Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 487017
kernel-2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686 causes graphical performance issues and glitches using the radeon driver
Last modified: 2009-12-18 03:01:26 EST
Description of problem: Booting into the latest kernel causes abysmal graphical performance using the radeon driver when compared to kernel-2.6.27.12-170.2.5.fc10.i686. It also exhibits at least one visual glitch: the icons in the systray in kde don't render, but you can interact with them. You can see black spaces where your pidgin, battery monitor, NetworkManager icons should be, you can interact with them normally once you figure out which one is which. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): kernel-2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686 How reproducible: Every time. Steps to Reproduce: 1. boot into kernel-2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686 2. notice high X cpu utilization, very very sluggish performance 3. notice no visible icons in the system tray Actual results: terrible performance Expected results: performance comparable to kernel-2.6.27.12-170.2.5.fc10.i686 Additional info: My kernel is not tainted, I am not using any binary drivers. I do not understand how switching back and forth between kernels could affect performance. I am using identical kernel options to boot between the kernels, my xorg.conf is not changing. The output from Xorg is different, specifically when booting into the most recent kernel it loads vgahw and int10 modules. I will try to attach dmesg and Xorg.0.log from the old kernel and the latest.
Created attachment 332953 [details] dmesg from 2.6.27.12-170.2.5.fc10.i686 (normal performance)
Created attachment 332954 [details] dmesg from 2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686 (poor performance)
Created attachment 332955 [details] xorg log from 2.6.27.12-170.2.5.fc10.i686 (normal performance)
Created attachment 332956 [details] xorg log from 2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10 (poor performance)
Also, rhgb on the new kernel (2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10) does not work (that is, I get the text bar crawling across the screen, not the actual graphical boot) whereas it works on 2.6.27.12-170.2.5.fc10.i686. I have a feeling this isn't a kernel bug but instead has to do with the initrd which subsequently influences what Xorg can do. Still, I have no idea what I would need to do differently to make the initrd "right". I tried regenerating the initrd using mkinitrd for the 2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10 kernel and there was no difference in performance or modules loaded.
Can you test with fedora 12 livecd and report if it works with it.
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Fedora 10 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2009-12-17. Fedora 10 is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug. If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.