[nvidia] Firefox Canvas CPU usage

[bart99]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

On my Ubuntu 8.04 system I've noticed that when visiting sites with dynamic Canvas elements the CPU usage is hot, while using Firefox 2 the problem does not exists.
This affects the performance of interactive or animated pages that utilizes Canvas.
Bye,
bart99

Ubuntu 8.04
package:firefox-3.0~rc1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Jun 10 20:20:28 2008
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: firefox-3.0 3.0~rc1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=it_IT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: firefox-3.0
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-18-generic i686

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 06:34:34PM -0000, bart99 wrote:
> Public bug reported:
>
> Binary package hint: firefox-3.0
>
> On my Ubuntu 8.04 system I've noticed that when visiting sites with dynamic Canvas elements the CPU usage is hot, while using Firefox 2 the problem does not exists.
> This affects the performance of interactive or animated pages that utilizes Canvas.

maybe this is because you are using the non-free nvidia driver? have
you tried the free alternatives?

 status incomplete

 - Alexander

[bart99 (bart99)]

Hi Alexander,
No I've not tried it, but it's strange for me that Firefox2 has not this problem.
I've tested the two version of the beowser on my work at:
http://bart99.altervista.org/smith/index.htm and other canvas stuff
When clicking on the blue dot and dragging it I've response time comparable to explorercanvas by google under windows+IE, while with firefox 2 it's linear
and fast.
Thanx for your reply,
bart99

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 07:12:29PM -0000, bart99 wrote:
> Hi Alexander,
> No I've not tried it, but it's strange for me that Firefox2 has not this problem.
> I've tested the two version of the beowser on my work at:
> http://bart99.altervista.org/smith/index.htm and other canvas stuff
> When clicking on the blue dot and dragging it I've response time comparable to explorercanvas by google under windows+IE, while with firefox 2 it's linear
> and fast.

Please attach your xorg.conf and your Xorg.0.log to this bug

 status incomplete

 - Alexander

[bart99 (bart99)]

Hi,
here the files you requested
I'm not a geek with Linux, so let me know how can help you understanding where is the problem
bart99

[bart99 (bart99)]

....and xorg.conf

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 11:14:30PM -0000, bart99 wrote:
> ....and xorg.conf
>
> ** Attachment added: "xorg.conf"
> http://launchpadlibrarian.net/15184145/xorg.conf
>

could you please try a free driver and not the nvidia one?

 status incomplete

 - Alexander

[bart99 (bart99)]

ok Alexander,
you are right, disabling the non-free drivers all works fine. Now the question is why?
thanks very much for your activity on this report
bart99

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 07:12:29PM -0000, bart99 wrote:
> Hi Alexander,
> No I've not tried it, but it's strange for me that Firefox2 has not this problem.
> I've tested the two version of the beowser on my work at:
> http://bart99.altervista.org/smith/index.htm and other canvas stuff
> When clicking on the blue dot and dragging it I've response time comparable to explorercanvas by google under windows+IE, while with firefox 2 it's linear
> and fast.

Please try.

further try to disable your extensions in tools -> addons, but my
bet atm is that its a driver issue.

 - Alexander

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 12:14:17AM -0000, bart99 wrote:
> ok Alexander,
> you are right, disabling the non-free drivers all works fine. Now the question is why?
> thanks very much for your activity on this report

Most likely a bug in the XAA implementation of the non-free drivers
xorg part.

 - Alexander

[bart99 (bart99)]

ok,
disabling extension doesn't resolve the problem.
bart99

[Francois Deppierraz (francois-ctrlaltdel)]

I experienced the same bug while giving a try to Bespin (http://labs.mozilla.com/projects/bespin/) which makes heavy use of the canvas HTML tag.

This computer is running Ubuntu Intrepid on amd64 with an NVidia GeForce 7300 GS graphic card and Xorg makes use the proprietary nvidia driver version 177.82. Firefox 3 default Ubuntu version was used.

[ 19.436417] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
[ 19.696299] nvidia 0000:05:00.0: PCI INT A -> Link[APC3] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[ 19.696306] nvidia 0000:05:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 19.696510] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 177.82 Tue Nov 4 16:50:05 PST 2008

The following workaround (from http://techbase.kde.org/User:Lemma/KDE4-NVIDIA) works for me:

  nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=2 -a GlyphCache=1

[bugbot (bugbot)]

This bug report was filed against an old version of Ubuntu.
Can you confirm whether this is still an issue in natty?

If you don't mind, it would be very helpful if you could update the bug
report in launchpad to 'Fix Released' if it is no longer an issue for
you, or if it is still occurring under natty, please tag the bug 'natty'
so it's easier for us to track.

[bart99 (bart99)]

Hi,
I tried using the same link of the first post with firefox 3.6.15 on Ubuntu 10.010 and now seems to work smoothly.

Cheers,
bart99