New User, Some Issues (nvidia gpu, stutter, window snap)

[ShakeyJake]

Hi guys,

I've been using linux for a while now and just today moved my main desktop across from Ubuntu to LMDE. I was attracted b the rolling release and the 'not being Ubuntu' ness of it and in general I'm very very pleased so far but I am having a few frustrating issues.

1. There is a very pervasive 'stutter' in everything from the cursor movement, to the window movement to video play that goes away when I end conky, so is obviously being caused by the update cycle on that.

2. My nvidia gpu is stuck on 'high performance' mode and will not automatically clock down to idle.

3. The compiz wobbly windows plugin is making my windows snap to edges of the screen and I can't stop it, this definitely isn't being caused by the 'window snap' plugin.

I have of course googles and searched the forums for answers and I'm still struggling with these three, I would certainly appreciate any help. What follows are my system specs and a paste of my .conkyrc. I hate, hate, hate it on the Ubuntu forums when people say 'this is rubbish, windows doesn't have these problems' but please bear in mind that I installed LMDE on this system straight over an Ubuntu install (keeping /home, which is on a separate HDD) and none of these issues occurred in Ubuntu and so all are fixable.

Any help much appreciated.

System:
Phenom 955
8GB Dominator DDR3
XFX Geforce 280
MSI 770-C45
/ = OCZ Vertex Turbo 30GB (Ext4)
/home = WD 500Gb Black (Ext3)
Various other HDDs, not important

Conky:

Code: Select all

# .conkyrc by fabsh <fabsh@lamerk.org>
# Based on ideas and code from the CunchBang Linux forums at http://crunchbanglinux.org
# v. 1.0

# Use Xft?
use_xft yes
xftfont DejaVu Sans:size=8
xftalpha 0.8
text_buffer_size 4096

# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 1

# This is the number of times Conky will update before quitting.
# Set to zero to run forever.
total_run_times 0

own_window yes
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_type override
#own_window_type dock
#own_window_type normal  #use this if you want a nice shadow to appear around conky

# If own_window is yes, these window manager hints may be used
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager

# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer yes

# Minimum size of text area
minimum_size 200 20000
#maximum_width 200

# Draw shades?
draw_shades no

# Draw outlines?
draw_outline no

# Draw borders around text
draw_borders no

# Stippled borders?
stippled_borders 0

# border margins
border_margin 5

# border width
border_width 1

# Default colors and also border colors
default_color white
#default_shade_color black
#default_outline_color grey
own_window_colour grey

# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
#alignment top_left
alignment top_right
#alignment bottom_left
#alignment bottom_right

# Gap between borders of screen and text
# same thing as passing -x at command line
gap_x 12
gap_y 8

# Subtract file system buffers from used memory?
no_buffers yes

# set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
uppercase no

# number of cpu samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
cpu_avg_samples 2

# number of net samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
net_avg_samples 2

# Force UTF8? note that UTF8 support required XFT
override_utf8_locale yes

# Add spaces to keep things from moving about?  This only affects certain objects.
use_spacer none

TEXT


${font Metal Lord:size=48}${alignc}Jack${font}

SYSTEM ${hr 2}
${voffset 4}${font openlogos:size=16}u${font}   ${voffset -5}OS:  ${alignr}${execi 3600 lsb_release -d | cut -f 2}
${voffset 4}${font StyleBats:size=16}O${font}   ${voffset -5}Uptime: ${alignr}${uptime}
${voffset 4}${font StyleBats:size=16}X${font}   ${voffset -5}CPU Scaling: ${alignr}${freq_g (0)}/3.20GHz
${voffset 4}${font StyleBats:size=16}P${font}   ${voffset -5}CPU Temperature: ${alignr}${execi 1 sensors | grep -A 1 'temp1' | cut -c15-21 | sed '/^$/d'}
${voffset 4}${font StyleBats:size=16}P${font}   ${voffset -5}GPU Temperature: ${alignr}${execi 30 nvidia-settings -query GPUCoreTemp -t}.0°C
${voffset 6}${font StyleBats:size=16}A${font}   ${voffset -5}CPU 1: ${alignr}${cpu cpu1}% ${cpubar cpu1 8,60}
${voffset 4}${font StyleBats:size=16}A${font}   ${voffset -5}CPU 2: ${alignr}${cpu cpu2}% ${alignr}${cpubar cpu2 8,60}
${voffset 4}${font StyleBats:size=16}A${font}   ${voffset -5}CPU 3: ${alignr}${cpu cpu3}% ${alignr}${cpubar cpu3 8,60}
${voffset 4}${font StyleBats:size=16}A${font}   ${voffset -5}CPU 4: ${alignr}${cpu cpu4}% ${alignr}${cpubar cpu4 8,60}
${voffset 4}${font StyleBats:size=16}g${font}   ${voffset -5}RAM: ${alignr}$memperc% ${membar 8,60}
${alignr}${voffset 5}$mem/$memmax

TIME ${hr 2}
${alignc 19}${font Arial Black:size=18}${time %H:%M}${font}
${voffset 2}${alignc}${time %A, %d %B %Y}

DISKS ${hr 2}
${voffset 4}${font Pie charts for maps:size=14}3${font}   ${voffset -5}Root: $alignr ${fs_used_perc /}%
${voffset 4}${fs_used /}/${fs_size /} ${alignr}${fs_bar 8,60 /}
${font Pie charts for maps:size=14}7${font}   ${voffset -5}Home: $alignr ${fs_used_perc /home}%
${voffset 4}${fs_used /home}/${fs_size /home} ${alignr}${fs_bar 8,60 /home}
${font Pie charts for maps:size=14}7${font}   ${voffset -5}Storage: $alignr ${fs_used_perc /storage}%
${voffset 4}${fs_used /storage}/${fs_size /storage} ${alignr}${fs_bar 8,60 /storage}
${font Pie charts for maps:size=14}0${font}   ${voffset -5}Swap: $alignr ${swapperc}%
${voffset 4}${swap}/${swapmax} ${alignr}${swapbar 8,60}
${font Pie charts for maps:size=14}a${font}   ${voffset -5}Ramdisk: $alignr ${fs_used_perc /media/ramdisk}%
${voffset 4}${fs_used /media/ramdisk}/${fs_size /media/ramdisk} ${alignr}${fs_bar 8,60 /media/ramdisk}

NETWORK ${hr 2}
${voffset -6}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}O${font}   Up: ${alignr}${upspeed eth1}/s ${upspeedgraph eth1 8,60}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}U${font}   Down: ${alignr}${downspeed eth1}/s ${downspeedgraph eth1 8,60}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}N${font}   Uploaded: ${alignr}${totalup eth1}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}T${font}   Downloaded: ${alignr}${totaldown eth1}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}a${font}   Mail:${alignr}${execi 300 python ~/.scripts/gmail.py}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}b${font}   Local IP: ${alignr}${addr eth1}

PROCESSES ${hr 2}
NAME $alignr PID    CPU
${top name 1} $alignr ${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1}
${top name 2} $alignr ${top pid 2} ${top cpu 2}
${top name 3} $alignr ${top pid 3} ${top cpu 3}
${top name 4} $alignr ${top pid 4} ${top cpu 4}
${top name 5} $alignr ${top pid 5} ${top cpu 5}
${top name 6} $alignr ${top pid 6} ${top cpu 6}
${top name 7} $alignr ${top pid 7} ${top cpu 7}
${top name 8} $alignr ${top pid 8} ${top cpu 8}

[Silent Warrior]

I tried looking into #3 (not using either Conky or Nvidia at this machine, but it's possible the performance-mode is due to your using Compiz), but I couldn't find anything. Have you tried to simply disabling the wobbly windows plug-in in CompizConfig?

[ShakeyJake]

Hi, thanks for responding.

I have managed to get stop conky from interfering by changing 'own_window_type' to normal. It's not ideal as conky now looks sunken into the desktop a little but it'll do. No idea what I did to wobbly windows but that's now gone too.

So, I'm left with a Nvidia GPU that won't slow down. Attached is a screenshot of nividia-settings. As you can see, 'preferred mode' is set to adaptive, whereas 'performance mode' reads full performance. I wonder if the GPU is secretly doing something? Compiz maybe? Killing it doesn't slow it down.

In other news, how do I get compiz to be the default window manager? In Ubuntu I had a script which ran at startup that contained:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
sleep 1 && conky;
sleep 1 && guake;
sleep 1 && compiz --replace
exit 

But I still have to get the fusion icon and reload the window manager each time I log on now. Sorry to keep asking guys

[Silent Warrior]

Compiz on startup: Have you tried adding a script starting compiz in Startup Applications? (From the Control Center, or Settings menu.) LMDE is... just like that. However, I'm running KDE too, and don't want Compiz to usurp KWin, so I've made a sort of compromise: stick the command 'compiz --replace' in an empty file, make a launcher pointing to it and put that on the Gnome panel. Also adding a shortcut for restoring Metacity, for rainy days. Manual compositing-toggle, yo...

Nvidia: ... *Shrug* Don't know anything about that. But is there a difference when you're running Compiz and when you're running Metacity? And maybe the card needs some time to cool down, as well?