• Registered: 2009-03-09
  • Posts: 764

Re: [Solved] Return to Nouveau drivers

xaos52 wrote:

OK. So, it seems more can be done.
But it is not an easy exercise.
Lets start with providing the info I asked for. smile

Yes, I need to boot back into #! for that. I think it would be worth removing the NVidia drivers and testing with the open ones.

• #! Waldorf • Support #! •
  • Registered: 2009-03-09
  • Posts: 764

Re: [Solved] Return to Nouveau drivers

Maybe it is related to the add-ons in IW; not sure if the same ones were installed under Windows XP. I'm in safe-mode now and I'll test again to see what the performance is like.

dmesg

cat /proc/cpuinfo.

I've installed acpid.

• #! Waldorf • Support #! •
  • Registered: 2009-03-09
  • Posts: 764

Re: [Solved] Return to Nouveau drivers

IW 10 in safe-mode is just as sluggish as before, where Chrome 16 under #! and FF 10 in XP were snappy. I want to try removing the NVidia drivers.

I have disabled hardware acceleration in IW, because having it on apparently causes performance problems.

Last edited by SabreWolfy (2012-02-07 16:58:36)

• #! Waldorf • Support #! •
  • Registered: 2009-03-09
  • Posts: 764

Re: [Solved] Return to Nouveau drivers

Dropped to console and removed all nvidia packages and installed "xserver-xorg-video-nouveau". Restarted and logged in and fiddled with "grandr" to setup the dual monitors -- it seems to not remember the settings.

However...

Iceweasel (with previous add-ons enabled) performance is fast smile Switching tabs and toggling input box values, etc. are much faster than with the NVidia drivers. It's not QUITE as fast as Chrome, but it is much, much snappier than before.

Now I have to figure out how to read my GPU temperate to see if it is starting to overheat with these open drivers.

Edit: "sensors" returned the GPU temperature -- that must have been installed along with the drivers. 52 degrees C at present, which is exactly what it was at with the NVidia drivers.

Edit: For the record: IIRC, the problem here is FF/IW, no the NVidia drivers. Firefox does something strange/wrong with the canvas size (larger than the card can handle) and this causes the slow performance with the NVidia cards. A few weeks ago I tried the beta, aurora and nightly versions of FF, none of which had solved the problem. I rely on FF Sync and a few add-ons, so, whilst FF is the problem, I'm having to stick with FF/IW and replace the NVidia drivers with the open ones, at least for now.

Last edited by SabreWolfy (2012-02-07 17:42:37)

• #! Waldorf • Support #! •
  • From: A kingdom in transition
  • Registered: 2011-06-24
  • Posts: 2,138

Re: [Solved] Return to Nouveau drivers

Well done.
Post 

/var/log/Xorg.0.log

with the new driver if you dont mind.

How about the scrolling in emacs under X. Any better?

If you poke the bear it is going to come after you.
  • Registered: 2009-03-09
  • Posts: 764

Re: [Solved] Return to Nouveau drivers

^ Here.

There are some strange artifacts on-screen fractions of a second before a menu or pop-up appears (a strange grey zig-zag pattern I think), but I can live with that for now ...

I haven't tested Emacs scrolling yet -- I know I need to still follow-up to your comment in the other thread ... smile

Edit: Why FF's too-large-canvas issue (which doesn't play nicely with the NVidia drivers) does not seem to cause the same or similar problems with the open drivers ... ?

Last edited by SabreWolfy (2012-02-07 17:48:20)

• #! Waldorf • Support #! •
  • Registered: 2009-03-09
  • Posts: 764

Re: [Solved] Return to Nouveau drivers

Now that I'm on the open drivers, it looks like I need to grandr each time I restart. I have made a script which calls xrandr with the settings. Where should I put that to run before SLiM starts up? I saw other  threads about that here but none of the solutions seemed to work.

Or what I need to do is to make a new xorg.conf file with the dual monitor information in it... maybe I can modify the previous NVidia one.

• #! Waldorf • Support #! •
  • From: A kingdom in transition
  • Registered: 2011-06-24
  • Posts: 2,138

Re: [Solved] Return to Nouveau drivers

Putting it in xorg.conf is the best solution, I reckon.

If you poke the bear it is going to come after you.
  • Registered: 2009-03-09
  • Posts: 764

Re: [Solved] Return to Nouveau drivers

^ Tried that -- made an xorg.conf file that I thought was good, but X didn't start. I've since had to return to using only one monitor (the other one started buzzing and humming), so I don't need xorg.conf or grandr, etc.

• #! Waldorf • Support #! •