Xorg-server-1.2.0-2 high load, slows down everything

Question

I've just updated xorg-server.
After xorg started, the system is very slow... as if everything works in slowmotion. The load of X (as seen in top) is very high and slows down everything.
I've had this problem with all the beta and RC versions of xorg-server-1.2.0 that I've compiled myself. The version I'm using now from the repositories (1.2.0-2) has the same problem.
This problem happens with kernel 2.6.19-ck and 2.6.20-ck, I haven't tried other kernel versions.
Turning off EXA (that means using XAA) and/or turning off composite in xorg.conf makes X quicker (the load is also lower), but still slower than normal (with EXA, composite and xorg-server-1.1.1).
My problem is probably the same as described in http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=29661
My system:
AMD Sempron;
Ati Radeon 9500 using the open-source driver;
glibc-2.5 compiled myself;
kernel-2.6.20-ck1 compiled myself;
kde*-3.5.6 compiled myself;
xorg-server-1.2.0-2 and all the libx*, xf86*, libdrm, libgl-dri and mesa are the newest versions from the repositories.
Last edited by eric (2007-02-27 15:42:55)

Answer 1

Alright, downgrading wasn't the solution I was looking for, so I took the path to darkness and installed the most recent proprietary ATI drivers (8.34.8). Because the laptop has some ACPI issues I have to apply two patches which in turn require a custom kernel. Needless to say the Arch fglrx driver packages don't work with this kernel. So, here's what i did:
1) fetched the proprietary drivers from ati.com
2) run them, looked in awe at the error message
3) went here: http://cvs.archlinux.org/cgi-bin/viewcv … root=Extra and fetched the fglrx-kernel-2.6.20 patch.
4)
cd /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x
make clean
rm -r .tmp_versions
cd ..
patch < /path/to/fglrx-kernel-2.6.20
./make.sh
cd ..
./make_install.sh
modinfo fglrx
modprobe fglrx
lsmod | grep fglrx
5) Use aticonfig --initial to adapt /etc/X11/xorg.conf
6) Restart X
I hope suspend is still working...