Xorg is killing me

[rfakhrai]

Re: Xorg is killing me

I read through the bug report and I think we can allay any fears that this is a hardware issue. Some people in the bug report have found work-arounds such as disabling the upgrade notification. Have you tried any of these? None of them seem to be major things that would affect usability.

Furthermore, you can try a clean install with 10.10 or wait for 11.04 at the end of this month. I know these are a lot of hoops to jump through but, if you have the patience and time, something will work. Sometimes, but rarely, this is how it is.

[jds]

Re: Xorg is killing me

I read through the bug report and I think we can allay any fears that this is a hardware issue. Some people in the bug report have found work-arounds such as disabling the upgrade notification. Have you tried any of these? None of them seem to be major things that would affect usability.

It took me awhile to figure out how to turn that notifier off, since it is buried in menus: System Settings -> Advanced -> Services, and then scroll down. The last very non-descript category "Services" is what threw me off. At any rate, now I am just back to ridiculous amounts of CPU time being eaten up by firefox and Xorg again. This time I used dibl's step 2 instead of 3---I don't want to have to mess with this every time a kernel is updated.

Furthermore, you can try a clean install with 10.10 or wait for 11.04 at the end of this month. I know these are a lot of hoops to jump through but, if you have the patience and time, something will work. Sometimes, but rarely, this is how it is.

I really don't want to do that. I want a long-term-support OS, not bleeding edge.

[rfakhrai]

Re: Xorg is killing me

OK, when you most recently installed LL 10.04, did you install the 10.04.2 (the most current release of LL)? What version of KDE are you running? Open up system settings and click on Help>about KDE.

Have you installed all updates since you installed 10.04?

I know this sounds like I'm grasping for straws but I'm hoping there will be a clue in this information.

[jds]

Re: Xorg is killing me

OK, when you most recently installed LL 10.04, did you install the 10.04.2 (the most current release of LL)? What version of KDE are you running? Open up system settings and click on Help>about KDE.

Yes.
Yes.
4.4.5

Have you installed all updates since you installed 10.04?

Yes

I know this sounds like I'm grasping for straws but I'm hoping there will be a clue in this information.

[rfakhrai]

Re: Xorg is killing me

OK, your KDE is pretty old so if you don't mind please do the following in command line:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa

then

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

This will be a fairly large update and, if it goes well, you should be up to KDE 4.5.3. I can't help but think that your old version of KDE might be responsible.

[jds]

Re: Xorg is killing me

OK, your KDE is pretty old so if you don't mind please do the following in command line:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa

then

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

This will be a fairly large update and, if it goes well, you should be up to KDE 4.5.3. I can't help but think that your old version of KDE might be responsible.

This did not change my version of KDE. I think that repo is only for 10.10, not 10.04.

[rfakhrai]

Re: Xorg is killing me

My apologies I got it wrong

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

then the update and dist-upgrade.

[jds]

Re: Xorg is killing me

My apologies I got it wrong

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

then the update and dist-upgrade.

So now KDE is 4.5.3. Doing nothing leaves Xorg at about 15-30% of total CPUs. Move a window around,
and it takes up all of one CPU. Still no joy.

[rfakhrai]

Re: Xorg is killing me

This is the point where I bang my head against the desk. >

I'm very sorry to say but I have no idea what is causing this. Maybe if you create a new thread you can get some more expertise in here than me. I don't know why nobody else is helping ... surely there are more qualified people than I.

[jds]

Re: Xorg is killing me

Well, thanks for the attempts anyway. I just reinstalled the whole OS, never went to the proprietary driver, and things now work reasonably well. I've had faster experience with comparable machines, but at least it is workable. Using the nvidia drivers was just painful. There is some striations and flicker on the monitor, which is a little annoying.

[rfakhrai]

Re: Xorg is killing me

I'm glad you didn't give up kubuntu. It's really unfortunate that the nvidia drivers have given you such trouble because I haven't seen anyone else with a similar problem.

Trying out 11.04 might be worth your time. But I know you're trying to keep away from bleeding edge so maybe you could get some help at the nvidia forums.

Good luck! Happy trails.

[verndog]

Re: Xorg is killing me

Well, thanks for the attempts anyway. I just reinstalled the whole OS, never went to the proprietary driver, and things now work reasonably well. I've had faster experience with comparable machines, but at least it is workable. Using the nvidia drivers was just painful. There is some striations and flicker on the monitor, which is a little annoying.

Well this is something to keep in mind. I find Ubuntu works best with nvidia proprietary driver installed - at least for me it does. But Kubuntu-natty works so well I haven't tried installing any nvidia driver as of yet. I'm very impressed with how the visual aspects look.
I usually for a fresh install on each days ISO, using zsync, and then reinstalling. Maybe before the next re-install I will try adding nvidia driver to see if my cpu % changes.