[Graphics] Kubuntu randomly stuttering every minute or so

[azdrawee]

Hey there, I've installed Kubuntu yesterday and I'm experiencing an issue. Once every minute or so when playing a video (and even games), there is a small stutter that lasts about half a second. It could be happening even when no video is playing though and I'm just not noticing it, not sure. The picture lags and I can hear a bit of the sound repeated. It was not a big issue at first, but it's really starting to bother me now and I don't think I can continue to use the system with it. What can I do to fix it?

Kubuntu version: 20.04.02 LTS
KDE version: 5.18.5
Other operating systems: Windows 10
My computer is a desktop.
CPU: 64bit Intel Core i5
GPU: Radeon RX 580
RAM: 16GB
Two drives installed: One is a 1TB SSD and the other is a 1TB HDD

Thank you for your help!

[oshunluvr]

Playing a video? Not much to go on there. How about what type and size of video, what video player? happens on multiple types of videos or players? Happens all the time or infrequently?

Since this is most likely a sound issue, knowing your audio hardware could be useful. Open Konsole and run this command: sudo lshw -class sound and post the results. You may have to install lshw, I'm not sure if it's installed by default anymore. Also knowing the drivers: lsmod |grep snd.

Finally, how is your audio connected? Speakers to the mobo? HDMI through the monitor? Audio issues can be a tough nut to crack. You should probably include the brand/model of the motherboard.



Since you just installed Kubuntu yesterday, it could be as simple as switching kernels, uname -r or the Info Center application ill tell us which you're current running.

I will say that historically audio has not been a strong suite for Linux although it's much better these days. There is also a "low-latency" kernel series but with newer hardware like it seems you have probably not needed.

**EDIT** I just re-read your post and I see that video is also lagging. Could be the video driver - assuming the audio is being produced by the RX 580

[oshunluvr]

If you want to try the latest AMD Radeon driver version you may use the PPA third-party repository which might be always ahead of the stable default opensource driver coming with your Ubuntu 20.04 system as default. To install the PPA third-party repository drivers execute the following commands:


$ sudo add-apt-repository ppaibaf/graphics-drivers


The above will add the PPA AMD Radeon driver repository to your system. The following command will upgrade your current AMD Radeon driver to the latest version:

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade

In case you want to revert back to your original Ubuntu AMD Radeon drivers you can remove the PPA driver installation using the below commands:

$ sudo apt install ppa-purge
$ sudo ppa-purge ppaibaf/graphics-drivers

[claydoh]

A minor thing to also consider is that there is a small chance that as this is a brand spanking new install, the file indexer could still be trying to do its initial run, and if Kubuntu is on the HDD, and you do happen to have a butt-load of files there. it might be slowing down things a little via the heavier i/o load.
Possibly. Maybe


It might be worthwhile to use KSysGuard to look for any processes that might show up when these spikes are happening.
Also check it to see if swap is being used unnecessarily, some systems seem prone this, and if the OS and swap are on the spinning drive, it might be more noticeable.

[azdrawee]

Thank you so much for your answers. For whatever reason, after a day of customising my system, the issue disappeared completely... I uninstalled some software, perhaps it was caused by some of it? It's very strange, but I'm glad I'm not having this issue anymore. Sorry for wasting your time, thanks for your help!

[claydoh]

Not a waste of time at all!
Good that it has stopped happening!