System hangs for a while when changing background image

[Davide]

When I change the background image from "gnome-appearance-properties", the animation of transition from an image to another is very slow (with and without desktop effects). Running the command "top" I see Xorg process using about 99,7% of CPU. The system hangs until the image is fully loaded and the animation has finished.

I haven't this problem with my notebook (Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi: AMD Turion 64 ML-37 / 2GB RAM / ATi Radeon X700 PRO 128MB) and the same distribution and updates (Ubuntu 9.04 64-bit beta).

Some informations of the system:

Description: Ubuntu jaunty (development branch)
Release: 9.04 x86_64
Kernel: 2.6.28-11-generic x86_64
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+
RAM: 1GB DDR
00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 760/M760 Host (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SG86C202
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS964 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 36)
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE] (rev 01)
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.1 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 90)
00:0a.0 Communication controller: Agere Systems V.92 56K WinModem (rev 03)
00:0b.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306 Fire II IEEE 1394 OHCI Link Layer Controller (rev 80)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon X1950 GT (rev 9a)
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon X1950 GT (Secondary) (rev 9a)

[Andreas Berger (andi-berger)]

same here, on my 1.7ghz laptop @1400x1050 pixels.

if someone wants it, here is my opinion:
-this animation is totally unnecessary
-this behavior is not consistent with the rest of the gnome desktop, kde and vista have animated (fading) widgets, gnome has not, and that is a good thing, because it lets people keep their computers and not buy new ones.
[/rant]

[lewisc (lewisdcasey)]

Same problem.
Using 9.04 on my desktop:
Intel P4 3.0
1GB DDR RAM
ATI Radeon x1650

[scimeth (scimeth)]

This happens to me too. I have wallpapertray installed which switches wallpaper on login. this also happens when i change color on appearance preferences>background.
amd 3000
1.5 gb ram
radeon x1950 pro

[haran_elessar (david-spike)]

same thing happens to me, and I tried on two different computers. Although it seems hardware related (as in lack of specs) I think it shouldn't happen. I have a laptop with basically the same specs of a two year old macbook (dual processor/1gig RAM) and the mac has smooth background transitions. I really like the feature and hope that it gets better in Karmic, because right now even the music skips when changing wallpapers.

[haran_elessar (david-spike)]

I followed the first set of instruction on this page https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JauntyJackalope/ReleaseNotes#Other%20known%20issues and it fixed the problem. Just add Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy" to the Device section of your xorg.conf Now everything runs super smooth, just like it should. It looks very nice! This issue has also been fixed for Karmic Kaola as you can see here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/376030

I had also reverted back to the 2.4 intel driver long ago.

[Daniele Napolitano (dnax88)]

Same problem, my video card is ATI Radeon 9200 RV280.

A strange behavior, switching from GDM loading amination to session background isn't slow.

[Vish (vish)]

Thank you for bringing this bug to our attention. However, a paper cut should be a small usability issue, in the default Ubuntu 9.10 install, that affects many people and is quick and easy to fix. So this bug can't be addressed as part of this project.

-What is reported here is a bug and not a design flaw, hence not a papercut.
For further information about papercuts criteria, please read https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PaperCut.

Don't worry though, this bug has been marked as "Invalid" only in the papercuts project.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi Davide,

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? (ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/)

If it remains an issue, could you also attach a new /var/log/Xorg.0.log?
Thanks in advance.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Davide (thewizard86)]

I tried with Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" x86_64 beta 1 and I had no more problems related to this bug.

[Guillermo Pérez (bisho)]

Still happening to me, with Lucid, nvidia binary module.

gconftool-2 -t str -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename <some_image>

Makes the system hang for a while.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

The original reporter indicates this is resolved now.

Additional commenter is using an unrelated video driver.