I had originally posted this at the Gentoo forums, but since no one there has had any advice for me, I am reposting this here:

Shining Arcanine wrote:I asked my cousin to use my laptop today because I had some stuff I needed to do on my desktop. Unfortunately, upon login, KDE was unusable. It had shown me the desktop, but it was non-responsive. The mouse would still move and switching to a terminal screen via Alt+Ctrl+Fx and back caused it to be a black screen. I started troubleshooting, during which time I cleared out the contents of several folders, including his .kde4 folder that contained all of his settings. He uses the system once every 4 months or something like that, so it was not a big deal to do that. Unfortunately, that did not resolve the issue, so I tried logging him onto my account, which had been perfect up until this time, but it had developed the same issue.

After a few minutes, it then said "Compositing was too slow and has been suspended" and things started working. I then tried logging over to his account and it took a while for things to work, but then they started working, without the message that compositing had been suspended. I can recall some logins in the past being a bit sluggish. Things seem to be working now, but I have not tried doing a fast user switch to his account, which is when all heck broke loose previously. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

This happened again to me today without using fast user switching. It seems to be semi-random and I have not been able to isolate a cause from X server logs or .xsession-errors. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to try to fix this?

Is Strigi running when this happens? If so, go to System Settings > Advanced tab > Desktop Search and switch it off. Leave Nepomuk enabled. It may just be that Strigi is taking too many of your resources.

annew wrote:Is Strigi running when this happens? If so, go to System Settings > Advanced tab > Desktop Search and switch it off. Leave Nepomuk enabled. It may just be that Strigi is taking too many of your resources.

Desktop Search is not present in System Settings' Advanced Tab. I compiled KDE without semantic-desktop support, so Nepomuk and Akonadi-Server are not installed. Strigi is installed because the rest of KDE requires it for linking purposes.

Please check the configuration of your graphics drivers. Also, did the removals include /var/tmp/kdecache-$USER/?

bcooksley wrote:Please check the configuration of your graphics drivers. Also, did the removals include /var/tmp/kdecache-$USER/?

In particular, what should I check? Nvidia's drivers give no complaints in the X server logs.

And yes, the removals included those directories.

Edit: It just happened again. Here is a copy of my .xsession-errors file:

http://paste.pocoo.org/show/216592/

Running "grep error" produces the single line "XRANDR error base: 177".

I also went into my desktop effects settings, unchecked "Enable Desktop Effects", clicked apply and then checked "Enable Desktop Effects" and clicked apply. The result was:

Failed to activate desktop effects using the given configuration options. Settings will be reverted to their previous values.

Check your X configuration. You may also consider changing advanced options, especially changing the compositing type.

Here is my xorg.conf file:

http://paste.pocoo.org/show/216594/

Edit: Upon closer inspection of ~/.xsession-errors, I found the following:

Invalid D-BUS member name 'idle-hint' found in interface 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session' while parsing introspection
Invalid D-BUS member name 'is-local' found in interface 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session' while parsing introspection
Invalid D-BUS member name 'x11-display-device' found in interface 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session' while parsing introspection
Invalid D-BUS member name 'x11-display' found in interface 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session' while parsing introspection
Invalid D-BUS member name 'display-device' found in interface 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session' while parsing introspection
Invalid D-BUS member name 'remote-host-name' found in interface 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session' while parsing introspection
Invalid D-BUS member name 'session-type' found in interface 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session' while parsing introspection
Invalid D-BUS member name 'unix-user' found in interface 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session' while parsing introspection

This is an issue where ConsoleKit is using names that KDE's developers intrepreted as being illegal under the D-Bus specification. From what I have read, the D-Bus specification is unclear as to what constitutes valid property names, but the easiest fix seems to be to have ConsoleKit use FirstLetterCaps-style property names, which is what Debian is doing. I have filed a bug report with Gentoo's bug tracker:

http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=320875

It might be a good idea if I filed one in KDE's bug tracker as well, although I am not sure if it is something that KDE's developers should fix.

In addition to the above issue, I also found the following issues in ~/.xsession-errors:

kded(1875)/kdecore (KLibrary) kde4Factory: The library "/usr/lib/kde4/solid_hal_power.so" does not offer a qt_plugin_instance function.

knetworkmanager(1898)/kdecore (KLibrary) kde4Factory: The library "/usr/lib/kde4/solid_networkmanager07.so" does not offer a qt_plugin_instance function.

plasma-desktop(1916)/kdecore (KLibrary) kde4Factory: The library "/usr/lib/kde4/solid_hal_power.so" does not offer a qt_plugin_instance function.

kded(1875)/kdecore (KLibrary) kde4Factory: The library "/usr/lib/kde4/solid_networkmanager07.so" does not offer a qt_plugin_instance function.

I have filed a bug report with Gentoo's bug tracker:

http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=320877

Does anyone know whether or not any of the above issues I identified could be related to my issues with Compositing? Also, does anyone have any idea what ""XRANDR error base: 177" means?

Unfortunately I don't know why this could be occurring, however watching system load on a remote system while logging in may reveal the cause.

bcooksley wrote:Unfortunately I don't know why this could be occurring, however watching system load on a remote system while logging in may reveal the cause.

Thankyou for trying. You were right about the configuration of my graphics drivers. I did a google search for "195.36.24 kde compositing" and found the following:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=756736

I appended the following options to my xorg.conf file and that seems to have fixed things:

Code: Select all

        Option      "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
        Option      "RenderAccel" "true"
        Option      "AGPFastWrite" "true"
        Option      "EnablePageFlip" "true"
        Option      "TwinView" "0"

I just ran into this issue again. I assume that I failed to resolve it.I just tried commenting out unnecessary stuff from xorg.conf and now it seems to be gone again. I am not sure if it is gone for good or just for now. :/

It just happened again. ~/.xsesson-errors contains the following:

Code: Select all

$ cat ~/.xsession-errors | grep 2130
kwin(2130) KWin::Extensions::init: Extensions: shape: 0x "11"  composite: 0x "4"  render: 0x "a"  fixes: 0x "40"
kwin(2130) KWin::CompositingPrefs::detect: glx version is  1 . 4
kwin(2130) KWin::CompositingPrefs::detectDriverAndVersion: GL vendor is "NVIDIA Corporation"
kwin(2130) KWin::CompositingPrefs::detectDriverAndVersion: GL renderer is "GeForce Go 7900 GS/PCI/SSE2"
kwin(2130) KWin::CompositingPrefs::detectDriverAndVersion: GL version is "2.1.2 NVIDIA 256.29"
kwin(2130) KWin::CompositingPrefs::detectDriverAndVersion: XGL: no
kwin(2130) KWin::CompositingPrefs::detectDriverAndVersion: Detected driver "nvidia" , version "256.29"
kwin(2130) KWin::CompositingPrefs::applyDriverSpecificOptions: nvidia >= 173.14.12, enabling compositing
kwin(2130) KDecorationPlugins::loadPlugin: kwin : path  "/usr/lib/kde4/kwin3_oxygen.so"  for  "kwin3_oxygen"
kwin(2130) KWin::Extensions::init: Extensions: shape: 0x "11"  composite: 0x "4"  render: 0x "a"  fixes: 0x "40"
kwin(2130) KWin::Extensions::init: Extensions: shape: 0x "11"  composite: 0x "4"  render: 0x "a"  fixes: 0x "40"
kwin(2130) KWin::Workspace::setupCompositing: OpenGL compositing
kwin(2130) KWin::SceneOpenGL::initBufferConfigs: Drawable visual (depth  24 ): 0x "59"
kwin(2130) KWin::SceneOpenGL::initBufferConfigs: Drawable visual (depth  32 ): 0x "80"
kwin(2130) KWin::SceneOpenGL::initBuffer: Buffer visual (depth  24 ): 0x "57"
kwin(2130) KWin::SceneOpenGL::SceneOpenGL: DB: true , TFP: true , SHM: false , Direct: true
kwin(2130) KWin::Workspace::setupCompositing: Refresh rate  50 Hz
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_flipswitch"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_logout"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_desktopgrid"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_translucency"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_taskbarthumbnail"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_slidingpopups"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_presentwindows"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_login"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_shadow"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_slide"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_fade"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_minimizeanimation"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_boxswitch"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_dialogparent"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::loadEffect: Trying to load  "kwin4_effect_coverswitch"
kwin(2130) KWin::Workspace::updateClientArea: screens:  1 desktops:  4
kwin(2130) KWin::Workspace::updateClientArea: Done.
kwin(2130): Compositing self-check failed, disabling compositing.
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::unloadEffect: EffectsHandler::unloadEffect : Unloading Effect :  "kwin4_effect_login"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::unloadEffect: EffectsHandler::unloadEffect : Unloading Effect :  "kwin4_effect_coverswitch"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::unloadEffect: EffectsHandler::unloadEffect : Unloading Effect :  "kwin4_effect_boxswitch"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::unloadEffect: EffectsHandler::unloadEffect : Unloading Effect :  "kwin4_effect_minimizeanimation"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::unloadEffect: EffectsHandler::unloadEffect : Unloading Effect :  "kwin4_effect_slide"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::unloadEffect: EffectsHandler::unloadEffect : Unloading Effect :  "kwin4_effect_slidingpopups"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::unloadEffect: EffectsHandler::unloadEffect : Unloading Effect :  "kwin4_effect_translucency"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::unloadEffect: EffectsHandler::unloadEffect : Unloading Effect :  "kwin4_effect_desktopgrid"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::unloadEffect: EffectsHandler::unloadEffect : Unloading Effect :  "kwin4_effect_flipswitch"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::unloadEffect: EffectsHandler::unloadEffect : Unloading Effect :  "kwin4_effect_fade"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::unloadEffect: EffectsHandler::unloadEffect : Unloading Effect :  "kwin4_effect_dialogparent"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::unloadEffect: EffectsHandler::unloadEffect : Unloading Effect :  "kwin4_effect_presentwindows"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::unloadEffect: EffectsHandler::unloadEffect : Unloading Effect :  "kwin4_effect_taskbarthumbnail"
kwin(2130) KWin::EffectsHandlerImpl::unloadEffect: EffectsHandler::unloadEffect : Unloading Effect :  "kwin4_effect_logout"

Edit: I just downgraded to x11-base/xorg-server-1.7.7. So far, everything appears to work. I do not recall this issue occurring before the x11-base/xorg-server-1.8.0 upgrade, so hopefully this will resolve my issues. Unfortunately, because this issue occurs randomly, I have no way of verifying that it is gone.

I had this issue again earlier today. I have downgraded the nvidia drivers to x11-base/nvidia-drivers-190.53-r1. If this fixes it, I am going to conclude that the issue is with the drivers. If not, the next logical places to look will be either KDE or the kernel. I hope that this will fix things. If this does not fix things, then it would seem that I have an extremely rare issue that is only affecting me as I cannot find any reports online of other people suffering from anything like it. :/

Edit: It seems that I was wrong. Other people seem to be having similar problems, except it is with even older versions of the nvidia drivers and xorg server:

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-79 ... art-0.html

Many of them are reporting that the latest available drivers fixed their issues. Unfortunately, assuming this is the same kind of problem, the latest drivers seem to be introducing issues for me.

I just had this issue again. At this point, I feel like I am playing whack a mole. Anyway, I just reverted my xorg-server and nvidia drivers back to the latest versions. I also downgraded my kernel from 2.6.34 to 2.6.33.5. I am not sure if this issue started before or after the 2.6.34 upgrade, but I do not need any of the stuff that the 2.6.34 kernel brought (I only wanted to try out compcache), so hopefully this will finally fix things.

Shining Arcanine wrote:I just had this issue again. At this point, I feel like I am playing whack a mole. Anyway, I just reverted my xorg-server and nvidia drivers back to the latest versions. I also downgraded my kernel from 2.6.34 to 2.6.33.5. I am not sure if this issue started before or after the 2.6.34 upgrade, but I do not need any of the stuff that the 2.6.34 kernel brought (I only wanted to try out compcache), so hopefully this will finally fix things.

I seem to have become overly zealous, because I had a brief lag with the older xorg-server and nvidia-drivers and mistook that for the issue I am having. Since going back to the older kernel, I have encountered this issue again several times, and it is much more severe than the brief lag I encountered with the old nvidia drivers, so I am going back to those. I think this "fixes" the issue.

First, would a moderator please split Aardwolf's discussion into its own independent thread? Allowing his discussion to hijack one that documents a significant issue is probably not a good idea.

Secondly, I believe that the cause of this issue has been identified:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=152065

The revelation that later versions of drivers from Nvidia were improperly patched is consistent with my observation that this never occurs in properly patched 190.53 drivers and since this issue had to do with ACPI, it should manifest itself randomly, which is also consistent with my observations. Those two things together suggest that the issue I encountered was in fact the application of a bad patch by Nvidia's developers. The fact that almost no one else encountered this is likely because very few distributions are using kernel 2.6.33+ to be affected by this issue at this time, as the issue only exists because 2.6.33 broke compatibility and a patch to restore compatibility was improperly written.

I could validate my theory by using unpatched 190.53 drivers, but after having been through hell since the xorg-server 1.8.0 upgrade forced me to upgrade from the properly patched 190.53 nvidia drivers, I would rather not test a theory that I am 99% certain is correct.

Topic split as requested. Good to know that the cause of this has likely been identified as well.

After reading this thread I successfully solved slow compositing problem in my side.