Using OpenGL with a Displaylink-Adapter leads to high CPU usage

Bug #1616981 reported by trepseq
56
This bug affects 10 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
compiz (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Hello!

First of all: thank you so much for your work! I have been using Unity/Compiz for a couple of years now and have been very happy with this software. Thank you for making this possible for so many people. God bless you for that!

I have since a couple of weeks a multi-monitor configuration like this:
 - Monitor A: laptop internal monitor
 - Monitor B: external monitor connected directly to the laptop
 - Monitor C: external monitor connected to a USB-DVI adapter which is connected to the laptop

The hardware is:
 - Intel HD3000 in the laptop
 - HP NL571AA USB-to-DVI adapter using a Displaylink chip

My problem is this:
 - Show video on C --> CPU usage of Displaylink driver is high
 - Show video on monitor A or B --> CPU usage of Displaylink driver is equally high

Expected behaviour:
 - CPU usage of Displaylink driver is not high when monitor C is connected and is showing only static content

If I disable the compiz OpenGL plugin using ccsm the CPU load of the Displaylink driver is almost zero if I don't use monitor C, as expected. The problem is of course I then can't drag windows anymore so the desktop is becomes unusable.

According to this post http://displaylink.org/forum/showpost.php?p=79485&postcount=6 this issue is known by Displaylink and has to be solved somewhere else.

My question is: could/should this be solved in compiz? If so, I would be willing to help with the programming if I can.

Revision history for this message
Jørn Ølmheim (joelmheim) wrote :

This is a problem for me as well. Ubuntu 16.04 with Unity is my daily driver and we have a dual monitor setup with DisplayLink at work.

I would also be willing to help with the coding and testing of this if required.

Revision history for this message
Asbjørn A. Fellinghaug (asbjorn-fellinghaug) wrote :

I'm also experiencing this issue.
If there is something that can be solved from the compiz package that would be awesome. This overall performance slowdown is really annoying.

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

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

Changed in compiz (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Jose Vacas (josevacas)
no longer affects: compiz
Revision history for this message
Arjan Franzen (afranzen) wrote :

Also affects me; Ubuntu 16.04 with the latest drivers from DisplayLink (19 sept '16)
As soon as a browser with any kind of video content is shown the process eats more then 100% of CPU
and goes back to ~10% when I close the window

Revision history for this message
MrMEEE (mj-casalogic) wrote :

I can confirm this...

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