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Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

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F37U5G0D
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Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#1 Post by F37U5G0D »

I had a problem recently in which when I was loading a website the mouse would get sticky. Taking slightly longer than it should to move instead of gliding smoothly across the screen. This problem was especially bad if I tried to load two or more pages. Then I noticed that if I did anything that was processor intesive I got the same effect It is difficult to explain but if you have this problem I am sure you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Anyway it took me a while to find a good answer but I finally did! If you set Xorg's nice value to -1 you will make it more important than any other process. Xorg is what draws the mouse (and the windows). If you go to /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config and change the last line from "nice_value = 0" to "nice_value = -1" and reboot you will be greated by a smooth as glass desktop.

Bottom Line (forgive the pun)

Change /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config from "nice_value = 0" to "nice_value = -1"

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Tadeas
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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#2 Post by Tadeas »

Great advice, thanks!

However I have a little problem with it. It did work some time ago, but recently I've noticed, that Xorg starts with nice 0. It's probably after some upgrade (I'm running Sid), but I dunno which as it could be quite long between the change and between I've noticed. Anybody knows what could be wrong?
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garrincha
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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#3 Post by garrincha »

Tadeas wrote:Great advice, thanks!

However I have a little problem with it. It did work some time ago, but recently I've noticed, that Xorg starts with nice 0. It's probably after some upgrade (I'm running Sid), but I dunno which as it could be quite long between the change and between I've noticed. Anybody knows what could be wrong?
Run this as root:

Code: Select all

dpkg-reconfigure x11-common
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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#4 Post by craigevil »

# Xwrapper.config (Debian X Window System server wrapper configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by the post-installation script of the x11-common
# package using values from the debconf database.
#
# See the Xwrapper.config(5) manual page for more information.
#
# This file is automatically updated on upgrades of the x11-common package
# *only* if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of that package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command as root:
# dpkg-reconfigure x11-common
allowed_users=console

The line "nice_value = 0" is not there.
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Mr B
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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#5 Post by Mr B »

craigevil wrote:
The line "nice_value = 0" is not there.
If you run:-

Code: Select all

# dpkg-reconfigure x11-common
- you should get the option to edit the "nice" value....

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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#6 Post by craigevil »

Mr B wrote:
craigevil wrote:
The line "nice_value = 0" is not there.
If you run:-

Code: Select all

# dpkg-reconfigure x11-common
- you should get the option to edit the "nice" value....
The only option it asks about is console users.
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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#7 Post by gnudude »

craigevil wrote: The line "nice_value = 0" is not there.
it is in my lenny install
craigevil wrote: The only option it asks about is console users.
it asks me a few things including nice value

are you running debian or sidux?
what priority is your debconf set for?

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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#8 Post by craigevil »

Ok so is it "nice_value = -1" or without the quotes?
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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#9 Post by Mr B »

This is the contents of my /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config
# Xwrapper.config (Debian X Window System server wrapper configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by the post-installation script of the x11-common
# package using values from the debconf database.
#
# See the Xwrapper.config(5) manual page for more information.
#
# This file is automatically updated on upgrades of the x11-common package
# *only* if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of that package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command as root:
# dpkg-reconfigure x11-common
allowed_users=console
nice_value=-1
On my Squeeze "dpkg-reconfigure x11-common" gives this:-

Image

Followed by this screen after the selection has been made:-

Image

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Tadeas
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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#10 Post by Tadeas »

It didn't ask me too. In Sid (not Sidux)
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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#11 Post by gnudude »

what about

dpkg-reconfigure -plow x11-common

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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#12 Post by pendrachken »

Just renice the server when / if needed.

Use ps ax | grep X

to find your PID of the Xserver/s and
renice -n -1 PID1 PID2 etc etc....

That way if you don't need the GUI to be more responsive it won't try to grab more processor time, just renice it if it starts acting up.
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Tadeas
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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#13 Post by Tadeas »

gnudude wrote:what about

dpkg-reconfigure -plow x11-common
Didn't change anything... It still asks only who is allowed to start X (root only, console users only, anybody)
Because let’s face it, the unfortunate aspect of software development is that it involves humans. Mewling, disorganized, miserably analog humans. Sometimes they smell bad.

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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#14 Post by Penguin Skinner »

'dpkg-reconfigure x11-common' lets me set nice value; running Deb testing.

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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#15 Post by dbbolton »

Has anyone dared to try anything lower than -1 ?
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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#16 Post by Penguin Skinner »

dbbolton wrote:Has anyone dared to try anything lower than -1 ?
Yeah ... since moving to KDE4, I've found a nice value of -8 makes a noticeable improvement in gui desktop performance. This is on a single core P4, 3.4Ghz. With compositing turned off, or running a lighter desktop like openbox, I can't say I notice much difference from the default nice value of 0.

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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#17 Post by ghostdawg »

I'll have to try this on my G3 iMac. When scrolling with Iceweasel, it have that choppy feeling, which I hate.
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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#18 Post by F37U5G0D »

I switched to opera because of that choppy scrolling feel in iceweasel.

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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#19 Post by gnudude »

about:config >> smoothscroll

Mr B
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Re: Make A Choppy Desktop Feel Smooooth

#20 Post by Mr B »

Hmmm - interesting..... Works better for me (i.e. smoother) with "smoothscroll" set to false. If set "true", there seems to be a bit of lag which gives a kind of motion sickness feeling.

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