[SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

extraspecialbitter · 2012-10-02 17:07:37

I've just installed the latest Waldorf image on my desktop at work, a 32-bit Dell Optiplex 755, and graphics performance seems extremely sluggish, with frequent lag and CPU spikes while navigating between screens and/or workspaces. The graphics card is a NVIDIA Corporation NV37GL (Quadro PCI-E Series), and I'm using xrandr to implement dual screens. This wasn't a problem when running Statler or Statler + Backports, so I'm wondering if anyone else has seen similar issues.

Last edited by extraspecialbitter (2012-11-26 18:21:44)

gareim · 2012-10-02 18:09:34

extraspecialbitter wrote:

I've just installed the latest Waldorf image on my desktop at work, a 32-bit Dell Optiplex 755, and graphics performance seems extremely sluggish, with frequent lag and CPU spikes while navigating between screens and/or workspaces. The graphics card is a NVIDIA Corporation NV37GL (Quadro PCI-E Series), and I'm using xrandr to implement dual screens. This wasn't a problem when running Statler or Statler + Backports, so I'm wondering if anyone else has seen similar issues.

Which driver are you using? nouveau or the proprietary one?

extraspecialbitter · 2012-10-02 18:38:02

I used the driver that was packaged with Waldorf. So far I've done no customization with regard to my graphics configuration with the exception of a single xrandr command. Not surprisingly, top shows X11 to be the biggest consumer of CPU.

arclance · 2012-10-02 19:02:32

^ That would be the nouveau driver.
It works okay with some graphics cards but the proprietary nvidia driver works a lot better.

extraspecialbitter · 2012-10-02 19:42:48

Just tried installing the proprietary drivers using the instructions found here and ended up munging my xorg.conf file! I had to remove it in order to log back into X - with the same sluggish performance. For my next trick, I'll try to find a definitive Nvidia installation wiki.

el_koraco · 2012-10-02 19:46:23

Use smxi.

extraspecialbitter · 2012-10-02 19:53:26

Is there an smxi how-to for Waldorf? So far I've had trouble locating it.

VastOne · 2012-10-02 20:11:48

^ Here is one from the smxi wiki

http://smxi.org/site/install.htm

extraspecialbitter · 2012-10-02 20:13:45

Awesome. Thanks VastOne! I'll let you know how it works out.

letku · 2012-10-02 22:48:04

Hope you have good luck with SMXI / Nvidia ,It's quite sad for linux that nvidia's blob is by far the best graphics driver that I have found. I've been buying nvidia cards for ten years now, not because I'm fanboy or price, just for drivers. With blob you graphics performance is par to windows or maybe slightly better smile I think you are lucky to have Nvidia graphics in your system. Linus might think otherwise smile

Last edited by letku (2012-10-02 22:49:47)

extraspecialbitter · 2012-10-03 14:15:21

Unfortunately I was never able to get X properly configured on Waldorf, so I'm back on Statler. I ran through the smxi scripts without issues, but X never came up. Here's what I saw in /var/log/messages:

Oct  3 08:06:11 pmenaws2 kernel: [  122.016567] NVRM: The NVIDIA Quadro FX 330 GPU installed in this system is
Oct  3 08:06:11 pmenaws2 kernel: [  122.016568] NVRM:  supported through the NVIDIA 173.14.xx Legacy drivers. Please
Oct  3 08:06:11 pmenaws2 kernel: [  122.016569] NVRM:  visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html for more
Oct  3 08:06:11 pmenaws2 kernel: [  122.016570] NVRM:  information.  The 304.51 NVIDIA driver will ignore
Oct  3 08:06:11 pmenaws2 kernel: [  122.016570] NVRM:  this GPU.  Continuing probe...
Oct  3 08:06:11 pmenaws2 kernel: [  122.016578] NVRM: No NVIDIA graphics adapter found!

I'm suspecting that the video card might be flaky. It's almost 4 years old and might be on its last legs.

letku · 2012-10-03 16:14:50

I think there's no problem with your video card. Message log says it all:

Oct  3 08:06:11 pmenaws2 kernel: [  122.016567] NVRM: The NVIDIA Quadro FX 330 GPU installed in this system is
Oct  3 08:06:11 pmenaws2 kernel: [  122.016568] NVRM:  supported through the NVIDIA 173.14.xx Legacy drivers. Please
Oct  3 08:06:11 pmenaws2 kernel: [  122.016569] NVRM:  visit [url]http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html[/url] for more
Oct  3 08:06:11 pmenaws2 kernel: [  122.016570] NVRM:  information.  The 304.51 NVIDIA driver will ignore
Oct  3 08:06:11 pmenaws2 kernel: [  122.016570] NVRM:  this GPU.  Continuing probe...
Oct  3 08:06:11 pmenaws2 kernel: [  122.016578] NVRM: No NVIDIA graphics adapter found

You must install NVIDIA 5xxx driver (option 4 in smxi) ,and you should be fine.

extraspecialbitter · 2012-10-03 16:20:58

Aha. I ended up going with the "Debian NVidia driver", which must have been the root cause of my issues. I'll try again either later or first thing tomorrow morning.

extraspecialbitter · 2012-10-05 17:10:48

Bummer. I tried a fresh install of Waldorf this morning and then used smxi (option 4) but still failed to start up X. I even followed the instruction to run sgfxi after a reboot, but no joy. /var/log/messages shows the same error that I posted above, which I assume to mean that the driver never really got installed. sad

greywolf · 2012-10-06 00:45:08

Did you try running the smxi/sgfxi install twice?! On a couple of Asus laptops that I have, I have to run the procedure twice with a reboot in between. The 1st run only blacklists the nouveau driver; the 2nd run actually installs the nVidia driver.

Following the 2nd run & reboot I simply run nvidia-xconfig at the command prompt and start desktop.

Just a thought,
Greywolf.

ps: computer standards - what are they?? smile

VastOne · 2012-10-06 00:54:50

^ I have had to do the exact same thing on several customer client machines.

extraspecialbitter · 2012-10-06 13:55:12

I'll give it another shot on Monday. As it's my work desktop, I can only fuss with it for so long before I have to, you know, work. So after an hour or so on Friday I licked my wounds and booted up Statler. My home desktop, meanwhile, is running Waldorf without issues. It doesn't have NVidia and only has one monitor, so it's a little less demanding. smile

extraspecialbitter · 2012-11-14 23:08:10

I spent about an hour on this today, and so far - using smxi - only The Noveau driver seems to work. I haven't tried them all, however, so I hope to experiment a little more tomorrow.

galv · 2012-11-16 15:02:51

On my case I install xserver-xorg-video-nvidia and nvidia-xconfig. After the driver installation I run the nvidia-xconfig that creates a xorg.conf files that is usable.
Tested the "method" with a Asus+Nvidia laptop and with a desktop with dual monitor.

PS: It is indeed sad that the open-source drivers are clearly under-performing when compared with the proprietary binary blob.

extraspecialbitter · 2012-11-21 15:38:08

Finally got back to trying to get this working again. My setup is Waldorf with the liquorix 3.6.0.7 64-bit kernel.

The Nouveau driver works, but performs so sluggishly it's unusable. That's what started this post.

Installing the binary blob via xserver-xorg-video-nvidia and then running "nvidia-xconfig" results in an unusable xorg.conf file. I'm thinking that this is because the Nouveau driver, while removed, wasn't "purged", something smxi does fairly well.

So I used smxi to install the nvidia-5xxx ("vesa") driver, which at least brings up X. It doesn't, however, recognize my second screen or resolve beyond 1280 x 1024. The sluggish performance is gone, but I'd love to have the functionality I enjoyed with Statler - namely, use of both monitors at high resolution.

Suspiciously, an "lsmod" indicated that the noveau driver was still installed, so I ran "sgfxi -N vesa" - twice, to make sure that it was gone and that the nvidia driver was installed. I finally have 1680x1050 resolution, but still can only see one screen. When I attempt to set it up manually via "xrandr", the following happens:

pablo@cochituate=> xrandr --output DVI-I-2 --right-of DVI-I-1
xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
warning: output DVI-I-2 not found; ignoring

I can live with one monitor, but would rather not. Any clues regarding my next step would be appreciated.

galv · 2012-11-21 15:52:07

Stupid question, did you reboot after installing the Nvidia driver?

On my machine I have also dual-monitor and just doing the steps above both work out-of-the-box...

extraspecialbitter · 2012-11-21 15:54:30

@galv - yes, I've rebooted multiple times.

grandr, by the way, indicates that I have only one screen - named "default", even though my xorg.conf file has configured multiple screens.

I'm getting by with the one screen for now, hoping I can find something online to get it operational under Wheezy.

Last edited by extraspecialbitter (2012-11-21 16:00:47)

galv · 2012-11-21 15:58:43

Strangest thing ... just open my xorg.conf ... it has only one monitor/screen!!! yikes
But I have two working (independently)... xrandr does show 2 monitors ... glasses

extraspecialbitter · 2012-11-21 16:03:42

FWIW, here's my xorg.conf, which ironically defines 3 screens!

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 304.48  (pbuilder@cake)  Wed Sep 12 10:54:51 UTC 2012


Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "X.org Configured"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    Screen      1  "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
    Screen      2  "Screen2" RightOf "Screen1"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    ModulePath      "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
    FontPath        "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
    FontPath        "built-ins"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "dri2"
	Load	"glx"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "record"
    Load           "dbe"
#	Load	"dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Monitor Vendor"
    ModelName      "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor1"
    VendorName     "Monitor Vendor"
    ModelName      "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor2"
    VendorName     "Monitor Vendor"
    ModelName      "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz",
        ### <percent>: "<f>%"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "SWcursor"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "HWcursor"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "NoAccel"            	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "ShadowFB"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "VideoKey"           	# <i>
        #Option     "WrappedFB"          	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "GLXVBlank"          	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "ZaphodHeads"        	# <str>
        #Option     "PageFlip"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "SwapLimit"          	# <i>
        #Option     "AsyncUTSDFS"        	# [<bool>]
    Identifier     "Card0"
	Driver	"nvidia"
	Option      "Coolbits"	"1"
	Option      "AddARGBGLXVisuals"	"true"
	Option      "TripleBuffer"	"false"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"

        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz",
        ### <percent>: "<f>%"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "ShadowFB"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "Rotate"             	# <str>
        #Option     "fbdev"              	# <str>
        #Option     "debug"              	# [<bool>]
    Identifier     "Card1"
	Driver	"nvidia"
	Option      "Coolbits"	"1"
	Option      "AddARGBGLXVisuals"	"true"
	Option      "TripleBuffer"	"false"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"

        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz",
        ### <percent>: "<f>%"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "ShadowFB"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "DefaultRefresh"     	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "ModeSetClearScreen" 	# [<bool>]
    Identifier     "Card2"
	Driver	"nvidia"
	Option      "Coolbits"	"1"
	Option      "AddARGBGLXVisuals"	"true"
	Option      "TripleBuffer"	"false"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Card0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       4
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       8
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       15
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       16
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "Card1"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       4
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       8
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       15
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       16
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen2"
    Device         "Card2"
    Monitor        "Monitor2"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       4
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       8
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       15
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       16
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Viewport    0 0
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

extraspecialbitter · 2012-11-21 16:44:20

I'm back on Statler, which supports both screens just fine, so that I could compare xorg.conf files. Just my luck - it has no xorg.conf file!

CrunchBang Linux

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#1 2012-10-02 17:07:37

[SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#2 2012-10-02 18:09:34

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#3 2012-10-02 18:38:02

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#4 2012-10-02 19:02:32

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#5 2012-10-02 19:42:48

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#6 2012-10-02 19:46:23

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#7 2012-10-02 19:53:26

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#8 2012-10-02 20:11:48

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#9 2012-10-02 20:13:45

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#10 2012-10-02 22:48:04

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#11 2012-10-03 14:15:21

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#12 2012-10-03 16:14:50

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#13 2012-10-03 16:20:58

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#14 2012-10-05 17:10:48

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#15 2012-10-06 00:45:08

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#16 2012-10-06 00:54:50

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#17 2012-10-06 13:55:12

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#18 2012-11-14 23:08:10

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#19 2012-11-16 15:02:51

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#20 2012-11-21 15:38:08

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#21 2012-11-21 15:52:07

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#22 2012-11-21 15:54:30

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#23 2012-11-21 15:58:43

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#24 2012-11-21 16:03:42

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

#25 2012-11-21 16:44:20

Re: [SOLVED] NVidia performance seems very sluggish

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