Compiz: windows lag on restore from minimize.

[sparrowkc]

When I restore a minimized window from the taskbar, there is hesitation. Sometimes the minimize animation happens after the pause, and sometimes windows just appear in their restore positions without the animation occurring. I suspect the problem is that offscreen windows are not being rendered constantly, and have to be redrawn before the animation can occur. If I'm right about the problem, is there a way to force compiz to draw minimized windows? fglrx and ATI mobility radeon HD 3450 If that helps.

I'm running an on an install that started with a jaunty daily build a few days ago. If this disqualifies me from getting help with a minor issue, please feel free to just tell me to wait for the final release.

[stugatzz]

I was having the same problem. Here's what worked for me:

1. Go into Restricted Drivers and disable Ubuntu's ATI proprietary driver.

2. Go to ATI's website and download the latest linux driver for your card. It will be a .run file

3. Run "sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev debhelper libstdc++5 dkms build-essential cdbs fakeroot" to make sure you have all the required packages

4. Make the .run file executable

5. In a terminal, run "./ati-driver-installer<VERSION YOU HAVE>-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/9.<whatever version Ubuntu your running>" . If you need to, you can do --listpkg instead of --buildpkg to see what the available Ubuntu versions are included.

6. It will output many .deb files into the directory the .run file was in. You will only need the following 2...

7. "sudo dpkg -i fglrx-kernel-source_<VERSION YOU HAVE>.deb"

8. "sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_<VERSION YOU HAVE>.deb"

9. Then run "sudo aticonfig --initial" to create a new xorg.conf

10. Reboot

You should be good to go now. You'll be using the latest drivers from ATI instead of the one from Ubuntu's rep. I don't know what chipset you have but I have the x1250 and it worked perfect for me. Good luck.

[MikeWanDo]

I'm using a Radeon HD 3450 and am experiencing the same lag when using the fglrx drivers from the Ubuntu repositories. I tried stugatzz's suggestion and everything seemed to work up, but when I rebooted I was greeted with an error and had to go back to a default Xorg configuration in order to boot. Has anyone one else found a way to fix this and still have Compiz work?

[lavinog]

I was having the same problem. Here's what worked for me:
You should be good to go now. You'll be using the latest drivers from ATI instead of the one from Ubuntu's rep. I don't know what chipset you have but I have the x1250 and it worked perfect for me. Good luck.

The latest driver (9-3) will not work with jaunty.
Unfortunately the Jaunty driver is a hacked version of 9-2.5, 9-3 has a major improvement in performance with compiz, but isn't compatible with xserver1.6
The version packaged with jaunty was a hack to make it compatible, but doesn't have the compiz improvements.
I think 9-4 should be available sometime next week and it should be compatible

[lavinog]

Good news everyone!
the new ati driver was released yesterday
I am downloading it now.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

[lavinog]

It seems to work, no hesitation here. I did get some black artifacts after the first restore from minimize, after scrolling they went away. subsequent restoring I could not get any artifacts.

UPDATE: There seems to be a serious bug with the 9-4 driver and compiz. Occasionally I get a kernel panic when playing videos and resizing the screen. I am going to look further into this, but it looks like others are experiencing the same issue.
I would recommend not using desktop effects in the meantime.

On a similar note, many people are claiming that they got a performance increase...I have noticed that there seems to be alot of bugs in the versions that have these performance increases.

[MikeWanDo]

Thanks for the update. I tried d/ling the new version and installing it per stugatzz's instructions and it booted successfully without any xorg errors. I also experience crashing when using compiz and resizing videos, however without compiz everything seems to work perfectly. Thanks for posting about the update, please post if a fix is found for compiz and the fglrx drivers.

[sekura]

Workaround for the video-resize-fullscreen crashing over here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=113704

Hope this helps

[sparrowkc]

I've found a solution for the lagginess. Our problem is described in this bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...6?comments=all

In the comments there is a patch for X that was removed to prevent graphics corruption mostly for Intel chips. Re-applying that patch solved my problem.

Someone set up a repo with the patched X, so all you have to do is add it, do an update, and restart!
https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x...er-no-backfill

Again, video playback problems are apparently fixed by changing the video output plug in to no xv (enter 'gstreamer-properties' in a terminal.)

[japher]

sparrowkc - you are awesome! (and of course so is bryceharrington, the uploader of this package)

Thanks so much for posting this back to the forum. Problems fixed and I'm now enjoying a smooth minimize/maximize/restore action!