gnome-terminal tabs switch is slow when maximized

[Moritz Reiter]

In gnome-terminal, the switching between tabs gets noticeably slower when the gnome-terminal window is maximized. When it's not maximized and you click on an inactive tab or press the key shortcut to switch tab, it switches without any delay. But when you maximize the gnome-terminal window and do the same, the tab switches only after about half a second.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for the report, which version of Ubuntu are you running? which video card and driver are you using? are you running compiz? is the terminal using a transparent background or a custom one?

[Moritz Reiter (schallstrom)]

Ubuntu version: 8.10 Beta
Video Card: Intel 945GM Chipset graphics

I'm running compiz and the bug occurs both with transparent background turned on and with a solid single color background.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Could you try to reproduce the same without compiz? I have the same video card and the bug doesnt' occurs for me, did you tried to reproduce it with another new user created on your computer?

[Moritz Reiter (schallstrom)]

I tried it with and without compiz now and it makes no difference.

But after looking more closely I have to specify: There's not any delay in switching the terminal content itself but only in switching the focused tab into the foreground which gives the false impression that there would be a delay in switching the whole terminal content. So it's really just a matter of beauty and the bug probably shouldn't be regarded as very important (on the other hand for many users especially these little unimportant things decide whether the user finds the system slick and smooth or not).

[wadjakman (wadjakman)]

It seems the problem arises painting big gnome-terminal windows (tested without compiz, also). Other applications work fine.

I've attached lspci and straces for gnome-terminal and X server but I think they didnt help.

[Moritz Reiter (schallstrom)]

Changed status to confirmed because wadjakman seems to have the same problem.

[Sassan (sassanh)]

same problem here, contents change immediately but tab bar updates with delay.
--
Ubuntu 8.10
Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT
using compiz

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

do you get the same behavior with terminator (terminal emulator)? probably you might want to send this upstream to bugzilla.gnome.org since you're facing the issue? thanks.

[Moritz Reiter (schallstrom)]

In terminator is no delay in updating the tab bar.

[Sassan (sassanh)]

I have it in terminator too, but it's A BIT better there.

The delay is in updating tab bar, but suppose that you switch from tab 1 to 2, contents get updated immediately, but tab bar takes about 1sec to get updated and if you switch to tab 3 before tab bar gets updated, contents don't change till tab bar gets updated, look at this time-line:

you: switch command 1 * switch commad 2 * waiting
gnome-terminal: contents update for 1 * <---------------- delay -------------> * tab bar update for 2 * contents update 2 * <----------------- delay ---------------> * tab bar update for 2

so when you're working with gnome-terminal and you should deal with few tabs, it's really annoying.

[Soenke (s0enke)]

This bug affects me, too. The bigger the window, the slower the tab change. This is also true for maximizing the window.

During this the processor load rises and even music stops playing for a few milliseconds!

It' s an Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T8100 @ 2.10GHz
4GB RAM (server kernel)
nVidia Corporation Quadro NVS 140M (rev a1)

Lenovo T61
Ubuntu 8.10
Compiz 0.7.8-0ubuntu4
Nvidia 180.22 (from jaunty)

[Sergei (earl2002)]

I've had the same very problem and it was gone after I've updated nvidia driver from 177 to 180 ( downloaded 180 from https://launchpad.net/~thomas-creutz/+archive , intrepid version)

[Sassan (sassanh)]

worked for me

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

resetting to confirmed.

I hit this bug today myself after updating from hardy to jaunty. Gnome terminal became rather sluggish with the jaunty version whenever the window is maximized. This is most visible when switching tabs, but input is also slower than I was used to from hardy.

My computer is a Thinkpad X24, xorg is driven by the radeon driver.

[Javier Kohen (jkohen)]

For what it's worth, I don't see this problem anymore with gnome-terminal 2.24.3-1, libvte9 1:0.17.4-1 and nVidia drivers 180.22 from Debian/experimental.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

BTW, this also happens in terminator for me.

Javier, thank you for reporting back. Those versions in experimental are actually older than what it is in jaunty. The version number also suggests that these packages did not come from Debian. It is still very feasible that Debian discovered and applied a patch for exactly this kind of problem but which is not in Ubuntu.

http://patch-tracking.debian.net/package/vte/1:0.17.4-1
http://patch-tracking.debian.net/package/gnome-terminal/2.24.3-1

[Javier Kohen (jkohen)]

Not on Debian? Yes on Debian. Debian/experimental, as I said.

$ LANG=C apt-cache policy libvte9 gnome-terminal
libvte9:
  Installed: 1:0.17.4-1
  Candidate: 1:0.17.4-1
  Version table:
 *** 1:0.17.4-1 0
          1 http://ftp.pl.debian.org experimental/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1:0.16.14-4 0
        500 http://ftp.pl.debian.org unstable/main Packages
gnome-terminal:
  Installed: 2.24.3-1
  Candidate: 2.24.3-1
  Version table:
 *** 2.24.3-1 0
          1 http://ftp.pl.debian.org experimental/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.22.3-3 0
        500 http://ftp.pl.debian.org unstable/main Packages

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

Javier, this is about Ubuntu. And while usually the other way round, experimental has older versions than Jaunty in this case. Please check http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/libvte9 for example. Your reference to Debian experimental does not help in this case, except to confirm once more that this used to work better at some time in the past.

[Proskurin Kirill (oloremo)]

I can confirm this bug.

Dell XPS-1330
Ubuntu-9.04(updated every day)
nvidia-180 drivers

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

someone having the issue should send it directly to bugzilla.gnome.org for instructions on how to do it please read https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME . Thanks.

[James Pharaoh (jamespharaoh)]

I have the same problem.

This is bad enough that if I have a single gnome terminal maximised on a desktop then rhythmbox will jump when i switch to that desktop. I can also see the effect when unminimising a large gnome terminal window or when resizing a window at large sizes.

Has anyone reported this upstream? I will do so if not.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

FWIW, I'm not seeing this anymore in Karmic. Setting to Fix released, the Jaunty task is still open.

James, I assume you're running Jaunty, right?

[James Pharaoh (jamespharaoh)]

Rolf: Yes I am running Jaunty. I've just rebooted to try and boot into Karmic but it doesn't work. I am guessing this might be because I have an SATA CD drive or something, I'm sure it has worked before with the alternate CD.

Anyway, on a fresh boot the problem does not occur. This makes sense to me, I'm sure it gets worse over time. With this in mind are you still sure the problem does not exist in Karmic? I'll try and check myself but I think it will mean creating a separate installation which I don't have time to do today.

[SabreWolfy (sabrewolfy)]

Confirmed in Lucid 10.04.1 with GNOME Terminal 2.29.6 and compiz 0.8.4. When window is unmaximized, swtiching between tabs is instant. When window is maximized, there is a short, but discernable, delay switching tabs. Running proprietary NVidia drivers as installed by jockey on NVidia GeForce 9600 GT with full compiz effects.

[Kevin Hunter (hunteke)]

I have noticed this for awhile, and finally have had the nerve to investigate. Like SabreWolfy, I can confirm that it still exists for Lucid 10.04.1. I'll upgrade to Maverick likely this weekend, and will test it then. If it still exists, I'll change the Fix Released setting of this bug as I'm not the only one still experiencing this bug.

$ apt-cache policy libvte9
libvte9:
  Installed: 1:0.23.5-0ubuntu1.1
  Candidate: 1:0.23.5-0ubuntu1.1
  Version table:
 *** 1:0.23.5-0ubuntu1.1 0
        500 http://archive.linux.duke.edu/ubuntu/ lucid-updates/main Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-security/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1:0.23.5-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.linux.duke.edu/ubuntu/ lucid/main Packages

$ apt-cache policy gnome-terminal
gnome-terminal:
  Installed: 2.30.2-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.30.2-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.30.2-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.linux.duke.edu/ubuntu/ lucid-updates/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.29.6-0ubuntu5 0
        500 http://archive.linux.duke.edu/ubuntu/ lucid/main Packages

[Kevin Hunter (hunteke)]

I believe these to be the relevant upstream bug reports. Unfortunately, it would appear that fixing this performance issue is not high on the priority list:

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=350015
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=439247
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=532816
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=572210

(And unfortunately for us power users, a paper cut this is not since, by the fact that we use the terminal extensively, we are not the average user!)

[Jan Pfeifer (pfjan)]

Same issue here, in my Lucid 10.04.

I thought it is worth mentioning that when I resize the window to smaller and then maximize again, it gets zippier for a while -- helpful when it gets really sluggish ...