Stretch MATE very slow

[bw123]

Hi,

Yes, I believe so, what computing resources you have, just currious? Do you buy a new computer with each OS release?

I have other platforms at home, but I used my legacy PC, (at those days experimental h/w), as a reference platform for testing OS relases. Between Potato-Lenny, I was getting new functionality with each release on this platform, past Lenny releases I was loosing the same fuctionallity gained before, in favour of user interface beauty that required constantly new faster h/w.

Tomas

I have always used second hand hardware, about 5 yrs old. It's cheap, well tested, and plenty of known bug/quirk workarounds. But after about ten yrs, the useful life curve seems to drop off dramatically, especially on hardware from a defunct vendor.

People swear that hardware has gotten better and faster, but I still see machines all the time that take minutes to boot, seconds to respond, frequently crash or hang, etc.

It's a good observation you made, but it's probably not going to change.

I always do a full desktop environment install, and a lean window manager install. When I need some fancy app or browser, I use the DE, but when I want to get some work done, I really prefer the plain window manager and xterm.

[tcat]

It's a good observation you made, but it's probably not going to change.

Yes, hard to come to terms with.

I always do a full desktop environment install, and a lean window manager install. When I need some fancy app or browser, I use the DE, but when I want to get some work done, I really prefer the plain window manager and xterm.

Same here.

What I liked about advent of touch screen mobiles was, that initially resouces were minimal. Developers could not simply copy all desktop `MEGA' computing stuff over to mobile technology. So they faced a dilema what is really essential for the user to run on mobile. This process led to lean software design, while embelishing the rest. True, you could not do the same on mobile as with computer.

Tomas

[tcat]

Hi,

In the end, I have resolved slower MATE responsivenes in `Stretch' by setting these values.

Code: Select all

$ gsettings set org.mate.interface gtk-enable-animations false
$ gsettings set org.mate.Marco.general reduced-resources true
$ gsettings set org.mate.Marco.general compositing-manager false
$ gsettings set org.mate.Marco.general side-by-side-tiling false

It works for me, and my legacy PC well, though it removes some animation beauty, that works normally in `Jessie'.

I have also filed a bug report against `xserver-xorg-video-trident' and `EXA accel'. But I feel it may affect marco window manager, too. Cannot tell for sure.

Tomas

[tcat]

Hi,

Did further search in `Jessie' install, I have dug out, my `xorg.conf' sitting right in /etc/X11/.

Code: Select all

# xorg.conf for Trident family of drivers
Section "Device"
	Identifier "Video Driver"
	Driver 	"trident"   
	Option 	"AccelMethod" "EXA" 
	Option 	"MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
EndSection

It is the heuristics mode above making the EXA accelartion render correctly in `Stretch'. So I have some improvement back, not as fast as `Jessie', but usable.

What troubles me, I do not remember how I worked out the heuristics option back in `Jessie' as man xorg, man xorg.conf, nor man trident does not mention this option?

Many thanks for all the tips I received here, they were actually pointing in the right direction.

I may link this post to `Hardware' section, too.
Tomas

[tcat]

Hi,

I was encouraged to run `glxgears' in Hardware section, here is benchmark.

Debian 8 Jessie

Code: Select all

$ glxgears
60 frames in 5.0 seconds = 11.934 FPS
111 frames in 5.0 seconds = 22.063 FPS
111 frames in 5.0 seconds = 22.107 FPS
111 frames in 5.0 seconds = 22.124 FPS
111 frames in 5.0 seconds = 22.019 FPS

Debian 9 Stretch

Code: Select all

$ glxgears
46 frames in 5.0 seconds =  9.168 FPS
146 frames in 5.0 seconds = 29.012 FPS
146 frames in 5.0 seconds = 29.021 FPS
146 frames in 5.0 seconds = 29.051 FPS
145 frames in 5.0 seconds = 28.931 FPS

I get more frames per sec in Stretch, yet Stretch `on my system' has far less responsive desktop, at least 10-15x times?

Tomas