Ubuntu – CPU spikes and performance problems changing window focus in Unity/Ubuntu 16.04.2

16.04compiznvidiaunityxorg

I'm experiencing weird performance issues changing window focus with Unity. It happens no matter the combination of applications I have open, though gets worse the more there are (whether they're terminal windows or Chromium windows).

For example, if I'm editing a text file with gedit and then click on Chromium, it will take an actual full second to change focus (and vice versa, so I can't start typing right away). Running 'top' in term while switching windows shows Xorg using ~50% CPU and compiz will using ~10%.

I'm running an i5-4670 with a GTX 1070. I'm using the 378.13 Nvidia drivers, and the Intel processor microcode firmware. Ubuntu 16.04.2.

Has anyone experienced this and found a solution? Thanks!

UPDATE: As indicated below, I've tried disabling intel_pstate and changing to the performance governor. I've also experimented with a single monitor configuration, as well as Unity's Low Graphics Mode. No dice on any of these unfortunately.

Best Answer

I'm also seeing this on 16.04 with i5-4460 and a GTX 960 on a 32bit system (don't ask!) I don't see it with nouveau drivers but I do with the NVidia proprietary ones (all I've tested up to 381.13.)

Although not a proper solution, restarting unity by using unity --replace seems to work around the issue for that session. (You might need to try it again if it doesn't work first time.)

This could be related to bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/1300892. If you think that bug affects you then please do click "This bug affects me" at the top so that the maintainers get a good reflection of how many people this bug impacts as this is currently triaged as a low priority bug.

EDIT: It seems that adding the command /usr/bin/unity --replace command to "Startup Applications" does work okay as a kludgy but less temporary workaround. :)

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Ubuntu – Ubuntu 14.04 mouse and window focus issues

So I kept looking around and the problem seems to have been the type of mouse I have. I found a thread on the Ubuntu forums by a user with a similar mouse having a problem that sounded like mine. In the thread it was suggested to (create and) edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf files with the following:

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "Mouse Remap"
    MatchProduct "Saitek Cyborg R.A.T.5 Mouse"
    MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
    Option "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2 9 10 11 12 0 0 0"
EndSection

And then I restarted my computer.

I have RAT5 gaming mouse and the use from the thread has the RAT7 gaming mouse. It has been a day since I implemented the fix and there have been no problems. Didn't bother looking into why it was buggy but I know the above configuration fixed it.

Thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2152976

Ubuntu – Ubuntu 16.04 Desktop performance – setting CPU frequency governor to performance

You had 3 questions:

Should I be changing the governors like this?

Sure, if that is what you want to do. The cost is higher energy consumption. Note that even using the performance governor the CPU itself can backoff the pstate (performance state) under very low load.

Some further research said that you shouldn't force performance with the intel_pstate driver. Is this true?

One shouldn't notice a great lot of difference between the powersave and performance CPU frequency governors using the intel_pstate CPU frequency driver. However, and apparently, you seems to have some sort of unique work flow that accentuates the difference. To answer your question: You can do whatever you want and whatever makes sense for your application.

If it's ok, how do I permanently set the governor to performance? I tried making a systemd service that set it at boot, but I'm not sure if it's working. It sets the governor to performance at boot, then changes it to powersave after a few minutes. This is when using the intel_pstate driver.

Ubuntu uses a script, /etc/init.d/ondemand, to change the governor to ondemand (or powersave if there is no ondemand) after 1 minute. So you'll have to delete, or modify it, or add some other boot script that sleeps for more than 1 minute before changing the governor back.

The default, defined by the Ubuntu kernel configuration file, is the performance governor during boot.

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