Kubuntu almost unusable - I still have timing problems

[Quaxo76]

Hi all,

After a clean re-install of Kubuntu, I still have the same problem I had - see my previous thread:
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3085004.0

In the fresh installation, I tried adding "noapic" or "notsc" or "acpi=noirq" to the kernel boot line; with "acpi=noirq" I frequently get a good session, but not always; with "notsc" the system hangs at boot; with "noapic" I get no change.

Basically these are the symptoms of a "bad boot":
- Slow icon animations, which slow all the operations - when I open a folder on the desktop, or an application, I have to wait for about a second for the animation to complete before anything else happens.
- Accelerated 3D programs are terribly slow (I use the game Chromium for a quick check).
- There's a general "sluggish-ness" in the system. It doesn't seem very responsive.
- Movies in Kaffeine are "jerky", as if it skips a frame every two.
- The "nVidia" logo when X starts stays on-screen for a second instead of just for an instant.
The system is not really usable this way, it's really annoying.

With a "good boot" instead everything is quick and responsive.

With the "acpi=noirq" I usually get a good session, unless I leave my joystick plugged in during boot - that way I get a 90% chance of a bad boot.

So basically: the joystick can't be the culprit, because sometimes I get a good session with it being plugged during boot; and if I plug in after boot when I have a good session, the session stays good.
The "acpi=noirq" helps raising the chances of getting a good session, but not to 100% - I still get bad sessions, even with the joystick unplugged.
It doesn't look like it's a video driver problem, because when I have a good session, everything stays good until next reboot, and everything's very stable.

All my hardware is good - I repeatedly tested the hard disks and memory. And of course everything works fine with Windows XP (or at least, as fine as it can work with Windows ).

So what do you think... Is it a kernel problem? Or KDE? Or what else? What could I do to get rid of this annoying problem, which forces me to several reboots to get a good session to work with?

Thanks,
Cristian

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu almost unusable - I still have timing problems

Does your BIOS offer a range of timing options for your front-side bus and/or memory? There may be a combination that works better for the Linux kernel than the one that works well for Windows. It seems like we ruled out video drivers, sound cards, drivers for your peripherals, and memory issues in your prior experiments, so I don't think it's anything to do with your Kubuntu setup, unfortunately.

One other notion -- you could try a different kernel. Like if you're using the -generic, your could try the low-latency. I know it's kind of a stretch, but if nothing else is working, there's not much to lose..... :P

[Quaxo76]

Re: Kubuntu almost unusable - I still have timing problems

I'll try to have a look in the BIOS.
As for the kernel... How do I select different ones? In the grub bootloader I only get the choice between .16 and .15 versions...

Cristian

[Quaxo76]

Re: Kubuntu almost unusable - I still have timing problems

I just had a thought - I have an Hyper-Threaded CPU (3GHz P4), and I just remembered that I heard Hyper-threading gave some timing problems - Might that be the case here?

Cristian

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu almost unusable - I still have timing problems

I just had a thought - I have an Hyper-Threaded CPU (3GHz P4), and I just remembered that I heard Hyper-threading gave some timing problems - Might that be the case here?

I don't think so -- I'm running a Core 2 Extreme, which is also hyper-threaded AFAIK. But your problem does sound like the CPU/FSB/RAM isn't syncing correctly every time you boot. If you had a way to borrow a different memory module(s), you might discover it is some slight incompatibility with the RAM that is installed, even though it passes mem86.

Are there any overclocking tools available for your motherboard and CPU? It would be interesting to either slow down or speed up your FSB just a wee bit, to see if the problem disappears.

[Quaxo76]

Re: Kubuntu almost unusable - I still have timing problems

Well, I should have a couple of older memory sticks lying around (512Mb I think) and a slower CPU, NOT hyper-threaded. I will have to make some tests... This problem is really driving me nuts. If it happened consistently, it would be easier to track and solve, but intermittently like this, is maddening...

Cristian