Unity 3D too slow (Oneiric)

[Leonardo Brás]

On natty i had no problems with Unity, and i used to play 720p videos smoothly.

Since i upgraded for Oneiric i got a very very slow interface, and i can't even play 480p videos without excessive lags. I even tryed disabling blur and other effects in order to get more performace, but nothing happens.

So, i changed for Unity 2D, what apparently solved video problems, and the interface got so fast as natty's Unity(3D).

So i believe the bug is on Unity(3D) package, since compiz and radeon driver are working well on Unity2D interface.

It would be very cool if i could use Unity3D smoothly as it was on Natty, since it's much prettier than Unity2D.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: unity 4.22.0-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: None
Date: Sat Oct 15 01:08:22 2011
DistUpgraded: Log time: 2011-09-24 16:23:45.744201
DistroCodename: oneiric
DistroVariant: ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 ATI Technologies Inc RS690M [Radeon X1200 Series] [1002:791f] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff00]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
MachineType: TOSHIBA Satellite A215
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=pt_BR:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=pt_BR.UTF-8
 LC_MESSAGES=pt_BR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic root=UUID=fc64f576-0460-4abd-b53d-42b5b71d411a ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-09-24 (20 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 01/15/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.bios.version: V2.30
dmi.board.name: IALAA
dmi.board.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.board.version: 1.00
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: *
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnTOSHIBA:bvrV2.30:bd01/15/2010:svnTOSHIBA:pnSatelliteA215:pvrPSAEGU-03801J:rvnTOSHIBA:rnIALAA:rvr1.00:cvnTOSHIBA:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Satellite A215
dmi.product.version: PSAEGU-03801J
dmi.sys.vendor: TOSHIBA
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.6+bzr20110929-0ubuntu5
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu26
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.26-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+7ubuntu7
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.6.0-1ubuntu13
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20110811.g93fc084-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.15.901-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110411+8378443-1

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[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

[Leonardo Brás (leonardobsp)]

Thank you, i will try doing this later.
If i get some results i may say it here.

[Ian McMichael (ian-sigma-uk)]

Could you clarify how updating nVidia dirvers solved a performance problem with an AMD Radion X1200 card? I am suffering the same issue with Oneiric on an Compaq 6715b laptop with the same graphics card. Natty Unity 3D flew. Even typing this report in Launchpad is causing a substantial lag in Chromium now!

[Ian McMichael (ian-sigma-uk)]

Kernel bug with the IRQ handling in the Radeon driver. See https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=37679 for the two patches that fix this.

[Dennis Fehr (cy-raid)]

X-Swat PPA also includes fglrx-installer, which is the AMD Proprietary drivers.. But not sure if it actually installs or updates them as I don't have ATI. Someone would have to verify that, but it worked for nVidia for sure (on my computer anyway).

[Ian McMichael (ian-sigma-uk)]

I can confirm I have tested the X-Swat PPA on an AMD Radeon X1200 in an HP Compaq 6715b and it does not fix the problem. With the PPA glxgears still struggles to make 13 FPS and the whole Unity interface lags terribly. Please see my comment above (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-meta/+bug/874784/comments/6) for two radeon kernel module patches that fix the IRQ handling issue, which disables 3D acceleration on these cards.

The question now is how we get these patches into proposed and hence adopted into Oneiric?

[Dennis Fehr (cy-raid)]

Apparently it affects the 'xserver-xorg-video-ati' package (Ubuntu X-Swat had it at one point.. Wonder why they stopped updating it) .. You're right, they're discussing it here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/755791 so those who have ATI's should probably poke and prod them to apply the patches. I suppose if someone really wanted, they could follow the instructions here: http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/rebuilding-ubuntu-debian-linux-binary-package/ for generic package rebuilding, after the source patching? Knowing me if I was in the situation I'd do it and test myself. Rebuilding it from a new package this way you can roll it back if something were to happen and not work.

[Dennis Fehr (cy-raid)]

Another reference of package rebuilding here: http://www.moosechips.com/2008/09/ubuntu-rebuild-a-source-package/

[Dennis Fehr (cy-raid)]

On further investigation, the slow down wasn't an ATI issue, and it happens eventually when the system slows down.
It seems however, to be a duplicate of this bug #764330