Xorg pegs CPU, desktop performance suffers after Karmic upgrade

[dmandell]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

I'd been using Karmic for the last couple of weeks and did an upgrade to get latest last night. After a reboot I logged in and overall performance was really lousy. Scrolling from within a window, dragging a window around, typing within a window were glacially slow. Any time I did any of the above things Xorg pegged the CPU. I tried rebooting again, that didn't work. I also tried rebooting and using an older kernel, that also didn't work.

What managed to get everything back to normal was reverting from xserver-xorg-video-intel_2%3a2.9.0-1ubuntu2_i386.deb to xserver-xorg-video-intel_2%3a2.8.1-1ubuntu2_i386.deb. After another reboot performance was as it was before the update. All other packages remain as they are.

This is (apparently) not related to the cryptsetup version (bug439138), as I don't have it installed:

cryptsetup:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 2:1.0.6+20090405.svn49-1ubuntu4
  Version table:
     2:1.0.6+20090405.svn49-1ubuntu4 0
        500 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages

I'd be glad to help debug this problem, but I probably can't do it during work hours because my laptop is more or less unusable for work while in this state.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Oct 14 15:07:05 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: LENOVO 6371CTO
Package: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.8.1-1ubuntu2
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=ee48f072-05a2-49ef-989f-a518e7496a51 ro quiet splash vga=794
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-11.38-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu5
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4
 libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.8.1-1ubuntu2
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-intel
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-11-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 07/13/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 7IET30WW (1.11 )
dmi.board.name: 6371CTO
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr7IET30WW(1.11):bd07/13/2007:svnLENOVO:pn6371CTO:pvrThinkPadT60:rvnLENOVO:rn6371CTO:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 6371CTO
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T60
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.31-11-generic

[Chris Wilson (ickle)]

The immediate suspicion is software fallbacks... Though we've had another report of nearly 100% of the cpu time spinning within the kernel.

Bryce, if you can guide the original reporter through gathering a useful sysprof (debugging symbols for the whole stack is a must!) that would be very useful, thanks.

T60 is i945, correct? Useful to confirm that with lspci.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

You're right that it is 945:

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML
and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub [8086:27a0] (rev 03)
        Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:2017]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS,
943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a2] (rev 03)
        Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:201a]

However from glxinfo doesn't look like SW rendering is in use:

direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) 945GM GEM 20090712 2009Q2 RC3 x86/MMX/SSE2
OpenGL version string: 1.4 Mesa 7.6

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Created an attachment (id=30425)
BootDmesg.txt

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Created an attachment (id=30426)
CurrentDmesg.txt

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Created an attachment (id=30427)
XorgLog.txt

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Created an attachment (id=30428)
xdpyinfo.txt

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Created an attachment (id=30429)
glxinfo.txt

[dmandell (dmandell)]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

I'd been using Karmic for the last couple of weeks and did an upgrade to get latest last night. After a reboot I logged in and overall performance was really lousy. Scrolling from within a window, dragging a window around, typing within a window were glacially slow. Any time I did any of the above things Xorg pegged the CPU. I tried rebooting again, that didn't work. I also tried rebooting and using an older kernel, that also didn't work.

What managed to get everything back to normal was reverting from xserver-xorg-video-intel_2%3a2.9.0-1ubuntu2_i386.deb to xserver-xorg-video-intel_2%3a2.8.1-1ubuntu2_i386.deb. After another reboot performance was as it was before the update. All other packages remain as they are.

This is (apparently) not related to the cryptsetup version, I have the most recent (fixed) version:

cryptsetup:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 2:1.0.6+20090405.svn49-1ubuntu4
  Version table:
     2:1.0.6+20090405.svn49-1ubuntu4 0
        500 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages

I'd be glad to help debug this problem, but I probably can't do it during work hours because my laptop is more or less unusable for work while in this state.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Oct 14 15:07:05 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: LENOVO 6371CTO
Package: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.8.1-1ubuntu2
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=ee48f072-05a2-49ef-989f-a518e7496a51 ro quiet splash vga=794
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-11.38-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu5
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4
 libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.8.1-1ubuntu2
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-intel
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-11-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 07/13/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 7IET30WW (1.11 )
dmi.board.name: 6371CTO
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr7IET30WW(1.11):bd07/13/2007:svnLENOVO:pn6371CTO:pvrThinkPadT60:rvnLENOVO:rn6371CTO:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 6371CTO
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T60
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.31-11-generic

[Kees Cook (kees)]

To clarify, this is not bug 439138 since the CPU would idle when not doing anything (and cryptsetup is not installed).

[dmandell (dmandell)]

I'd just like to note (for clarity's sake) that the version of xserver-xorg-video-intel was not 2.8.1 when this problem occurred, it was 2.9.0. I had to revert to 2.8.1 in order to regain use of my laptop.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Since you were able to identify this cleanly as a 2.8.1->2.9.0 regression, a feasible debugging technique is git-bisection. This procedure is documented here, if you'd be willing to give it a go:

  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Bisecting

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Once you are done bisecting, to return your system to the original state, you would simply reinstall the 2.8.1 package, the same way you did before, and restart the system. This will overwrite the driver installed via git.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Doug - I've forwarded this bug upstream to https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=24537 - please subscribe yourself to this bug, in case they need further information or wish you to test something. Thanks ahead of time!

[Stephan (stephan-h)]

Seeing the same symptom I would like to test whether downgrading xserver-xorg-video-intel
to 2.8.1 would help on my machine, too. However, all debs between 2.6.3 and 2.9.0
seem to have disappeared from the net. Could you please share the working deb?

Thanks

[Chris Wilson (ickle)]

Ah, the critical detail is that the attached Xorg.log is the wrong one! In fact it is for driver version 2.8.0 from the configuration the original reporter reported as working.

The relevant lines of fail from the Xorg.log.old is:

  (EE) intel(0): [drm] Failed to open DRM device for : No such file or directory
  (EE) intel(0): Failed to become DRM master.

causing the driver to fallback to software rendering entirely.

For whatever reason udev has not instantiated the revelant device node, typically /dev/dri/card0, for the module (the i915 module itself is loaded). This sounds like a system configuration issue above and beyond the driver/xserver.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

According to the upstream bug report this issue seems to have been due to a bad system configuration. Since there's been no reply from the original reporter I'm going to assume we're not likely to make any further progress on this bug.