compiz - Dec 2006 - slow tint when tinting the whole screen

Hi,

   I'm running ubuntu edgy with compiz, switched from gentoo to ubuntu
for faster updates (emerge is way slow with source builds..). So far, I
like it.

   but that is not the issue I'm addressing now. I've noted that with
both these machines, when I'm doing something that tints the whole
screen to gray (like trying to logout, or using some software that
prompts for sudo rights), it's really slow. Jagged. It seems that it's
not vertically synced or something. 

   Other tints, like when some program has gone haywire and stopped
responding to the system, works well (gradually and smoothly turning to
gray). Even when maximized.

   I'm running a 1600x1200 screen with Nvidia 6600. I'd guess that this
hardware should be able to do this smoothly. Is this at all in the
compiz code, or is this done in some other place? (like gnome in my
case)

Thanks for any insight on the matter!

--
Kalle.

Hi,

I have the same problem and I'd also like to know what's causing this.
I submited a patch to the libgksu mailing list to disable the fade effect in
gconf
a while ago, but it doesn't look like if it's going upstream.

You can grab it here if you're interested.
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gksu-devel/2006-11/msg00001.html

There is also a new composite branch of gksu, which uses cairo. This should also
solve the problem, but I haven't tried it yet.
The logout app uses the same code as gksu, so same problem here.

Gerd.

Kalle K?rkk?inen schrieb:
> Hi,
> 
>    I'm running ubuntu edgy with compiz, switched from gentoo to ubuntu
> for faster updates (emerge is way slow with source builds..). So far, I
> like it.
> 
>    but that is not the issue I'm addressing now. I've noted that
with
> both these machines, when I'm doing something that tints the whole
> screen to gray (like trying to logout, or using some software that
> prompts for sudo rights), it's really slow. Jagged. It seems that
it's
> not vertically synced or something. 
> 
>    Other tints, like when some program has gone haywire and stopped
> responding to the system, works well (gradually and smoothly turning to
> gray). Even when maximized.
> 
>    I'm running a 1600x1200 screen with Nvidia 6600. I'd guess that
this
> hardware should be able to do this smoothly. Is this at all in the
> compiz code, or is this done in some other place? (like gnome in my
> case)
> 
> Thanks for any insight on the matter!
> 
> --
> Kalle.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> compiz mailing list
> compiz@lists.freedesktop.org
> http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/compiz
>

On Mon, 2006-12-04 at 12:10 +0200, Kalle K?rkk?inen
wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>    I'm running ubuntu edgy with compiz, switched from gentoo to ubuntu
> for faster updates (emerge is way slow with source builds..). So far, I
> like it.
> 
>    but that is not the issue I'm addressing now. I've noted that
with
> both these machines, when I'm doing something that tints the whole
> screen to gray (like trying to logout, or using some software that
> prompts for sudo rights), it's really slow. Jagged. It seems that
it's
> not vertically synced or something. 
> 
>    Other tints, like when some program has gone haywire and stopped
> responding to the system, works well (gradually and smoothly turning to
> gray). Even when maximized.
> 
>    I'm running a 1600x1200 screen with Nvidia 6600. I'd guess that
this
> hardware should be able to do this smoothly. Is this at all in the
> compiz code, or is this done in some other place? (like gnome in my
> case)
Those effects are done in software. A compositing manager might make
them a bit slower. There are much more efficient ways to do those kind
of effects when a compositing manager is running and there's actually
support for this in compiz already. _NET_WM_STATE_DISPLAY_MODAL state is
set on a mapped window all other windows will be desaturated. If the
fade plugin is loaded, you'll get a nice fade to gray effect.

I once wrote a patch for gnome-session to support this and I know that
we shipped it in SLED. It's still sort of a hack so I never submitted it
upstream. Something like _NET_WM_STATE_DISPLAY_MODAL should be added to
the EWMH spec and applications like gnome-session should be modified to
use it when available.

-David