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[This question has been marked as a duplicate (relating to graphics drivers) but it is not. I have traced the problem to VMware Workstation 12 running on the system. The problem is triggered by suspending and resuming VMware Workstation.]

Since upgrading to Kubuntu 15.10 (from 14.04 LTS), some programs that display JPEG and PNG files are taking a very long time to run. For example, a 1.5 MB JPEG, which used to display instantly, now takes over 10 seconds to appear on screen. A 2 MB file takes over 20 seconds.

This is on a very fast computer (12 cores, SSD, 32 GB RAM).

Affected programs include:

  • display (from Imagemagick 6.8.9-9)
  • eog (GNOME Image Viewer 3.16.3)
  • geeqie (version 1.2)

Unaffected programs include:

  • The Gimp
  • xv
  • Chrome (if I type "chrome IMG_3123.JPG")

Example file:

$ ls -l IMG_3123.JPG
-rw-r--r-- 1 smith users 1562373 Sep 12 07:14 IMG_3123.JPG

When I run:

$ display IMG_3123.JPG

it takes 10 seconds to show the image. Under Kubuntu 14.04, it took less than 1 second.

Note: If I reboot, the problem goes away. Then it returns sometime later.

I am also seeing random slowness in other GUI applications like Chrome. It makes me wonder if this problem could be related to graphics drivers? Or some common library?

My graphics information is:

$ sudo lshw -class display
  *-display               
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GK107 [GeForce GT 640]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nouveau latency=0
       resources: irq:46 memory:fa000000-faffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d1ffffff ioport:e000(size=128) memory:fb000000-fb07ffff

So I am running the nouveau driver, but I am pretty sure I was running nouveau in Kubuntu 14.04 as well.

Update:

I tried installing the nvidia proprietary drivers and rebooting. I saw a new error on boot:

Kubuntu 15.10
. . . .
EDAC sbridge: ECC is disabled. Aborting.
EDAC sbridge: Couldn't find mci handler

When the reboot completed, I could not log in using the graphical login screen. I'd enter my password and immediately be returned to the login screen. Error in /var/log/syslog said:

Nov 23 15:35:04 myhost systemd[1]: Started Session c4 of user smith.
Nov 23 15:35:04 myhost console-kit-daemon[2945]: (process:10614): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed
Nov 23 15:35:04 myhost gdm[2819]: GdmDisplay: display lasted 0.044295 seconds
Nov 23 15:35:04 myhost console-kit-daemon[2945]: (process:10623): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed
Nov 23 15:35:04 myhost console-kit-daemon[2945]: GLib-CRITICAL: Source ID 121 was not found when attempting to remove it
Nov 23 15:35:08 myhost gnome-session[3177]: GLib-GObject-CRITICAL: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
Nov 23 15:35:09 myhost gnome-session[3177]: gnome-session[3177]: GLib-GObject-CRITICAL: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

So I uninstalled the nvidia drivers and rebooted, and the system went back to normal.

I tried installing other versions of the nvidia drivers but the same problem occured, so I still have no solution.

Update 2:

OK, this is weird. The problem happened again, with JPEGs taking 20 seconds to open. I closed VMware Workstation (12.0.1), which is running a couple of Windows VMs as guests, and the problem instantly stopped. It's not memory-related, because I had 28GB RAM free even before closing VMware.

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DanB
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  • Have you installed the correct graphics driver for Ubuntu 15.10? – Charles Green Nov 23 '15 at 19:01
  • That's a great question, but how do I check? I simply upgraded to 15.10 and followed all the prompts. – DanB Nov 23 '15 at 19:11
  • sudo lshw -class display will give you some information about what card and driver are installed - please execute that command, and copy the output into your question above. – Charles Green Nov 23 '15 at 19:15
  • K - you are using the nouveau driver, which means (i believe) that the CPU is carrying the load, and the GPU is doing nothing. I'll post a short answer in just a few moments... – Charles Green Nov 23 '15 at 19:25
  • Thanks! "Software & Updates" offers me 6 choices of NVIDIA drivers. I assume I should choose the topmost which says "NVIDIA proprietary driver -version 352.63 from nvidia (proprietary, tested)"? The others all say "(proprietary)" without "tested" and have equal or lower version numbers. – DanB Nov 23 '15 at 19:30
  • It's really hard to say - some have reported problems with one or another of the drivers which AFAIK is dependant upon the exact hardware in use. The last time I was using the NVidia drivers, they were pretty easy to change in and out until I found one that worked well for me. – Charles Green Nov 23 '15 at 19:33

2 Answers2

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You are using the Nouveau driver, and may have better results with one of the graphics drivers available in the 'Additional Drivers' section of the Ubuntu Software center.

I'm marked this question as a duplicate of "How do I install additional drivers" which should take you through the process well. I would caution you to also read through how to uninstall nvidia drivers first, and to make a note to yourself that when updating distributions (like from Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 15.10) it is a good idea to disable the proprietary graphic s drivers first!

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Charles Green
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  • I installed the latest nvidia drivers using "Software & Updates", rebooted, and how I can't get past the login screen. /var/log/syslog says: console-kit-daemon[2898]: (process:4008): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed – DanB Nov 23 '15 at 20:10
  • That's why I indicated you should look at the 'how to remove' link... – Charles Green Nov 23 '15 at 20:15
  • Removal worked fine, thanks. So no luck installing nvidia drivers. – DanB Nov 23 '15 at 21:02
  • Most likely, I was using the nouveau drivers in Kubuntu 14.04 as well. I remember updating libdrm-nouveau2 and libdrm2 through APT several times. – DanB Nov 23 '15 at 21:06
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The problem was triggered only when VMware Workstation was running a guest operating system. It is solved by disabling transparent hugepages in the kernel. I noticed this because three different processes all hit 100% CPU utilization (or higher) when the problem occurred:

  • The graphics program (e.g., geeqie or display)
  • vmware-vmx (VMware Workstation guest)
  • khugepaged

Read Dan Ritter's very nice description of khugepaged and transparent hugepages.

So, the problem was unrelated to graphics drivers. It occurred equally with the nvidia and nouveau drivers.

DanB
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