[SOLVED?] OpenGL apps start very slowly..

Question

Edit: After running a system update today and rebooting for a different reason everything seems to work again, guess it was a bad package? Strangely, I'm pretty sure the packages that updated were not related to the problem (Just mpd, ncmpc, wine, and orc). Oh well.
I have an odd problem with OpenGL applications opening very slowly on my laptop. All other applications seem to work fine. My first thought was maybe direct rendering wasn't on, but it is. Oddly even to check that takes a while to run as seen below:
[jamie@JPC ~]$ time glxinfo | grep direct
direct rendering: Yes
GL_EXT_Cg_shader, GL_EXT_depth_bounds_test, GL_EXT_direct_state_access,
real 1m23.231s
user 1m23.068s
sys 0m0.103s
Strangely once the program actually opens it seems to run fine as evidenced by glxgears:
[jamie@JPC ~]$ glxgears
16753 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3350.586 FPS
17516 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3503.158 FPS
17828 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3565.519 FPS
17751 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3550.056 FPS
I had this problem a few weeks ago as well, but I somehow resolved it with just some tinkering with some conf files. Unfortunately, I can't seem to fix the issue again.
I noticed this in the FAQ, but it doesn't seem to be my issue (Mainly pointing it out to avoid it as a suggestion). http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/FAQ … _at_all.21
[root@JPC jamie]# cat /etc/rc.conf | grep HOSTNAME=
HOSTNAME="JPC"
[root@JPC jamie]# cat /etc/hosts | grep 127.0.0.1
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost JPC
My kernel is 2.6.34-ARCH, straight from pacman. My video card, if it helps (Nvidia packages I'm using: nvidia 256.35-1 and nvidia-utils 256.35-4):
[root@JPC jamie]# lspci -v -s 02:00.0
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C77 [GeForce 8200M G] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 360a
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
Memory at c1000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at c4000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
I/O ports at 4000 [size=128]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at c6000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nvidia, nouveau, nvidiafb
My xorg.conf file is generated from nvidia-xconfig with only a few modifications:
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 256.35 (buildmeister@builder101) Wed Jun 16 19:25:59 PDT 2010
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection
Section "Files"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
# AC settings:
Option "RegistryDwords" "PowerMizerLevelAC=0x3"
# Battery settings:
Option "RegistryDwords" "PowerMizerLevel=0x3"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
And lastly my /var/log/Xorg.0.log file warnings although they seem irrelevant (There were no errors):
[jamie@JPC ~]$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep "(WW)"
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[ 114.159] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/OTF/" does not exist.
[ 114.159] (WW) AllowEmptyInput is on, devices using drivers 'kbd', 'mouse' or 'vmmouse' will be disabled.
[ 114.159] (WW) Disabling Keyboard0
[ 114.159] (WW) Disabling Mouse0
[ 114.168] (WW) Open ACPI failed (/var/run/acpid.socket) (No such file or directory)
On a final note, sorry if any of the stuff I posted is irrelevant, I'm just pretty confused as what the problem could be. If any other info is needed, please let me know. Also, thanks in advance for any help.
Last edited by GeekyLink (2010-07-17 18:56:31)

Answer 1

Repairing permissions isn't going to help. If you were having any disk based problem you would want to repair the hard drive, not permissions.
Try a couple of things:
1. Boot into Safe Mode by restarting the computer and after the chime press and hold down the SHIFT key until the startup screen appears (gray screen with dark gray Apple logo and spinning gear) then release SHIFT key. You will get a login window that should say Safe Mode. Run Pages without any other software except Activity Monitor and see what happens.
2. Create a new user account and log out of your normal account and log into the new user account. Do the same as above and see what happens.
This will help determine if you may have a problem with some third-party item that isn't loaded when in safe mode or if you have a preference file, logfile, or cachefile problem when in the new user account.