Overall feel of Kubuntu 8.10 is not right

[Guest]

Hi guys,

So I have actually moved over from Windows Vista to Kubuntu 8.04 (and now 8.10) a while ago, and although I find Linux to be a great experience with a powerful command line, I have always had problems using it as my primary OS. I am using a core 2 duo 2.8ghz system with 4GB RAM, ATI HD4830 video card with all recent drivers installed (and 64-bit kubuntu), and it just does not feel right overall as a system. I am pretty sure it is not a hardware problem as my system is actually pretty well off, and drivers updated. I am wondering if this is the case for everyone or if it is just me. Scrolling webpages feels very laggy, tabs in firefox have a glitchy graphic problem, opening konquerer is not smooth, opening firefox generates a small "artifact" effect to the left, and the overall feel of Kubuntu is just not right. I have tried KDE 3.0 previously and also KDE 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, as well as another nvidia 8800GT video card on this.

Is anyone else feeling that the GUI interface doesn't feel anywhere near as smooth as Windows XP/Vista? Is there anyway to tweak my system so it feels better as a primary OS? Any tips or assistance would be highly appreciated.

Thanks.

[kjjjjshab]

Re: Overall feel of Kubuntu 8.10 is not right

Our brand new T400 has a pretty slow GUI with Vista. I laugh when it brings up the hourglass after a right-click to the desktop. The dimming of the desktop when an admin "ok" is needed is not smooth.

:|

[mfburgo]

Re: Overall feel of Kubuntu 8.10 is not right

Well, i would not use the nvidia 8000 series on 8.10. I had nothing but trouble with it. Installed an ATI 4760 and all my problems went away.

I am running 8.10 on a hp pavilion 9000 laptop with a nvidia 6150 with 1 gig of ram no problem
also running on a AMD 5000+ processor ati 4760 8 gig ram no problem

last system with 8.10 is an amd 3400 with nvidia 6150 2 gig ram no problem there either.

I would verify the version of ati drivers and also verify the glxinfo is correct. I had a hard time when first setting up the ati card that could not get 3d enabled. Had to play with the configuration a little to get it all going .

check with glxgears and glxinfo. I amd getting about 2500fps with glxgears.....

[Urge]

Re: Overall feel of Kubuntu 8.10 is not right

Running Kubu 8.10 64b w/ an XFX 8600 GTS XXX card and I have no gfx problems. What version drivers are you using (run nvidia x server settings to find out)? 177.82 here.

[Guest]

Re: Overall feel of Kubuntu 8.10 is not right

Thanks for the reply guys.

I have tried using glxgears and have gotten between 6500-8500 fps on it, it seems my video card works just fine for that. I am currently using my ATI HD4830 btw, and not the nVidia. The driver version is 8.54.3, and Catalyst is version 2.1.

I can tell the drivers are still somewhat doing their jobs as it does support a 1680x1050 resolution which does not work until you have a proper driver installed, and scrolling is still faster than if you were to have no drivers installed. But for some reason, my system does not feel smooth at all. I also notice that when watching a video clip on my computer it will sometimes blink on-off, and randomly when I start up my computer I get the message "Ubuntu is starting in low graphics mode" (not always).

I have tried to use some older drivers, as well as downloading direct from the ATI site and building the drivers manually, but my system still does not feel smooth. I really want to use Linux as my primary OS, and although this may sound odd, I simply cannot use this as a primary OS until at least the GUI feels as smooth as Windows.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Overall feel of Kubuntu 8.10 is not right

Assuming everything is properly functional:

1. Have you enabled desktop effects? (kmenu/system settings/desktop). If so, it may be that one of the effects might not be playing nicely.

2. If you have got effects enabled, have you checked vsync?