Desktop performance unusably slow on nVidia ION

[Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱 🦄]

Upgraded an Acer Aspire Revo (1.6GHz Atom CPU, 3GB RAM, nVidia ION GPU) to 12.10, added unity-team/staging PPA and updated/upgraded.

Getting ~9fps from glxgears. The glxgears window doesn't actually show any gears, just a black empty window. Everything feels like it's running on something much older and slower. Desktop is completely unusable.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: unity 6.4.0-0ubuntu6 [origin: Ubuntu]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-14.19-generic 3.5.3
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-14-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 304.43 Sun Aug 19 20:14:03 PDT 2012
 GCC version: gcc version 4.7.1 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.7.1-9ubuntu1)
.proc.driver.nvidia.warnings.fbdev:
 Your system is not currently configured to drive a VGA console
 on the primary VGA device. The NVIDIA Linux graphics driver
 requires the use of a text-mode VGA console. Use of other console
 drivers including, but not limited to, vesafb, may result in
 corruption and stability problems, and is not supported.
ApportVersion: 2.5.1-0ubuntu7
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,vpswitch,snap,mousepoll,resize,place,move,wall,grid,regex,imgpng,session,gnomecompat,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
CrashDB: unity
Date: Sun Sep 16 17:51:26 2012
DistUpgraded: 2012-09-16 16:10:01,813 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: quantal
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus: nvidia-current, 304.43, 3.5.0-14-generic, x86_64: installed
GraphicsCard:
 NVIDIA Corporation ION VGA [10de:087d] (rev b1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0222]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120823.1)
JockeyStatus:
 kmod:nvidia_current - nvidia_current (Proprietary, Enabled, Not in use)
 kmod:nvidia_current_updates - NVIDIA binary Xorg driver, kernel module and VDPAU library (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 04f2:0402 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd Genius LuxeMate i200 Keyboard
 Bus 002 Device 003: ID 046d:c058 Logitech, Inc. M115 Mouse
 Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0471:20d9 Philips (or NXP)
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: Acer Aspire R3600
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-14-generic root=UUID=70c4741e-7ed7-4bcf-96c8-4f843bb7e178 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2012-09-16 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 07/22/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: R01-A2L
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: FMCP7A-ION
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrR01-A2L:bd07/22/2009:svnAcer:pnAspireR3600:pvr:rvnAcer:rnFMCP7A-ION:rvr:cvnAcer:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Aspire R3600
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.8.2+stagingbzr3375ubuntu0+3297
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.39-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 9.0~git20120903.e1673d20.is.git20120821.c1114c61-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 9.0~git20120903.e1673d20.is.git20120821.c1114c61-0ubuntu1
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.13.0-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.7.3-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.99.99~git20120713.6ef1ad6a-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.20.7-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.2-0ubuntu1

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

same as bug 1050650 ?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

We have multiple issues with nvidia performance:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/compiz/+bugs?field.tag=nvidia-is-slow