next step seems to be a bug report.

I haven't used xscreensaver for a long time, but your problem sounds like it 
has something to do with the way xscreensaver now hooks into the GPU.  You may 
want to scan changelogs and devs' mailing lists to see if they have changed 
something which disagrees with your graphics card/driver.

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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