MX Linux Forum

Posted: **Tue Sep 30, 2014 3:02 am**

Hello, I have two computers both performing slowly after the last update.
CPU is cycling & everything is jittery (not smooth). Here are my specs:

Processor : 2x Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz
Memory : 2063MB (380MB used)
Resolution : 1024x600 pixels
OpenGL Renderer : Mesa DRI Intel(R) 945GME x86/MMX/SSE2

HTOP shows it's the usr/bin/x..... that is consuming the cpu

Can anyone help please?

Posted: **Tue Sep 30, 2014 10:20 am**

By "last update" are you referring to the Intel graphics driver package? Also, could you be more specific as to which /usr/bin/x... process is chewing up CPU and how much?

Posted: **Tue Sep 30, 2014 11:58 am**

Thanks. Yes it was the graphics drivers.

The process is: usr/bin/x -dpi $DPI :0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch

It is consuming 5-12% cpu.

Posted: **Tue Sep 30, 2014 12:22 pm**

Could you post the output of the following?

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inxi -Gxx

Fwiw I get similar cpu usage on my system because it's using "GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe" (software rendering). I have Kabini - Radeon HD 8240 graphics, but they're not supported that well in Wheezy.

Posted: **Tue Sep 30, 2014 1:01 pm**

Graphics: Card: Intel Mobile 945GSE Express Integrated Graphics Controller
bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:27ae
Display Server: X.Org 1.12.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1024x600@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 945GME x86/MMX/SSE2
GLX Version: 1.4 Mesa 8.0.5 Direct Rendering: Yes

Posted: **Tue Sep 30, 2014 3:28 pm**

jerry525 wrote:Graphics: Card: Intel Mobile 945GSE Express Integrated Graphics Controller
bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:27ae
Display Server: X.Org 1.12.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1024x600@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 945GME x86/MMX/SSE2
GLX Version: 1.4 Mesa 8.0.5 Direct Rendering: Yes

That looks right.

Posted: **Tue Sep 30, 2014 3:45 pm**

boot into init 3 and run sgfxi as root
you might have to do this twice

Posted: **Tue Sep 30, 2014 4:07 pm**

lucky9 wrote:boot into init 3 and run sgfxi as root
you might have to do this twice

Worth a try, but usually does not help much with Intel graphics cards.

Posted: **Tue Sep 30, 2014 4:25 pm**

Is compositing turned on? You might need to turn it off. From Settings -> Windows Manager Tweaks -> Compositor tab.

Posted: **Tue Sep 30, 2014 5:49 pm**

There was an update in wheezy-backports to the Intel driver to

xserver-xorg-video-intel_2.21.15-2~bpo70+1

If you think this upgrade is causing the problem, and you have rebooted and confirm that the problem persists, you can downgrade to the stock Wheezy version in Synaptic (Force Version) of 2:2.19.0-6 to see if that cures it. Make sure to reboot after the downgrade.

Posted: **Wed Oct 01, 2014 2:55 am**

lucky9 wrote:boot into init 3 and run sgfxi as root
you might have to do this twice

Sorry I am not very technical, can someone explain how to do this please.

Posted: **Wed Oct 01, 2014 11:34 am**

Don't bother with sgfxi, it's good for detecting and making sure the system is using the driver for Intel graphics, but you're already using the Intel driver. We can check what driver is installed with

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apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel

If it's the backports version, we can try going back to the standard Wheezy version and see if that fixes it.

Posted: **Wed Oct 01, 2014 2:45 pm**

Ok thanks for that.

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$ apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel
xserver-xorg-video-intel:
  Installed: 2:2.21.15-2~bpo70+1
  Candidate: 2:2.21.15-2~bpo70+1
  Version table:
 *** 2:2.21.15-2~bpo70+1 0
        500 http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-backports/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:2.19.0-6 0
        500 http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ wheezy/main i386 Packages

Do I just unselect the backports repo ijn synaptic then update?

Posted: **Wed Oct 01, 2014 3:03 pm**

The following should downgrade it. It's a simulation. If the simulation looks okay remove the "-s" and run it again for real. {post the output of the simulation if you're unsure}

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su -c 'apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel/wheezy -s'

After downgrading it you'll need to pin it so it doesn't upgraded again. You can do that in Synaptic, or you can use the apt-mark hold cli command :

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su -c 'apt-mark hold xserver-xorg-video-intel'

edit: after doing the downgrade you'll also need to restart X or do a shutdown/restart to see if the downgrade fixed the slowdown problem.

Posted: **Wed Oct 01, 2014 3:14 pm**

Yes pls check the simulation output for me:

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$ su -c 'apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel/wheezy -s'
Password: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Selected version '2:2.19.0-6' (Debian:7.6/stable [i386]) for 'xserver-xorg-video-intel'
The following packages will be DOWNGRADED:
  xserver-xorg-video-intel
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 downgraded, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Inst xserver-xorg-video-intel [2:2.21.15-2~bpo70+1] (2:2.19.0-6 Debian:7.6/stable [i386])
Conf xserver-xorg-video-intel (2:2.19.0-6 Debian:7.6/stable [i386])

Posted: **Wed Oct 01, 2014 3:17 pm**

It's correct. (it will downgrade the xserver-xorg-video-intel package to the 2:2.19.0-6 version)

Posted: **Wed Oct 01, 2014 3:52 pm**

Worked an absolute treat!

I'm so pleased & relieved.

Many thanks for your and everyone else's help.

Posted: **Fri Oct 03, 2014 9:10 am**

Thank you all for this fix for a problem I didn't realize I had.

Hadn't been on the desktop much over the last few weeks.
Just thought it was slower than it used to be; however,
it was still faster than the netbooks so I just adapted.

Posted: **Fri Oct 03, 2014 12:53 pm**

That's too bad about the new driver messing things up. What Intel chipsets has it affected badly so far? And is there anyone using it successfully?

Also, what exactly do you mean when you say the system has slowed down? Are screen redraws slow, and does "top" in the terminal show xorg eating all your CPU cycles?

Posted: **Fri Oct 03, 2014 1:23 pm**

My Acer One D-250 (Atom single-core with HT, 2 GB RAM) hasn't had a problem that I'm aware of. However I'd have to check to see if this upgrade was made on it as I don't upgrade it very often. Last time was on 9/13.
Is it possible that something connected to the Intel driver wasn't configured correctly (or even upgraded)?

Posted: **Fri Oct 03, 2014 4:53 pm**

It was added to wheezy-backports within the last week, so you won't have it. A quick way to see what you have installed and what's available is

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apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel

Posted: **Fri Oct 03, 2014 8:49 pm**

@Stevo,
Slow is probably just subjective.
My Acer One is older than luck9's but when Windows XP seems peppier than MX,
it probably means something is not right. :)

I will check the netbook on Sunday, when things slow down for me.

Subjectively, my desktop seems more responsive.
Will be back on the netbook next week.

Could you suggest a reasonably simple base-line performance app?
Thought about a benchmark but not sure where to go.

Posted: **Sat Oct 04, 2014 3:57 am**

@ Stevo: Speed - I use docky, after the update scrolling over the dock was horrible, there was a lot of lag in the way the icons move. Also watching a movie in VLC, the images were not smooth, movement was jittery. Hope I explained this well.
The process: usr/bin/x -dpi $DPI :0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch was consuming 5-12% cpu, normally the whole system consumes 1-2% which it is currently doing after the downgrade. I have three computers in the house with the same problem (including my netbook). I'm just glad it all works fine now.

Posted: **Fri Oct 10, 2014 7:42 am**

Greetings....I am having this same problem, however I have a laptop and Radeon. The sgfxi method does not work since it returns an error regarding fglrx which we know is unsupported. Does this still pertain to the stock xorg driver for Radeon. I would much appreciate some help to roll that back if it applies.
Thanks

~regards

Posted: **Fri Oct 10, 2014 8:15 am**

Ocalasun wrote:Greetings....I am having this same problem, however I have a laptop and Radeon. The sgfxi method does not work since it returns an error regarding fglrx which we know is unsupported. Does this still pertain to the stock xorg driver for Radeon. I would much appreciate some help to roll that back if it applies.
Thanks

~regards

The stock Xorg radeon driver (xserver-xorg-video-ati & xserver-xorg-video-radeon) hasn't had any updates since MX-14's release in March.

Posted: **Fri Oct 10, 2014 12:46 pm**

I have been using the xserver-xorg-video-intel update since Sept.28 without any problem whatsoever:

Commit Log for Sun Sep 28 10:57:15 2014

Upgraded the following packages:
linux-compiler-gcc-4.6-x86 (3.14.15-2~bpo70+1) to 3.16.3-2~bpo70+1
linux-libc-dev (3.14.15-2~bpo70+1) to 3.16.3-2~bpo70+1
xserver-xorg-video-intel (2:2.19.0-6) to 2:2.21.15-2~bpo70+1

Intel graphics:
$ lspci -nn|grep -i VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) [8086:2a02] (rev 03)

Posted: **Fri Oct 10, 2014 1:59 pm**

A long shot here, but maybe the newer version works best with the newer 3.14 kernel?

Posted: **Fri Oct 10, 2014 3:29 pm**

Ocalasun wrote:Greetings....I am having this same problem, however I have a laptop and Radeon. The sgfxi method does not work since it returns an error regarding fglrx which we know is unsupported. Does this still pertain to the stock xorg driver for Radeon. I would much appreciate some help to roll that back if it applies.
Thanks

~regards

We have a backported set of fglrx drivers in the MEPIS community test repo that works fine, even for kernels up to 3.16 so far. For these, skip sgfxi and use the Debian wiki method:

https://wiki.debian.org/ATIProprietary

Posted: **Fri Oct 10, 2014 4:01 pm**

The sgfxi method does not work since it returns an error regarding fglrx which we know is unsupported.

Sgfxi might be returning an error because Ocalasun's videocard needs to use a legacy fglrx driver, if that's the case the backported fglrx driver in the testrepo probably won't work.

What does the following return? (it lists the videocard's pci id, with that I can check if it needs to use the legacy driver)

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lspci -nn|grep -i VGA

Posted: **Fri Oct 10, 2014 9:37 pm**

Thanks for the replies...

$ lspci -nn|grep -i VGA
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS880M [Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series] [1002:9712]

Thanks for trying to sort this out for me.

Posted: **Sat Oct 11, 2014 7:04 am**

Ocalasun wrote:$ lspci -nn|grep -i VGA
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS880M [Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series] [1002:9712]

HD 4200 would need to use the fglrx-legacy-driver if you wanted to use the proprietary driver.
Unfortunately the legacy driver hasn't been updated in about a year and a half and doesn't support the 3.12 series kernel that MX-14 is using, I think it only supports up to about a 3.8 kernel.

The stock Xorg radeon driver hasn't been updated since before MX-14 was released, but you might try using sgfxi to reinstall it anyway.
Boot to level 3 and run:

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sgfxi -n -z

The '-n' option is to have sgfxi install the correct "native" xorg driver (radeon).
The '-z' option is to have it backup the existing xorg.conf (if there is one) and recreate a new one.

Posted: **Sat Oct 11, 2014 7:09 am**

Thanks again...important info to know. All my desktops have nvidia hardware and I never have had a problem. Stuck with what I got in this laptop, so I'll have to deal with this Radeon work-around.

I'll try what you suggested.

Posted: **Sat Oct 11, 2014 7:14 am**

You could try installing the latest 3.14.0-bpo kernel and see if that works better with the upgraded xorg.
Make sure you use the one with bpo in its title.

Posted: **Sat Oct 11, 2014 7:46 am**

I think you may be on to something there, anticapitalista. I'll be trying that, also downloading anti-x13.2 as we speak.

I ran a test using Sparky Linux off a usb stick, which is very similar to my MX-14 setup. Sparky 3.1 (debian testing) uses a 3.14 kernel and xorg 1.16

Xfce4 desktop with conky & wbar so almost identical to my MX-14 setup.

idle desktop was 2-4 percent and cpu temp @ 89c compared to mx-14 which is 15-2 percent and cpu @ 95c

Posted: **Mon Oct 13, 2014 1:00 am**

For me updating to the latest 3.14.0-bpo kernel worked.
But i did not have the problem with the cpu -usage.Here the problem since last upgrade of xserver-xorg-video-intel was
that direct rendering was lost.Saw it today first time when trying to play a game.
With the new kernel everythings allright.

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Graphics:  Card: Intel Haswell Integrated Graphics Controller
           bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0412
           Display Server: X.Org 1.12.4 drivers: fbdev,vesa (unloaded: intel)
           Resolution: 1280x1024@0.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x209)
           GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.5 Direct Rendering: Yes

Posted: **Tue Oct 14, 2014 12:40 pm**

I`ll have to take this back.
The new xserver-xorg-video-intel doesn`t work with my video-card.Not with the new 3.14.0-bpo kernel or with the old kernel.Rendering stays lost.Have downgraded it to the wheezy and set to hold.

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 apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel
xserver-xorg-video-intel:
  Installiert:           2:2.19.0-6
  Installationskandidat: 2:2.21.15-2~bpo70+1
  Versionstabelle:
     2:2.21.15-2~bpo70+1 0
        500 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-backports/main i386 Packages
 *** 2:2.19.0-6 0
        500 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ wheezy/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Don`t know why it first seems to work for one day.

Posted: **Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:03 am**

I am now running the 3.14-0-bpo kernel, per anticapitalista's suggestion. Desktop seems a little peppier, but xorg cpu usage at idle is still 15 percent, minimum.

Posted: **Mon Dec 08, 2014 3:40 am**

Hi to all,
yesterday I installed MX-14.3 on a pretty old HP machine. Compared to my former version (MX-14.2) it was terribly slow especially when someting changed on the display.
I followed the instructions in Post # 348803 downgrading 'xserver-xorg-video-intel' and now it works fine. (many thanks to kmathern!) Here is the relevant info of my machine:

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tjp@mx1:~
$ inxi -Gxx
Graphics:  Card: Intel 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller
           bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:2572
           Display Server: X.Org 1.12.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1024x768@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 865G x86/MMX/SSE2
           GLX Version: 1.3 Mesa 8.0.5 Direct Rendering: Yes
tjp@mx1:~
$ apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel
xserver-xorg-video-intel:
  Installed: 2:2.19.0-6
  Candidate: 2:2.21.15-2~bpo70+1
  Version table:
     2:2.21.15-2~bpo70+1 0
        500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-backports/main i386 Packages
 *** 2:2.19.0-6 0
        500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
tjp@mx1:~
$ uname -a
Linux mx1 3.14-0.bpo.2-486 #1 Debian 3.14.15-2~bpo70+1 (2014-08-21) i686 GNU/Linux
tjp@mx1:~
$ lscpu
Architecture:          i686
CPU op-mode(s):        32-bit
Byte Order:            Little Endian
CPU(s):                1
On-line CPU(s) list:   0
Thread(s) per core:    1
Core(s) per socket:    1
Socket(s):             1
Vendor ID:             GenuineIntel
CPU family:            15
Model:                 3
Stepping:              3
CPU MHz:               2527.151
BogoMIPS:              5054.30
L1d cache:             16K
L2 cache:              256K
tjp@mx1:~
$

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