User interface stutters / laggy when mouse NOT moving

Bug #661327 reported by larson.eric.d@gmail.com
74
This bug affects 13 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
linux (Ubuntu)
Expired
Undecided
Unassigned
xorg (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: xorg

I am not certain this is an Xorg problem, but some of the time (~10-20%?) my system stutters if I am not moving the mouse. Music I'm playing will skip badly and CPU usage will stay elevated. Text I type in terminals is slow to appear. If I wave my mouse around the screen like a madman, the stuttering goes away. I have noticed sometimes it even occurs at the login screen, and seems to prevent my login from working properly.

This has happened to several people:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1586678

I have tried (and am currently running) the X-Updates PPA, but that did not help. This bug occurred whether I used the standard Maverick release version of X, the X-Updates X, Nouveau as my video driver, or the proprietary NVIDIA driver as my video driver. This was not an issue for me under Lucid, so it is a regression.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: xserver-xorg 1:7.5+6ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-22.34-generic 2.6.35.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-22-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: openafs nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 260.19.06 Mon Sep 13 04:29:19 PDT 2010
 GCC version: gcc version 4.4.5 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.4.4-14ubuntu5)
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Oct 15 11:55:33 2010
MachineType: FOXCONN RENAISSANCE Series
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=97f214be-47c2-44bf-95fb-2853db88b7ea ro
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xorg
dmi.bios.date: 03/24/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 080015
dmi.board.name: RENAISSANCE Series
dmi.board.vendor: FOXCONN
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: FOXCONN
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr080015:bd03/24/2009:svnFOXCONN:pnRENAISSANCESeries:pvr:rvnFOXCONN:rnRENAISSANCESeries:rvr:cvnFOXCONN:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: RENAISSANCE Series
dmi.sys.vendor: FOXCONN
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: maverick
 architecture: x86_64
 kernel: 2.6.35-22-generic

Revision history for this message
larson.eric.d@gmail.com (larsoner) wrote :
Revision history for this message
H3g3m0n (h3g3m0n) wrote :

Was happening to me too.

For me it's not %10-20 of the time, it's more like after about an hour of normal use then for a period of 5 minutes then it goes away until it comes back in another hour. I was thinking it might have been the differences in processor power, but I'm on a i7 920.

The CPU usage is 'weird' when it happens. According to htop the different processors get random highish (%50-80) cpu usage but it doesn't max any of them out and no process in the list is listed as using much (other than Xorg which is around %20).

Also after it happens, when I try to playback using totem is throws up 5 error boxes about being 'disconnected' but then works fine if I quit and reopen it. I'll try and grab the actual error if it happens again. I'm thinking it might be pulse-audio or gstreamer related although maybe some media backend crashing is just a symptom of the problem.

I have since reinstalled, not sure if this fixed it or not. Seems it might have improved it somewhat though.

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tomsib2001² (tomsib2001) wrote :

Something really should be done on this problem. It is a SERIOUS issue because it affects Ubuntu's credibility. Imagine what happens when someone finally tries the switch to Ubuntu and isn't able to play an audio file... plus a lot of people are affected

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damianpeterson (damianpeterson) wrote :

Affects me too. Dell Inspiron. Audio will often stutter but shaking the mouse will stop the stutter.

Have also noticed that the keypress repeat is affected. An example of this can be replicated when scrolling through text in a text editor; hold down a key to scroll ('j' in my case with VIM) and if the music is stuttering in the background so is my ability to hold a key down to scroll. Shaking the mouse re-enables smooth scrolling.

Revision history for this message
larson.eric.d@gmail.com (larsoner) wrote :

It might be helpful if we could track down what hardware is common to those of us that have the issue. I am running:

Foxconn Renaissance MB w/integrated audio (Intel Corporation 82801JI), Intel i7 940, NVIDIA 9500GT

Revision history for this message
H3g3m0n (h3g3m0n) wrote :

I think this is probably a bug with the Intel Audio. The original poster had that too. There have also been other problems with it in the past.

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller (listed as Realtek ALC888 in alsamixer)

Gigabyte EX58-UD3R, i7 920

This would probably make it a pulse-audio bug.

Revision history for this message
Nick Bishop (thndrkat) wrote :

This bug is also affecting me. I am experiencing it on my Toshiba NB305 netbook. VERY annoying, to say the least. As others have mentioned, I was not experiencing this on 10.04. Interestingly enough, this happens during startup also.

Revision history for this message
John S. (silencehaunt) wrote :

experiencing this on Lenovo G550

Revision history for this message
tomsib2001² (tomsib2001) wrote :

I tried installing Fedora 13, and the same problem appears, only less often. I suppose it can help to know this is not due to Ubuntu or even Debian...

Revision history for this message
H3g3m0n (h3g3m0n) wrote :

Changing /etc/pulse/default.pa:
load-module module-udev-detect
to
load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0
as per http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9958050&postcount=4 seems to have fixed it for me.

Revision history for this message
tomsib2001² (tomsib2001) wrote :

I tried that earlier, doesn't work for me.

Revision history for this message
Thomas Gebhardt (th-geb) wrote :

Obviously we are dealing with (at least two) different bugs here that cause similiar effects.

The bug that can be expelled with "module-udev-detect tsched=0" probably belongs to pulseaudio rather than to xorg
(BTW: Any hints what's going on here, why does that workaround fix the problem?)

While this was the most annoying bug for me, I sometimes still notice that the display freezes for some seconds when I try to move the pointer.

Revision history for this message
H3g3m0n (h3g3m0n) wrote :

Actually the tsched=0 option didn't fix it %100 for me, but it doesn't happen around every hour anymore.

It's more like after 6 or so hours so it's not really a major issue.

I'm guessing how problematic it is, might be different depending on the power of the system.

According to: http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/Modules
"tsched: Use system-timer based model (aka glitch-free). Defaults to 1 (enabled). If your hardware does not return accurate timing information (e.g. Creative sound cards) you can try to set tsched=0 to enable the interupt based timing which was used in 0.9.10 and before."

Not sure why Xorg would be effected. Possibly they are using the same hardware timer since it's onboard and whatever pulse is doing breaks it occasionally? Otherwise maybe the CPU is being raped by Pulse Audio dealing with an out of control timer or a bug in the scheduling code, and Xorg is slowing down as a result. It doesn't report %100 of my CPU being used but it does seem to cause some kind of processor storm with heaps of ~%70 processor bursts across all cores (maybe they are %100 bursts but for a time period shorter than whatever the CPU usage sample time is).

Revision history for this message
damianpeterson (damianpeterson) wrote :

I've not experienced this issue for the last week or so. No idea what might have fixed it as I've not tried any of the possible solutions listed here. Perhaps something came through in an update? Dunno.

Revision history for this message
Allen Chemist (alchemist) wrote :
Download full text (6.1 KiB)

I am currently experiencing this issue which goes beyond sound on my system. I can reliably re-create the issue by playing about 3 or 4 minutes of music, however once started the whole system stops without input. This includes screen updates (to the system monitor pannel applet), music and network traffic.

I have noticed in addition to moving the mouse or pressing any key (including modifiers like Shift), downloading items off the internet temporarily solves the problem. I noticed this as the problem didn't happen while the latest updates were downloading in the background. As soon as the download stopped and the installation began, the music began to skip and the installation would stall until input was given.

I have done the following tests with the following results.

Test 1: Recreate base issue. Restart computer normally, and play music. After 3-4 minutes the music and system begin to skip. Open a terminal and try to ping. As long as input is present on the keyboard or the mouse, the music and ping work correctly. As soon as input is stopped, music and ping stops. Even without music playing, ping does not continue unless input is given.

Test 2: Test in single mode without graphical user interface. Restart the computer and boot into recovery mode. Choose root shell with network, and play music using mplayer off the command prompt. Again, after 3-4 minutes the music begins to skip. Quitting mplayer and attempting ping also results in ping hanging until input is given. While in terminal mode, moving the mouse does not alleviate the issue.

My hardware is an HP G62 laptop with the following items
mitchese@mosasaur:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 07)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corp...

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H3g3m0n (h3g3m0n) wrote :

Another thing I have noticed is that even with the tsched hack, I will still get problems with video playback even though the audio is working. It's kind of laggy at times and I have to restart xorg.

Also if I 'Log Out' while the problem is occurring, it freezes up after closing everything and I am stuck with just my wallpaper. 'sudo restart gdm' from a terminal works (although I might need to run it twice).

I'm thinking that the Pulse-Audio stuttering is a side effect of some other problem.

Revision history for this message
Stefan Moluf (stefan-moluf) wrote :

I am also experiencing this bug on an HP z800. I have tried many different combinations of Nvidia (proprietary) and Xorg versions, all with no effect. I suspect that Xorg is the victim of a bug in another process rather that causing the behavior itself.

Revision history for this message
Stefan Moluf (stefan-moluf) wrote :
Download full text (8.6 KiB)

lspci dump:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 5520 I/O Hub to ESI Port (rev 13)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 13)
00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev 13)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 7 (rev 13)
00:10.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Physical and Link Layer Registers Port 0 (rev 13)
00:10.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Routing and Protocol Layer Registers Port 0 (rev 13)
00:11.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500 Physical and Link Layer Registers Port 1 (rev 13)
00:11.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500 Routing & Protocol Layer Register Port 1 (rev 13)
00:14.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub System Management Registers (rev 13)
00:14.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub GPIO and Scratch Pad Registers (rev 13)
00:14.2 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Control Status and RAS Registers (rev 13)
00:15.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Trusted Execution Technology Registers (rev 13)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 1
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 5
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 6
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 90)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JIR (ICH10R) LPC Interface Controller
00:1f.2 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 SATA RAID Controller
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)
0f:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G96 [Quadro FX 380] (rev a1)
37:09.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Agere Systems FW322/323 (rev 70)
40:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev 13)
40:07.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 7 (rev 13)
40:09.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 9 (rev 13)
40:10.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Physical and Link Layer Registers Port 0 (rev 13)
40:10.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 Routing and Protocol Layer Registers Port 0 (rev 13)
40:11.0 ...

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Stefan Moluf (stefan-moluf) wrote :

Upgrading to the 2.6.36 kernel seems to have eliminated this problem for me. http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.36-maverick/

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Thomas Gebhardt (th-geb) wrote :

Upgrading to the 2.6.36 kernel (see #19) seems to fix the flaw for me, too. Thanks!

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larson.eric.d@gmail.com (larsoner) wrote :

Yeah, 2.6.36 in the mainline ppa (comment #19) fixed it for me, too. As it was a kernel issue, I marked it invalid here. I'm not sure if that is the correct label, but it wasn't the xorg people's problem in any case---sorry!

Changed in xorg (Ubuntu):
status: New → Invalid
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H3g3m0n (h3g3m0n) wrote :

I don't think you mark it as invalid, just change the package it belongs too.

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tomsib2001² (tomsib2001) wrote :

it didn't fix anything for me!

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Robert Szalai (rszalai78) wrote :

I've noticed this bug on two different machines, on a laptop with ATI x2300 and on my desktop computer with Intel 945g.

The whole user interface hangs for a few milliseconds approximately in every ten seconds. It's unnoticable during web browsing, but you can clearly notice it when you play a video or just moving the mouse around.

Upgrading to 2.6.36 didn't help me at all. Downgrading to 2.6.34 fixed the problem:
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.34.7-maverick/

I think this is a regression in 2.6.35 and 2.6.36, and seriously affects desktop users.

Revision history for this message
Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee) wrote :

Hi <email address hidden>,

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? 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 run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 661327

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

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

tags: added: needs-kernel-logs
tags: added: needs-upstream-testing
tags: added: kj-triage
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
larson.eric.d@gmail.com (larsoner) wrote :

This one has been fixed. Thanks!

Revision history for this message
H3g3m0n (h3g3m0n) wrote :

This issue seems to have fixed itself for me on Maverick also.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Expired
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