Ubuntu 14.04 Unity slowness

[CU]

Computer is a Xeon E5506, with 3gigs of ram, and a Nivida Quadro NVS 450 running 340.32 drivers pushing three 1600x1200 monitors . Maybe the the machine is to slow for Unity? All I know is when I click the Ubuntu search button in the dock and the large transparent window pops up compiz starts using 70% of my cpu. Minimizing and restoring firefox is not smooth either. Using alt-tab to switch application also shows similar compiz usage. I would have thought all the gui stuff would have been on the gpu, but it looks like it is using the cpu. Any suggestions besides ditching Unity, which I am considering. Might give KDE a try as I have liked it in the bast, or just drop down to something light weight and fast.

I have also noticed Xorg using over 50% when using the system. Is that normal, or part of my problems with Unity?

 

[3spooky5u]

sudo apt-get install openbox
then log into openbox
sudo apt-get remove unity

Try Lubuntu

damn Small Linux if you're comfortable with command line.

Unity is too heavy.

 

[Jodell88]

sudo apt-get install openbox
then log into openbox
sudo apt-get remove unity

Try Lubuntu

damn Small Linux if you're comfortable with command line.

Unity is too heavy.

If you want to give advice, give meaningful advice. :|

 

[Jodell88]

@OP

If you used Xinerama you don't get hardware acceleration.

 

[CU]

@OP

If you used Xinerama you don't get hardware acceleration.

I am not using Xinerama. I am using base mosaic in the nvidia settings panel.

fgrep -i xinerama /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Option "Xinerama" "0"
# Removed Option "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0"
Option "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-1"

The first option says don't use it. I think the last option just tells it the order if I was using it.

 

[3spooky5u]

If you want to give advice, give meaningful advice. :|

Well I'm sorry but Ubuntu is too heavy for his computer.

 

[MrColin]

I would try just removing (rename) xorg.conf and restart X, or reboot. Then reconfigure the displays with the nvidia-settings GUI. There might be some compiz stuff you can throttle down or turn off but I don't know how or where.

I don't know anything about your GPU/card & driver but Unity chokes a little bit with my 1GB Radeon HD 6870 card too.

If/when it dies I will go xfce for sure. I like the concept of KDE but even the options have options and settings for those options and settings, and it hasn't been stable for me.

 

[ShadowVVL]

You could try another gpu,it might be the quadro nv450 probably doesn’t support some of the open gl effects in compiz. I would try turning some of the open gl effects off from compiz settings managers.
I am running 14.04 with unity just fine on my q9550 4gb and GTX 260.

 

[CU]

I tried a clean xorg.conf file from nvidia-settings with no speed increase. I also turned off animations and fading windows in compizconfig with no noticable change. I just did apt-get install xubuntu-desktop, so that should make it run fast. I thought about kubuntu-desktop, but I don't really know if KDE would be any faster than Unity. I spend most of my time on the comand line anyway. By the way my GPU is based on a G98 core for people with more experince with non professional GPUs.

 

[CU]

Well Xfce is way faster than Unity, as expected. Although I had to make a bug report because I cannot change the background in Xfce. I think it has something to do with me using base mosaic to span the screen using one x screen across three monitors. But, thats for the ubuntu guys to figure out.

 

[gus6464]

Unity is poop. I like the gnome desktop even though most will bitch and moan all day about it.

 

[theevilsharpie]

Newer desktop environments like Unity, Gnome 3, Cinnamon, etc. require a compositing window manager, which in turn requires a working 3D accelerator. If your 3D accelerator is inadequate or not working properly, it will fall back on llvmpipe (a software 3D rasterizer), which is relatively slow and consumes a substantial amount of CPU power.

Since the entire point of using Nvidia's base mosiac is to use more than two monitors with compositing support, your problem is likely the result of a misconfiguration.

If you want to avoid the problem by avoiding composition, you can use XFCE, MATE, KDE, or LXDE, all of which can be run without compositing or falling back to llvmpipe.

 

[theevilsharpie]

Well I'm sorry but Ubuntu is too heavy for his computer.

I run Ubuntu on my 2007-era laptop which is much slower than the OP's PC, and while it's not blazing fast, I haven't encountered the problem the OP is experiencing.

 

[CU]

Newer desktop environments like Unity, Gnome 3, Cinnamon, etc. require a compositing window manager, which in turn requires a working 3D accelerator. If your 3D accelerator is inadequate or not working properly, it will fall back on llvmpipe (a software 3D rasterizer), which is relatively slow and consumes a substantial amount of CPU power.

Since the entire point of using Nvidia's base mosiac is to use more than two monitors with compositing support, your problem is likely the result of a misconfiguration.

If you want to avoid the problem by avoiding composition, you can use XFCE, MATE, KDE, or LXDE, all of which can be run without compositing or falling back to llvmpipe.

I don't think it is misconfigured as it was generated from the nvidia settings gui. I can not remember the command but there is one I ran to see if my card supports Unity and it had yes beside everything it checked. XFCE is running nicely though, so I don't really see what I am missing by not getting Unity to work.

 

[VinDSL]

Any suggestions besides ditching Unity, which I am considering?

Use the Gnome-Shell DE instead of Unity. It's available in the official Ubu repos.

Unity is poop. I like the gnome desktop even though most will bitch and moan all day about it.

I test Unity, but run Gnome-Shell 99% of the time. No complaints here. :sneaky:

Newer desktop environments like Unity, Gnome 3, Cinnamon, etc. require a compositing window manager, which in turn requires a working 3D accelerator. If your 3D accelerator is inadequate or not working properly, it will fall back on llvmpipe (a software 3D rasterizer), which is relatively slow and consumes a substantial amount of CPU power.[...]

My ancient GeForce 7600 GT AGP runs 3D accel just fine on nVidia legacy drivers. No LLVMpipe here.

~ VinDSL Unity Debug Script 13.07.08 (vindsl.com) ~
Current Date/Time: Sun Oct 19 21:35:14 UTC 2014
Distro Release: Ubuntu 14.10
Kernel Release: Linux 3.17.1-031701-generic
Gnome Release: GNOME Shell 3.12.2
Unity Release: unity 7.3.1

OpenGL vendor string:   NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce 7600 GT/AGP/SSE2
OpenGL version string:  2.1.2 NVIDIA 304.123

Not software rendered:    yes
Not blacklisted:          yes
GLX fbconfig:             yes
GLX texture from pixmap:  yes
GL npot or rect textures: yes
GL vertex program:        yes
GL fragment program:      yes
GL vertex buffer object:  yes
GL framebuffer object:    yes
GL version is 1.4+:       yes

Unity 3D supported:       yes

Package: mesa-utils
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: x11
Installed-Size: 119
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>
Architecture: i386
Source: mesa-demos
Version: 8.2.0-1
Replaces: xbase-clients (<< 6.8.2-38)
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.4), libgl1-mesa-glx | libgl1, libx11-6
Description: Miscellaneous Mesa GL utilities
 This package provides several basic GL utilities built by Mesa, including
 glxinfo and glxgears.
Original-Maintainer: Debian X Strike Force <debian-x@lists.debian.org>
Homepage: http://mesa3d.org/

Package: mesa-common-dev
 Version: 10.3.0-0ubuntu3

Package: xserver-xorg-core
  Installed: 2:1.16.0-1ubuntu1

Package: xserver-common
  Installed: 2:1.16.0-1ubuntu1

Package: xserver-xephyr
  Installed: 2:1.16.0-1ubuntu1

Tree Map of PCI Devices:
-[0000:00]-+-00.0  Intel Corporation 82875P/E7210 Memory Controller Hub
           +-01.0-[01]----00.0  NVIDIA Corporation G73 [GeForce 7600 GT]
           +-03.0-[02]----01.0  Intel Corporation 82547EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           +-06.0  Intel Corporation 82875P/E7210 Processor to I/O Memory Interface
           +-1d.0  Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1
           +-1d.1  Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2
           +-1d.2  Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #3
           +-1d.3  Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #4
           +-1d.7  Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller
           +-1e.0-[03]----0c.0  Lite-On Communications Inc LNE100TX
           +-1f.0  Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge
           +-1f.2  Intel Corporation 82801EB (ICH5) SATA Controller
           +-1f.3  Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller
           \-1f.5  Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller

Display Properties:
 lcd monitor: Dell UltraSharp 1907FP (analog input)
  dimensions:    1280x1024 pixels (339x271 millimeters)
  resolution:    96x96 dots per inch

Here's what my Gnome-Shell install looks like...

If you enlarge the top screenie and look at my Conky, you'll see I run a very humble desktop machine, but it performs adequately on Ubu with the Gnome-Shell DE installed.

Unity... not so good.

 

[VinDSL]

Well... Look who's leading in the 'Five Best Linux Desktop Environments' Poll

SOURCE (19-OCT-2014): http://lifehacker.com/five-best-linux-desktop-environments-1648022755

** BTW, yes, I prefer to run my browser tabs on the bottom. LoL