gnome is very slow

[jjstorm]

Gnome windows manager is very slow. It has been from the very beginning. I am just getting around to try to address it.

All actions are a few seconds behind before keyboard input.

For example:

When I use the windows key to enter information in the search box, it is up to a few seconds behind. Graphics intensive web pages are slow, to render, and to scroll up and down. Video playback skips.

I am not certain if this an X issue or video driver. How could I begin to diagnose this problem?

[shep]

I am not certain if this an X issue or video driver. How could I begin to diagnose this problem?

My suspicion would be that it is the Gnome Desktop Environment rather than the video driver/X-windows. Gnome needs video capable of 3D acceleration.
How did X run with fvwm or twm? Both fvwm and twm are in the base install, nothing else needs to be installed in order to test.

[jjstorm]

Originally Posted by shep

My suspicion would be that it is the Gnome Desktop Environment rather than the video driver/X-windows. Gnome needs video capable of 3D acceleration.
How did X run with fvwm or twm? Both fvwm and twm are in the base install, nothing else needs to be installed in order to test.

Prior to installing gnome, I did used fvwm for a couple of days, and it appeared to be running O.K. Definitely did not have these lag issues.

Is there anything to tweak then or should I just switch Windows Managers? Maybe I could try kde?

[shep]

You have alot of choices. My bias is that of the full featured Desktop Environments, Xfce4 runs the best on the BSD's. One of the Xfce4 developers is well placed in the OpenBSD ecosystem.

Xfce4 also does not need video with 3D acceleration.

[jggimi]

First: 3D acceleration is a drop-dead requirement for Gnome. So video settings are unlikely to be a root cause of the performance problem.

I went looking for a recentlly posted dmesg from you, and found this. You posted a dmesg from a uniprocessor kernel. Your Core i3 processor has two cores, and can run 4 threads (appear to have 4 CPUs).

Try booting the GENERIC.MP kernel. The GENERIC kernel will only use one core.

Edited to add:

At install time, if more than a single CPU is found, the bsd.mp (GENERIC.MP) kernel is installed as /bsd and the bsd (GENERIC) kernel is installed as /bsd.sp.

[jggimi]

Ah. You were hand-building -stable, and missed the discussion of GENERIC.MP in FAQ 5. Build and install the GENERIC.MP kernel.

[jjstorm]

Originally Posted by jggimi

First: 3D acceleration is a drop-dead requirement for Gnome. So video settings are unlikely to be a root cause of the performance problem.

I went looking for a recentlly posted dmesg from you, and found this. You posted a dmesg from a uniprocessor kernel. Your Core i3 processor has two cores, and can run 4 threads (appear to have 4 CPUs).

Try booting the GENERIC.MP kernel. The GENERIC kernel will only use one core.

Edited to add:

At install time, if more than a single CPU is found, the bsd.mp (GENERIC.MP) kernel is installed as /bsd and the bsd (GENERIC) kernel is installed as /bsd.sp.

I checked / and all I see is bsd and bsd.rd. However, I remember during the install, I un "x"ed the GENERIC.MP, <-(I think that was the name) because I had read in the faq that you need this only if you have more than one processor. I did not realize that openbsd sees 4 processors. I do remember the dmesg where the processor shows up 4 times. If this is the case, could I just stick the install CD in and install it?

[shep]

Jggimi mentioned you built a custom kernel which would mean that you have the kernel source code. You can just repeat the process for GENERIC.MP in /usr/src/sys/arch/amd64/conf. I would take this route particulary if you have applied patches for your release.

Another option is download bsd.mp, from and ftp site, to your root directory. Reboot and when prompted select bsd.mp to test. If it works then rename /bsd to /bsd.sp and /bsd.mp to /bsd.

[e1-531g]

There are commands for checking OpenGL acceleration:

vblank_mode=0 glxgears & sleep 16 ; pkill glxgears
glxinfo | grep -i -e direct -e opengl | grep -i -e direct -e string

but I don't remember which package provides this commands.
You can also check:

sysctl machdep.allowaperture

I also figured out that I need read and write access to /dev/drm* files for user, which is running session.

I personally use Openbox window manager with compton compositor. Both are in ports and packages.
Modern Gnome is quite fussy/finicky (Google translated this word) in acceleration because not only requires acceleration (by OpenGL or OpenGL ES, I don't know which of them is required), but on Gnu/Linux also requires EGL and not supports GLX. I don't know if Gnome on OpenBSD needs EGL, but I guess yes.
EGL in Gnome is part of process of porting to Wayland, but even in Gnu/Linux distributions this process taken long time and not completed yet, so I don't expect Wayland in OpenBSD anytime soon (unfortunately).

[jggimi]

Originally Posted by jjstorm

... I did not realize that openbsd sees 4 processors....

CPU is an acronym for Central Processing Unit. A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, the vast majority of computers had only one of these. Systems with more than a single CPU were called multiprocesors. The companies that made them would more often sell configurations with only a single CPU, and the market called those far more common single-CPU variants uniprocessors.

When manufactures began to market multiprocessor systems-on-a-chip, the industry began to use the term "core" to count the CPUs on the same chip. Your computer has two CPUs on one chip, as it is an Intel Core i3 4030U.

Compounding this, Intel deploys virtual CPUs, which they market as "Hyper-Threading Technology." Your computer has two physical CPUs, but will present 4 CPUs to the OS when Hyper-Threading is enabled.

---

OpenBSD has two standard kernels: GENERIC and, on architectures where multiprocessors are supported, GENERIC.MP. The GENERIC kernel will only ever manage a single CPU: cpu0.

[jjstorm]

Originally Posted by jggimi

CPU is an acronym for Central Processing Unit. A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, the vast majority of computers had only one of these. Systems with more than a single CPU were called multiprocesors. The companies that made them would more often sell configurations with only a single CPU, and the market called those far more common single-CPU variants uniprocessors.

When manufactures began to market multiprocessor systems-on-a-chip, the industry began to use the term "core" to count the CPUs on the same chip. Your computer has two CPUs on one chip, as it is an Intel Core i3 4030U.

Compounding this, Intel deploys virtual CPUs, which they market as "Hyper-Threading Technology." Your computer has two physical CPUs, but will present 4 CPUs to the OS when Hyper-Threading is enabled.

UPDATE:

I just checked the specs for my processor on intel's site and it does have 3D support. Not sure if this is the same as 3D acceleration.

---

OpenBSD has two standard kernels: GENERIC and, on architectures where multiprocessors are supported, GENERIC.MP. The GENERIC kernel will only ever manage a single CPU: cpu0.

Where I was confused is, where I thought GENERIC.MP to be for 2 physically separate CPUs, as in motherboards that have 2 separate sockets for 2 CPUs. Obviously I was wrong, and this is probably the problem. Live and learn I guess. I will try to fix this as soon as possible and report back.

[jjstorm]

Originally Posted by jggimi

Ah. You were hand-building -stable, and missed the discussion of GENERIC.MP in FAQ 5. Build and install the GENERIC.MP kernel.

I am not sure what you mean by hand building? I have used anoncvs to download the source code for -stable and then followed the instructions on faq 5 to build the kernel and the user land. I have also done the same with xenocara.

[shep]

I am not sure what you mean by hand building?

Building your own kernel vs using one built by the project.

[jggimi]

Originally Posted by jjstorm

I am not sure what you mean by hand building?

Not using M:Tier's services. https://stable.mtier.org

I have also done the same with xenocara.

To my knowledge, there were no 5.8-stable updates to the xenocara tree.

[jggimi]

Originally Posted by shep

Building your own kernel vs using one built by the project.

The Project doesn't build -stable; the Project members (and other staff) at M:Tier do.

[e1-531g]

It seems like glxgears(1) and glxinfo(1) are part of Xenocara:
code:
http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cv.../app/glxgears/
http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cv...a/app/glxinfo/
***
manual pages:
http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.c...th=OpenBSD-5.8
http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.c...th=OpenBSD-5.8
***
Can you provide stdout (output) of commands in my post:
http://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=9730#post58386
line with glxgears should terminate after 16 seconds automatically without manual intervention.

[jjstorm]

Originally Posted by shep

Building your own kernel vs using one built by the project.

Every time you update your source tree from anoncvs, don't you have to recompile the kernel and the user land, as outlined in sections of the faq, 5.2.4. and 5.2.5 respectively?

[jggimi]

Only if the working directory receives changes from the repository.

Consider the value of cvs -q. If you use $ cvs -q up -Pd, you will more clearly see any changes applied.

[shep]

Once you update your source tree with anoncvs, don't you have to recompile the kernel and the userland?

The full answer is complex and takes on different aspects depending on the users needs and prior choices.

I run my main system on the latest release with security patches I apply myself and M:tier package updates. So, for the latest ipv6 patch, I compiled my own kernels (both *.mp and *.sp) Other patches entail rebuilding part of the userland.

I also run a current system and never compile anything, I just use snapshot binaries.

Your goals in OpenBSD (release, stable, current) actually will help guide the advice you get.

[jjstorm]

Originally Posted by e1-531g

Can you provide stdout (output) of commands in my post:
http://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=9730#post58386
line with glxgears should terminate after 16 seconds automatically without manual intervention.

 

# vblank_mode=0 glxgears & sleep 16 ; pkill glxgears
glxinfo | grep -i -e direct -e opengl | grep -i -e direct -e string

[1] 25162
ATTENTION: default value of option vblank_mode overridden by environment.
ATTENTION: default value of option vblank_mode overridden by environment.
10095 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2018.891 FPS
10748 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2149.481 FPS
10732 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2146.320 FPS

When I entered the above command, a dialogue box with rolling gears popped up on the screen, and stayed there for a few seconds.

 
# sysctl machdep.allowaperture
machdep.allowaperture=0
[1] + Terminated           vblank_mode=0 glxgears

from your other post:

I also figured out that I need read and write access to /dev/drm* files for user, which is running session.

I personally use Openbox window manager with compton compositor. Both are in ports and packages.
Modern Gnome is quite fussy/finicky (Google translated this word) in acceleration because not only requires acceleration (by OpenGL or OpenGL ES, I don't know which of them is required), but on Gnu/Linux also requires EGL and not supports GLX. I don't know if Gnome on OpenBSD needs EGL, but I guess yes.
EGL in Gnome is part of process of porting to Wayland, but even in Gnu/Linux distributions this process taken long time and not completed yet, so I don't expect Wayland in OpenBSD anytime soon (unfortunately).

the intel spec page, under graphics specifications for my processor shows that OpenGL is supported, as well as 3D technology