Bug 250090

Summary: gnome terminal slow
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Jonathan Baron <jonathanbaron7>
Component: gnome-terminalAssignee: Behdad Esfahbod <behdad>
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: 7   
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
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Last Closed: 2007-10-15 07:37:30 UTC Type: ---
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Description Jonathan Baron 2007-07-30 13:59:09 UTC
Description of problem:
slow at first displaying text, e.g., when switching to its window

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
gnome-terminal-2.18.1-1.fc7

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. use gnome terminal
2. it may be necessary to use large fonts and a large window.  I use DejaVu Sans
Mono 20.
3.
  
Actual results: screen is blank for some large fraction of a second before
starting to display


Expected results: as fast as it was on Fedora Core 6 (and still is on another
computer I haven't yet upgraded).


Additional info:  The problem is fixed by removing anti-aliasing, e.g., with the
following .fonts.conf file.  I'm not sure that both changes are needed.  I think
the rgba one is the crucial one, but I didn't test it.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<match target="font">
  <test name="family" compare="eq">
    <string>DejaVu Sans Mono</string>
  </test>
  <edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
    <bool>false</bool>
  </edit>
  <test name="family" compare="eq">
    <string>DejaVu Sans Mono</string>
  </test>
  <edit name="rgba" mode="assign">
    <bool>none</bool>
  </edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>

Note, again, this is a new problem.  Gnome-terminal worked fine in the version
on FC6.

Comment 1 Jonathan Baron 2007-07-31 10:16:13 UTC
I no longer think that the problem is with antialiasing.  I think that was a
coincidence.  I am now using antialiased fonts and see no difference.  Also, I
notice that the problem occurs mostly (only?) when I switch to a terminal window
that contains lines that run off the screen, such as the subject lines of mutt
email messages.  This is also true in the development version of gnome-terminal
(2.18.1-1.fc8), which I am now using.

It is also clear that the problem of slow displays is limited to gnome terminal.
 All other applications that I use (firefox, xemacs, etc.) work fine so far. 
(xterm works fine too, but I am resisting switching to it because of my habit of
using Gnome's cut/paste system.)


Comment 2 Jonathan Baron 2007-08-03 10:24:43 UTC
This bug is probably not in gnome-terminal after all.  I installed the current
version of gnome-terminal for FC6, which works fine on other computers (which
will now keep FC6 as long as possible!), and I still have the same problem.  I
don't know where the problem is, possibly in the X server (which has other
problems like not suspending).


Comment 3 Jonathan Baron 2007-08-04 19:51:52 UTC
Further tests reveal that the problem is due to large fonts (required if yor are
over 30 years old).  If I use the system fixed font set to 10, everything is
fine.  If I enlarge it to 20, the problem returns, as does this setting with any
other font.

I'm getting used to xterm, which works fine.  I'm not too old to learn yet
another system for cutting and pasting, even though I'm too old to see these
tiny fonts.  The problem is specific to gnome terminal, but, as I said,
installing the FC6 version of gnome terminal doesn't help.


Comment 4 Jonathan Baron 2007-10-15 07:37:30 UTC
Nobody has commented on this bug, so probably nobody has replicated it.  Indeed,
I have now installed Fedora 7 on another system and not noticed a problem.  This
made me suspect that something was wrong with my video setup.  I made a few
changes in xorg.conf, and now everything seems to work OK.  So maybe someone
should close this bug.  I will try.  FWIW, the changes were:

load "dbe", in Module section
Option AIGLX "on", in ServerFlags
XAANoOffscreenPixmaps "true" in Device
Option "Composite" "Enable" in Extensions

I'm using the fglrx driver.  I think the XAANoOffscriptPixmaps may have been the
important one, but I didn't test them one by one.