In Oneiric, "Wobbly Windows" Compiz effect has a lag

[Pablo Almeida]

Dragging around windows in Oneiric while using Wobbly Windows effect doesn't go as smoothly as in Natty. The windows stays "hard" for seconds before it starts wobbling and sometimes it won't wobble at all. This lag seems to happen randomly, but very often.

[neil king (neil-neilking)]

I have exactly the same annoying problem. Worked perfectly fine in Natty. Broken in Oneiric amongst other things.

[Eric Mill (konklone)]

This bug precisely describes my situation as well. I've seen this behavior under both the recommended (default activated) nvidia proprietary driver, and after disabling all nvidia proprietary drivers (which I guess relies on the nouveau open source driver).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Dennis Fehr (cy-raid)]

This one affects me too.. Though it doesn't seem like it's just wobbly windows, as Videos run and 'pause' every second or so, almost like it's locking the video card and doing some operations or something.

[Pablo Almeida (pabloalmeidaff9)]

Yes, you're right. I noticed it happens without this effect as well.
Dragging windows around feels hard and it's like some frames are skipping.
There's another computer I tried and it worked smoothly, so it must be
something about our video cards.

Just for the record, mine is a "VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation
82945G/GZ Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)" . I'll see if I can get
info about others, where the problem doesn't happen.

Strange thing is that the problem also seems to be there in Gnome-shell.
Anyone can reproduce this on Gnome-Shell too?

2011/10/27 Dennis Fehr <email address hidden>

> This one affects me too.. Though it doesn't seem like it's just wobbly
> windows, as Videos run and 'pause' every second or so, almost like it's
> locking the video card and doing some operations or something.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/872960
>
> Title:
> In Oneiric, "Wobbly Windows" Compiz effect has a lag
>
> Status in “compiz” package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Dragging around windows in Oneiric while using Wobbly Windows effect
> doesn't go as smoothly as in Natty. The windows stays "hard" for
> seconds before it starts wobbling and sometimes it won't wobble at
> all. This lag seems to happen randomly, but very often.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/872960/+subscriptions
>

--
Pablo Almeida
http://www.google.com/profiles/pabloalmeidaff9

[Dennis Fehr (cy-raid)]

Yes! I finally solved my own slow problem.. It was nvidia drivers current all along. I updated them using this PPA:
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates

In Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update

Then use Update Manager if you want to see your new updates to NVidia and such. :)
Good luck!

- Dennis

[Pablo Almeida (pabloalmeidaff9)]

Since I don't have a Nvidia, this doesn't seem to be my problem. =/

2011/10/31 Dennis Fehr <email address hidden>

> Yes! I finally solved my own slow problem.. It was nvidia drivers current
> all along. I updated them using this PPA:
> https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates<https://launchpad.net/%7Eubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates>
>
> In Terminal:
> sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
> sudo apt-get update
>
> Then use Update Manager if you want to see your new updates to NVidia and
> such. :)
> Good luck!
>
> - Dennis
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/872960
>
> Title:
> In Oneiric, "Wobbly Windows" Compiz effect has a lag
>
> Status in “compiz” package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Dragging around windows in Oneiric while using Wobbly Windows effect
> doesn't go as smoothly as in Natty. The windows stays "hard" for
> seconds before it starts wobbling and sometimes it won't wobble at
> all. This lag seems to happen randomly, but very often.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/872960/+subscriptions
>

--
Pablo Almeida
http://www.google.com/profiles/pabloalmeidaff9

[lkspencer (kirk-lkspencer)]

I've noticed the same behavior. Here are my observations:

A window will wobble smoothly for the first time only and a single core on my i7 appears to take the hit. After moving the window once and the wobble is over if I try to move that same window a second time I get the effects described above and two cores on my i7 spike in cpu usage.

[lkspencer (kirk-lkspencer)]

@Dennis I updated to the latest version of nVidia drivers and still run into the problem...

[Ryan Barnard (78luphr0rnk2nuqimstywepozxn9kl19tqh0tx66b5dki1xxsh5m-launchpad)]

@lkspencer: I'm observing exactly the same symptoms as you: each window works correctly exactly once, and then after that never again. Also running the latest version of nVidia drivers (tried both the .run installer from nVidia and the package from ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates.

For what it's worth, my hardware is:
  AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
  nVidia GeForce 8600 GT
  4GB RAM

My OS is:

[Ryan Barnard (78luphr0rnk2nuqimstywepozxn9kl19tqh0tx66b5dki1xxsh5m-launchpad)]

Deepest apologies for the unfinished comment: focus somehow moved to the Post Comment button and spacebar activated it before I was finished typing.

My OS is Oneiric with 3.0.0-12-generic x86_64.

[FiX (fix-kowalski)]

Confirmed with latest nVidia driver (290.10-0ubuntu1~oneiric~xup1) from ppa (ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates) running on nVidia Corporation GT215 [Quadro FX 1800M] (rev a2) (HP EliteBook 8540w).

Possibly some more data:
1) The problem arises with or without Wlobby Windows (turned on/off using ccsm).
2) Lag gets worse as time passes
3) Reloading the Windows Manager (compiz) fixes the problem for a few minutes, then is shows-up again
4) Repeat (3) fixes the problem repetition.
5) Problem is the same with PPA & with original nvidia-current
6) Indirect rendering on/off does not change anything beyond the effect of restarting compiz (3)

I have tried KDE/Plasma (switched to kubuntu-desktop), Unity-3D, GNOME Shell and cairo-dock as login sessions with the exact same problem.

[FiX (fix-kowalski)]

{I am not a natiove speaker, so please forgive the low accuracy in the subjective description below}

One more test that may provide information: After each compiz reload (compiz --replace), each Window move is snappy _exactly once_. This means that when you click-n-move a Window for the first time after a compiz reload it moves nicely. But the second time (and later), it is lagging behind the cursor.

Any window that was not yet moved has a first "smooth" motion. Any window that was already moved once has a "jerky" or "lagging" motion.

[lkspencer (kirk-lkspencer)]

I've noticed something else that may help figuring this one out:

Using CompizConfig Settings Manager I disabled Window Decoration under the Effects section. With window decoration turned off I can use the alt key to click and move windows around. The windows wobble as expected and they move fluidly as expected. Turning the plugin back on it goes back to being fluid and wobbly only on the first move.

My guess is that the issue has to do with gtk-window-decorator or unity-window-decorator. I have tried both of those and they both cause this lag we are all seeing.

[mb0 (mb0)]

Same problem: each window was wobbly at first and laggy afterwards.
I can also report that using compiz from following ppa seems to fix the issue.
    https://launchpad.net/~vanvugt/+archive/compiz

[Ryan Barnard (78luphr0rnk2nuqimstywepozxn9kl19tqh0tx66b5dki1xxsh5m-launchpad)]

I can confirm that compiz from the https://launchpad.net/~vanvugt/+archive/compiz ppa fixes this problem on my machine as well. Thanks for the tip, mb0!

[Eleni Maria Stea (hikiko)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug. Unfortunately I have to change its status to Won't Fix (more info: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BigDesktopBugScrub#Compiz). If you believe that this bug is critical and/or affects people's desktop experience please feel free to re-open it and we'll try to fix it at a more convenient time.