I rebuilt my system last week and X seems really sluggish since. I've
checked with both KDE and IceWM to eliminate the WM. Top doesn't show any
problem with CPU or memory useage. Any ideas what I can check next? The
only difference between previous install and this is I managed to get
synaptics touchpad driver working(I had a real quirky with udev previously)



--
Entwisi
FBOTY #2003, PIT#03(KoTL)
XL1000V, CB250RSA(The Lozzo Tart)

Entwisi wrote:
> I rebuilt my system last week and X seems really sluggish since. I've
> checked with both KDE and IceWM to eliminate the WM. Top doesn't show any
> problem with CPU or memory useage. Any ideas what I can check next? The
> only difference between previous install and this is I managed to get
> synaptics touchpad driver working(I had a real quirky with udev previously)

Maybe you managed to disable some of the extensions or changed to bad options
for the driver.


//Aho

Entwisi wrote:

> I rebuilt my system last week and X seems really sluggish since. I've
> checked with both KDE and IceWM to eliminate the WM. Top doesn't show any
> problem with CPU or memory useage. Any ideas what I can check next? The
> only difference between previous install and this is I managed to get
> synaptics touchpad driver working(I had a real quirky with udev
> previously)

Are you using the NVIDIA video driver? It's sensitive to kernel changes and
generally requires re-installation after a kernel rebuild or upgrade - a
scenario that can occur from any major system rebuilding. Also check that
your video device is correctly configured in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

--
Open mind, open source. On a clear disk you can seek forever.

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 23:59:24 +1100, mattb wrote:

> Entwisi wrote:
>
>> I rebuilt my system last week and X seems really sluggish since. I've
>> checked with both KDE and IceWM to eliminate the WM. Top doesn't show any
>> problem with CPU or memory useage. Any ideas what I can check next? The
>> only difference between previous install and this is I managed to get
>> synaptics touchpad driver working(I had a real quirky with udev
>> previously)
>
> Are you using the NVIDIA video driver? It's sensitive to kernel changes and
> generally requires re-installation after a kernel rebuild or upgrade - a
> scenario that can occur from any major system rebuilding. Also check that
> your video device is correctly configured in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Nope, sis driver for a 630 chipset. I had Gentoo installed previously and
it worked fine. Its since I rebuilt that I have the problem.


--
Entwisi
FBOTY #2003, PIT#03(KoTL)
XL1000V, CB250RSA(The Lozzo Tart)

Entwisi wrote:
> On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 23:59:24 +1100, mattb wrote:
>
>> Entwisi wrote:
>>
>>> I rebuilt my system last week and X seems really sluggish since. I've
>>> checked with both KDE and IceWM to eliminate the WM. Top doesn't show any
>>> problem with CPU or memory useage. Any ideas what I can check next? The
>>> only difference between previous install and this is I managed to get
>>> synaptics touchpad driver working(I had a real quirky with udev
>>> previously)
>> Are you using the NVIDIA video driver? It's sensitive to kernel changes and
>> generally requires re-installation after a kernel rebuild or upgrade - a
>> scenario that can occur from any major system rebuilding. Also check that
>> your video device is correctly configured in /etc/X11/xorg.conf
>
> Nope, sis driver for a 630 chipset. I had Gentoo installed previously and
> it worked fine. Its since I rebuilt that I have the problem.

Which version of Xorg-x11 and with which gcc?
You could try to emerge an earlier version of Xorg-x11, take a look at the
IUSE options for different versions, as the options has changed between the
revisions.
If you are using the new modular xorg, then you can expect random things, as
it's not finished testing in the Gentoo environment with all the Gentoo
patches and hacks.


//Aho

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 21:17:34 +0100, J.O. Aho wrote:

> Entwisi wrote:
>> On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 23:59:24 +1100, mattb wrote:
>>
>>> Entwisi wrote:
>>>
>>>> I rebuilt my system last week and X seems really sluggish since. I've
>>>> checked with both KDE and IceWM to eliminate the WM. Top doesn't show any
>>>> problem with CPU or memory useage. Any ideas what I can check next? The
>>>> only difference between previous install and this is I managed to get
>>>> synaptics touchpad driver working(I had a real quirky with udev
>>>> previously)
>>> Are you using the NVIDIA video driver? It's sensitive to kernel changes and
>>> generally requires re-installation after a kernel rebuild or upgrade - a
>>> scenario that can occur from any major system rebuilding. Also check that
>>> your video device is correctly configured in /etc/X11/xorg.conf
>>
>> Nope, sis driver for a 630 chipset. I had Gentoo installed previously and
>> it worked fine. Its since I rebuilt that I have the problem.
>
> Which version of Xorg-x11 and with which gcc?
> You could try to emerge an earlier version of Xorg-x11, take a look at the
> IUSE options for different versions, as the options has changed between the
> revisions.

xorg-x11 version 6.8.2-r6
gcc 3.3.6 3.4.4-r1



Not modular X
> If you are using the new modular xorg, then you can expect random things, as
> it's not finished testing in the Gentoo environment with all the Gentoo
> patches and hacks.
>
>
> //Aho

--
Entwisi
FBOTY #2003, PIT#03(KoTL)
XL1000V, CB250RSA(The Lozzo Tart)

Entwisi wrote:
> On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 21:17:34 +0100, J.O. Aho wrote:

>> Which version of Xorg-x11 and with which gcc?
>> You could try to emerge an earlier version of Xorg-x11, take a look at the
>> IUSE options for different versions, as the options has changed between the
>> revisions.
>
> xorg-x11 version 6.8.2-r6
> gcc 3.3.6 3.4.4-r1

Those should be okey, what about your USE?

3dfx 3dnow bitmap-fonts cjk debug dlloader dmx doc font-server
insecure-drivers ipv6 minimal mmx nls nocxx opengl pam sdk sse static
truetype-fonts type1-fonts uclibc xprint xv

What about your CFLAGS?

Those things can affect your performance, no matter what people may have said,
-O3 and -Os aren't that good options for gcc.


//Aho

J.O. Aho <user@example.net> wrote:
>
> What about your CFLAGS?
>
> Those things can affect your performance, no matter what people may
> have said, -O3 and -Os aren't that good options for gcc.

While I agree with -O3 usually not being a good choice, I find that -Os
is often beneficial, especially for older processors with a shorter
pipeline that will benefit more from taking advantage of the primary and
secondary caches than from unrolling to avoid branches. With P3 and P4
Northwood, I've usually found it beneficial. For a Prescott P4,
however, the pipeline is so damn long that you want to do everything in
your power not to have it flushed.

I also don't subscribe to adding -fomit-frame-pointer to everything,
even when you don't debugg. It will often add to the code size and
stack usage, as the extra register has to be saved before and restored
after each function call. Especially on older CPUs or systems with less
RAM, I'd recommend using -momit-leaf-frame-pointer instead, as this will
do the same only for functions that doesn't call other functions, and
thus has no need to save the extra register. (On AMD64, you don't want
to use either, cause the FP is always available.)

Regards,
--
*Art

On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 17:35:15 +0100, J.O. Aho wrote:

> Entwisi wrote:
>> On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 21:17:34 +0100, J.O. Aho wrote:
>
>>> Which version of Xorg-x11 and with which gcc?
>>> You could try to emerge an earlier version of Xorg-x11, take a look at the
>>> IUSE options for different versions, as the options has changed between the
>>> revisions.
>>
>> xorg-x11 version 6.8.2-r6
>> gcc 3.3.6 3.4.4-r1
>
> Those should be okey, what about your USE?
>
> 3dfx 3dnow bitmap-fonts cjk debug dlloader dmx doc font-server
> insecure-drivers ipv6 minimal mmx nls nocxx opengl pam sdk sse static
> truetype-fonts type1-fonts uclibc xprint xv
>
> What about your CFLAGS?
>
> Those things can affect your performance, no matter what people may have said,
> -O3 and -Os aren't that good options for gcc.
>

here is my make.conf in full

# These settings were set by the catalyst build script that automatically built this stage
# Please consult /etc/make.conf.example for a more detailed example
CFLAGS="-Os -march=pentium4 -pipe"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
USE="X qt gtk kde alsa arts cdr dvd dvdr dri ftp hal imagemagick java jpeg mp3 mpeg msn opengl pcmcia perl ssl wifi
win32codecs xmms"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PORTAGE_NICENESS=15


My laptop is a Celeron M 1.5 with 512M RAM


--
Entwisi
FBOTY #2003, PIT#03(KoTL)
XL1000V, CB250RSA(The Lozzo Tart)

Entwisi wrote:
> On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 17:35:15 +0100, J.O. Aho wrote:
>
>> Entwisi wrote:
>>> On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 21:17:34 +0100, J.O. Aho wrote:
>>>> Which version of Xorg-x11 and with which gcc?
>>>> You could try to emerge an earlier version of Xorg-x11, take a look at the
>>>> IUSE options for different versions, as the options has changed between the
>>>> revisions.
>>> xorg-x11 version 6.8.2-r6
>>> gcc 3.3.6 3.4.4-r1
>> Those should be okey, what about your USE?
>>
>> 3dfx 3dnow bitmap-fonts cjk debug dlloader dmx doc font-server
>> insecure-drivers ipv6 minimal mmx nls nocxx opengl pam sdk sse static
>> truetype-fonts type1-fonts uclibc xprint xv
>>
>> What about your CFLAGS?
>>
>> Those things can affect your performance, no matter what people may have said,
>> -O3 and -Os aren't that good options for gcc.
>>
>
> here is my make.conf in full
>
> # These settings were set by the catalyst build script that automatically built this stage
> # Please consult /etc/make.conf.example for a more detailed example
> CFLAGS="-Os -march=pentium4 -pipe"
> CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
> CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
> USE="X qt gtk kde alsa arts cdr dvd dvdr dri ftp hal imagemagick java jpeg mp3 mpeg msn opengl pcmcia perl ssl wifi
> win32codecs xmms"
> MAKEOPTS="-j2"
> PORTAGE_NICENESS=15

I would try adding sse to the USE and change the -Os in CFLAGS to -O2 and see
if you get a difference. Do also run a 'revdep-rebuild -p' to see if there
would be something that is "broke".


//Aho