Strange performance with 2.6.17.7 + 8774

[XenoNGC]

Hi there!

I have a strange problem:
I had linux kernel 2.6.8-rc2-mm1 with nvidia driver 5336 and everything (2D + 3D) ran smooth!

A week ago I upgraded to 2.6.17.7 and nvdriver 8774, but now UT2004 is very jerky, especially with small maps (I think it depends on the number of textures shown). It's a mess to play with this kind of slowness.
I had this problem before when I tried any other kernel/driver combination than 2.6.8-rc2-mm1 + 5336.

My System:
- X7.0
- GeForce FX 5600 (Asus 9560VS)
- P4 2.4GHz
- 1GB RAM
- chipset: SiS645DX


Any hints?

[Gumboot]

I get stalls of about two seconds at a time on the 2.6.17 series (...9 and ...11). When they happen I get a Xorg log entry along the lines of:
(WW) NVIDIA(0): WAIT (0, 6, 0x8000, 0x00000ee8, 0x00000ee8, 0)

Unlike you, my system is essentially unusable because of it. I don't get as far as running up any games or anything.


I haven't bothered making a proper post of it because I haven't got around to running the bug reporting tool. I forgot it existed the first time, and now I can't be bothered rebooting.

I should mention, my problem is kernel version related, not driver version related. I had tried 2.6.17.9 with the old driver release, and it didn't work and so I went back to my 2.6.16 kernel, and then when the new drivers were released I had another go with the newer kernel and it still didn't work. I made one last effort with 2.6.17.11, and that failed and I got bored of it.

Right now I'm running 8774 on 2.6.16.9 and things are working alright. You could try that kernel, or the latest 2.6.16 kernel maybe.

[netllama]

XenoNGC,
I'd need to see an nvidia-bug-report.log while the problem is present, however considering the significant gap between the kernel & driver versions you're using, the problem could be caused by just about anything. It would be useful to test out different kernel & driver versions to isolate where the problem first occurs.

Thanks,
Lonni

[XenoNGC]

I tested some, but now I can only test new kernels with nptl support because of my libc.

All of the tested ones were not smooth, but I have the feeling that the last driver->kernel interaction change made it a bit smoother

Attached is my bug report from the script. There my AGP is disabled because I use one X Server without AGP (else my machine freezes after some time, looks like a chipset problem?!).
And If I want to play, I start another X Server with AGP enabled.

I also have no nvidia-installer.log because I install it via the gentoo portage system. But if it is needed, I can upload the current one!


Maybe you could give me a hint which versions I should try first that should work smooth?

Regards,
Martin

[netllama]

I have a few questions:
0) Is UT2004 the only thing that exhibits the performance problems?
1) If you run a single X server, does the performance problem persist?
2) I'd like to see what "ps -ef" output looks like while the problem is present
3) Does this reproduce if vmware isn't running?

Thanks,
Lonni

[XenoNGC]

0.: Yes, the only thing I could test. I tried glxgears and neverball, but they don't need much GPU, so they both run smooth.
1.: No, I tried only with my AGP X Server and it runs much better. Not perfect, but good to play with.
2.: Attached! 4 outputs with a 10sec delay while playing ut2k4.
3.: Oh, normally I don't load the vmware drivers, so it doesn't matter as it persists while they are unloaded.

[netllama]

If this doesn't reproduce with a single, AGP-enabled X server, then it sounds like you might be overloading your hardware. Running two simultaneous X servers is not a common use case, and doing it while stressing the hardware is likely to result in degraded interactivity.

You could also try testing with Viewperf from www.spec.org.

Thanks,
Lonni

[XenoNGC]

But it worked perfectly with 5336 + 2.6.8-rc2-mm1 ...
I thought only the running (actual showing) X Server gets the driver and the other one only updates his bitmaps in local storage?!

The problem is, it's my work PC, and I have many shells on my default X Server and can't close it.
So I have to start another one to keep my work in the default X Server and play with the other one.

Also I can't use my default X Server for playing, since it crashes with AGP after some time and without it's useless to play with.

BTW: Viewperf is temporarily unavailable for Unix

[XenoNGC]

Maybe there is a driver bug that doesn't release the card correctly on a terminal switch?!