Display performance regression in Xubuntu 13.10 and 14.04 as VirtualBox guest

[bluesabre]

I have been using Xubuntu 13.04 with good performance.

Recently I have tested Xubuntu 13.10 and Xubuntu 14.04 LTS beta. I see noticeable performance regressions on these with display updates. Merely typing in the terminal has noticeable screen lag.

I have tested Lubuntu 14.04 beta and the display performance is markedly better than that in Xubuntu. The procedure I used to migrate was:

    sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop     sudo apt-get purge xubuntu     sudo apt-get purge xfce

and a reboot.

This is not a performance bug in xubuntu-terminal. Display responsiveness with LXTerminal and other terminals and text editors is consistently slow under xubuntu-desktop on 14.04 (and 13.10) whereas the display is responsive under lubuntu-desktop. There is also no problem with display performance when typing in the console (Ctrl-Alt-F1) on Xubuntu 14.04.

I am using the x86_64 versions of Xubuntu 13.10 and 14.04 running as a guest under VirtualBox 4.3.10 on a Mac OS X 10.9.2 host. The VirtualBox guest additions are installed correctly. The effect of the 3d acceleration option in VirtualBox makes no difference, nor does the VirtualBox version (tested back to 4.2.22).

Launchpad Details: #LP1299286 Ed Schofield - 2014-03-28 23:08:16 +0000

[bluesabre]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug. Can you please turn off XFCE's built-in compositor (Settings Manager > Window Manager Tweaks > Compositor) and test if this change improves the overall performance?

Launchpad Details: #LPC Thaddaeus Tintenfisch - 2014-03-29 10:18:42 +0000

[bluesabre]

Thanks very much for your response, Thaddäus! I can confirm that turning off the display compositor drastically improves Xubuntu's display performance so it’s on a par with Lubuntu.

I would like to propose that the documentation for Xubuntu include this simple suggestion in big, bold letters on its own page (so search engines can index it well):

“If you are using Xubuntu as a virtualized guest under VirtualBox and you see slow display performance, turn off the compositor by going to Settings Manager > Windows Manager Tweaks > Compositor."

I suspected that some simple solution such as this would exist but I didn’t know what to search for, and I wouldn’t have known how to find . Googling “Xubuntu slow display” and “Xubuntu improve display performance” didn’t turn up anything useful.

Thanks again, Ed

On 29 Mar 2014, at 9:18 pm, Thaddäus Tintenfisch

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug. Can you please turn off XFCE's built-in compositor (Settings Manager > Window Manager Tweaks

Compositor) and test if this change improves the overall performance?

-- You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug report. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1299286

Title: Display performance regression in Xubuntu 13.10 and 14.04 as VirtualBox guest

Status in “xubuntu-meta” package in Ubuntu: New

Bug description: I have been using Xubuntu 13.04 with good performance.

Recently I have tested Xubuntu 13.10 and Xubuntu 14.04 LTS beta. I see noticeable performance regressions on these with display updates. Merely typing in the terminal has noticeable screen lag.

I have tested Lubuntu 14.04 beta and the display performance is markedly better than that in Xubuntu. The procedure I used to migrate was:

 sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop
 sudo apt-get purge xubuntu*
 sudo apt-get purge xfce*

and a reboot.

This is not a performance bug in xubuntu-terminal. Display responsiveness with LXTerminal and other terminals and text editors is consistently slow under xubuntu-desktop on 14.04 (and 13.10) whereas the display is responsive under lubuntu-desktop. There is also no problem with display performance when typing in the console (Ctrl- Alt-F1) on Xubuntu 14.04.

I am using the x86_64 versions of Xubuntu 13.10 and 14.04 running as a guest under VirtualBox 4.3.10 on a Mac OS X 10.9.2 host. The VirtualBox guest additions are installed correctly. The effect of the 3d acceleration option in VirtualBox makes no difference, nor does the VirtualBox version (tested back to 4.2.22).

To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xubuntu-meta/+bug/1299286/+subscriptions

-- Dr. Edward Schofield Python Charmers +61 (0)405 676 229 http://pythoncharmers.com

Launchpad Details: #LPC Ed Schofield - 2014-03-31 10:06:03 +0000

[bluesabre]

A realistic target for the documentation fix is 14.04.1.

Launchpad Details: #LPC Pasi Lallinaho - 2014-03-31 16:19:45 +0000

[bluesabre]

Moving this to xubuntu-website as the website is our preferred way to inform people about potential performance issues. Practically, we should write a general FAQ article about Xubuntu in virtualized environments.

Launchpad Details: #LPC Pasi Lallinaho - 2015-09-21 09:20:20 +0000

[bluesabre]

Ed, could you confirm if the performance regression is still happening with later Xubuntu versions or if it seems to have gone away?

Launchpad Details: #LPC Pasi Lallinaho - 2015-10-09 10:13:37 +0000

[bluesabre]

Closing due to lack of follow-up.