Web browser performance in 64-bit Kubuntu 9.1 [SOLVED]

[kepyo]

Hi.

tl;dr: [ Poor performance in web browsers when using multiple tabs ]

I'm new to Linux and I've enjoyed most of it so far, but this one thing is really bugging me:
Opening new tabs in a web browser makes the whole browser run sticky. I've tried Konqueror, Epiphany, Firefox and SwiftFox with the same results. I've googled around quite a lot but haven't found anything that would help.

Turning the desktop effects off doesn't help. My hardware should have enough punch to deal with this (no problems in WinXP), and all the other programs seem to run smoothly. Could this be a 64-bit issue? I don't think it's a flash-related problem either since it doesn't seem to matter if the pages in the tabs use flash or not. Installing flashblock for Firefox doesn't help either.

I'm running the 64-bit Kubuntu 9.1.

Here's some info on my system:

SYSTEM INFORMATION
Running Ubuntu Linux, the Ubuntu 9.10 (karmic) release.
Kernel version: 2.6.31-20-generic (#58-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 12 04:38:19 UTC 2010)
GCC: 4.4.1 (x86_64-linux-gnu)

CPU INFORMATION
AuthenticAMD, AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+
Number of CPUs: 1
CPU clock currently at 1000.000 MHz with 512 KB cache
Numbering: family(15) model(31) stepping(0)
Bogomips: 2004.23
Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt lm 3dnowext 3dnow up rep_good lahf_lm

MEMORY INFORMATION
Total memory: 2952 MB
Total swap: 3239 MB

GRAPHIC CARD
VGA controller
ATI Technologies Inc Radeon X1950 GT (rev 9a)

Please let me know if you need any additional information (and the related command to extract it).

-k

[Rog131]

Re: Web browser performance in 64-bit Kubuntu 9.1

About a half year ago - when the Kubuntu 9.10 was released > http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3107938.0.

Back then (Ati opensource drivers / KDE 4.3):

With the Karmic the QtCurve theme for the GTK applications is making the desktop sticky - there is high CPU load when moving/resizing the GTK/QtCurve windows.

The solution at here was to make the xorg.conf with the "XAA" option

Maybe this is the same problem ?

[kepyo]

Re: Web browser performance in 64-bit Kubuntu 9.1



It worked! Or at least it runs helluva lot faster than before.

I'll summarize my actions for anyone who encounters this problem in the future:
1) Karmic doesn't have a xorg.conf in the /etc/X11/ -folder by default, so I created one following these instructions:

In order to generate xorg.conf you need to switch to one virtual console using the key combination CTRL + ALT + F1.
Now execute the following commands:
user@ubuntu ~# sudo service gdm stop
This command will stop the X.
Now we need to generate the xorg.conf file:
user@ubuntu ~# sudo Xorg -configure
This has generated the file in ~/xorg.conf.new.
We need to make the X using it so we have to put this file inside /etc/X11/
user@ubuntu ~# sudo mv ~/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

(Thank you, http://OsGuides.net/)

2) Then I opened the configuration file with my console text editor

# (feel free to use nano, pico or such)
user@ubuntu ~# sudo jed /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and added the Option "AccelMethod "XAA" line in the Device section

Section "Device"
# A lot of commented stuff here
   Option  "AccelMethod" "XAA"
EndSection

3) Finally I rebooted and behold, at least the tabs work faster. I experience still a bit of stickiness
here and there but since I don't have a long history with Linux GUIs, I can't tell if it's normal.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction,
k.