Slow desktop environment (is the problem gnome? nvidia? other?)

[Hashiru]

Hi Everyone,

I'm using ubuntu since a month and I have fallen in love with it. I decided to change my desktop PCs to Ubuntu too. I didn't notice any difference until I started Quadrapassel (tetris). It's lagging a LOT. It takes about 1,5 seconds to shift a block left or right.
I've been searching for three days non-stop and I haven't found a solution yet.

I suspect it might have to do something with GNOME or NVIDIA. With or without installed proprietary drivers from NVIDIA, the applications will lag. OpenOffice does not lag however.

I have tried Kubuntu, and kubuntu doesn't show any lag at all, except for some visual effects. I turned them off and didn't notice any slowness anywhere.

1. The solutions I tried are installing NVIDIA drivers downloaded from the NVIDIA website.
(http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=57368)
2. Install an older version of Ubuntu.
3. Try another desktop PC (same problem)
4. Try another laptop (that works fine)
5. Install kubuntu (works fine)
6. Install kde arch linux (Don't know how I did it, but it worked)

I don't know how to search the graphics card in ubuntu, but I believe both desktops use an nvidia graphics card. I believe it has something to do with the hardware configuration.
I would like to provide more information if needed. I hope someone can help me solve this problem.

Thank you.

[P4man]

Well.. lets start by finding out what hardware you have. Can you post the output of

lspci

or attach the output of lshw (redirect it to a file with

lshw > myhardware.txt

Might be useful if you did that for both problematic machines, see what they have in common.

Another thing you can do to help isolate the cause is finding a bit more apps that do or dont cause unreasonable slowdowns. Things like flash/youtube, playing movies, playing more taxing games (extreme tux racer is my favourite test ).

Last thought; open system monitor and see if CPU and memory usage are normal if you arent running anything intensive.

[Bobhuber]

Need your hardware and memory specs. Memory + 64 bit + 10.04 + nvidia = Speed
There are also a few tweaks that will improve performance depending on your configuration.

[Hashiru]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the replies. I didn't expect my post to be read at all. Awesome!

Anyway, this is the information of the first desktop I tested. I hope I did it right. I will upload the other desktop in a minute.

Thanks.

[P4man]

Looks like the common factor is the geforce5 FX. Are you using the restricted nvidia drivers?

[Bobhuber]

Looks like its a game related bug ?? .Your not the only person that has noted the speed problem.
Take a look at this post.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1418305

[Hashiru]

Thank you for the replies.

@P4man
Yes, I've tried two versions. Both proprietary drivers I could select in the "search drivers" tool. Both versions won't solve the lag, even better, it increases the lag. The increase in lag is most likely caused by a higher resolution after the drivers are installed.

@Bobhuber
I have looked at the thread and it seems to have a lot in common. I've tested other games and they show lag too. I think it has something to do with Gnome and Nvidia together. I've tested ubuntu 10.10 and 10.04 (different gnome version) and both show lag. I haven't tested the 64 bit version of ubuntu yet, I will do that this weekend.

Is it a good test to disconnect the video card and see if it still shows lag? The internal videocard on the motherboard should take over I believe.

[P4man]

I cant really imagine the opensource nouveau drivers sharing a bug with nvidia restricted drivers. These share zero lines of code.

If you have onboard video, feel free to test that (make sure you disable the restricted driver before removing the card).

[Hashiru]

Okay, I have tried the onboard video card, turns out I don't have one. It was my previous computer that had one though.

I've had no luck in fixing my problem yet. I hope there are still some things left to try.

[P4man]

what happens when you deactivate the restricted driver, so you get nouveau back? Or if you test livecd which also uses nouveau. Does that work properly?