Xorg slow since recent system update

Since updating yesterday my Manjaro-plus-awesome installation has become extremely laggy, and htop shows Xorg consistently over 25%, but mostly 50-90%.

For 13 years I’ve been using ArchLinux and usually tried to solve all problems myself with minimum forum use, but currently I have 12-hour-days at work plus studying for exams plus a sick parent, so any help to keep my laptop usable in the short run would be extremely welcome.

Below a few info pastes. Thank you very much in advance.

System info:

> inxi -Fxxxazc0 --no-host                                                   
System:
  Kernel: 5.14.0-0-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.14-x86_64 
  root=UUID=0af7bfc3-6459-4120-8926-d232ed4462f0 rw quiet apparmor=1 
  security=apparmor resume=UUID=529c403d-51e9-4833-92a9-d2b4d0333419 
  udev.log_priority=3 
  Desktop: Xfce 4.16.3 wm: awesome 4.3 vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20L70053GE v: ThinkPad T480s 
  serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 20L70053GE v: SDK0J40697 WIN serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: LENOVO v: N22ET66W (1.43 ) date: 10/12/2020 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 51.0 Wh (98.3%) condition: 51.9/57.0 Wh (91.1%) 
  volts: 12.8 min: 11.6 model: LGC 01AV478 type: Li-poly serial: <filter> 
  status: Unknown cycles: 175 
CPU:
  Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-8550U bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Kaby Lake note: check family: 6 model-id: 8E (142) 
  stepping: A (10) microcode: EA cache: L2: 8 MiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 32012 
  Speed: 2379 MHz min/max: 400/4000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2379 2: 2188 
  3: 1713 4: 918 5: 800 6: 2343 7: 800 8: 1487 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
  Type: l1tf 
  mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
  Type: spec_store_bypass 
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, 
  IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel 
  bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:5917 class-ID: 0300 
  Device-2: Chicony Integrated IR Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
  bus-ID: 1-5:3 chip-ID: 04f2:b615 class-ID: 0e02 
  Device-3: Chicony Integrated Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
  bus-ID: 1-8:9 chip-ID: 04f2:b614 class-ID: 0e02 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 compositor: compton driver: 
  loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa display-ID: :0 screens: 1 
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2048x1152 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 542x305mm (21.3x12.0") 
  s-diag: 622mm (24.5") 
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 res: 2048x1152 dpi: 168 size: 309x174mm (12.2x6.9") 
  diag: 355mm (14") 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2) 
  v: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Lenovo 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel alternate: snd_soc_skl bus-ID: 00:1f.3 
  chip-ID: 8086:9d71 class-ID: 0403 
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.14.0-0-MANJARO running: yes 
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.19 running: no 
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes 
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.34 running: yes 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: kernel 
  port: efa0 bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15d8 class-ID: 0200 
  IF: enp0s31f6 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Intel Wireless 8265 / 8275 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel 
  port: efa0 bus-ID: 3d:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:24fd class-ID: 0280 
  IF: wlp61s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb 
  v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-7:8 chip-ID: 8087:0a2b class-ID: e001 
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 3 state: up address: see --recommends 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 698.41 GiB (73.2%) 
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Samsung 
  model: MZVLB1T0HALR-000L7 size: 953.87 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B 
  logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> 
  rev: 5L2QEXA7 temp: 35.9 C scheme: GPT 
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 54.19 GiB size: 53.09 GiB (97.97%) 
  used: 21.68 GiB (40.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p8 maj-min: 259:8 
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 512 MiB size: 511 MiB (99.80%) 
  used: 316 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p9 maj-min: 259:9 
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 36.68 GiB size: 35.86 GiB (97.75%) 
  used: 19.44 GiB (54.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6 maj-min: 259:6 
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8.7 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) 
  priority: -2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 maj-min: 259:7 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 3092 
Info:
  Processes: 233 Uptime: 33m wakeups: 65441 Memory: 15.4 GiB 
  used: 2.13 GiB (13.8%) Init: systemd v: 248 tool: systemctl Compilers: 
  gcc: 11.1.0 Packages: pacman: 1463 lib: 430 flatpak: 0 Shell: Zsh v: 5.8 
  running-in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.3.06 

Graphics:

> glxinfo | grep OpenGL                                                      
OpenGL vendor string: Intel
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2)
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.6 (Core Profile) Mesa 21.2.1
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.60
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 21.2.1
OpenGL shading language version string: 4.60
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL profile mask: compatibility profile
OpenGL extensions:
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.2 Mesa 21.2.1
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.20
OpenGL ES profile extensions:
> mhwd -li 
> mhwd -li                                                                   
> Installed PCI configs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  NAME               VERSION          FREEDRIVER           TYPE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           video-linux            2018.05.04                true            PCI

Video-related packages

> pacman -Ss nvidia | grep install                                                                             
> [sudo] password for surus: 
core/mhwd-nvidia 470.63.01-1 [installed]
core/mhwd-nvidia-390xx 390.144-1 [installed]
extra/libvdpau 1.4-1 [installed]
extra/xf86-video-nouveau 1.0.17-1 (xorg-drivers) [installed]
multilib/lib32-libvdpau 1.4-1 [installed]

Did you recently change to kernel 5.14? Maybe there is a regression in it for Intel graphics. Do you still have the slowness with linux510?

1 Like

Thanks - booting into 5.10.61 didn’t really help. Maybe subjectively a tiny tad better, but still miles away from where it was before the update.

I’m out of ideas then. I have the same GPU and have no issues with slowness.

1 Like

Welcome to the forum! :wave:

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2 Likes

Xorg using that many CPU cycles is generally caused by a malfunctioning application, so:

  • create a new user
  • reboot
  • log in there

Is the problem happening already?

  • If yes, stop running applications one by one until the problem goes away.
  • If no, start applications one by one until the problem starts.

There! You have found the offending application. File a bug with the developer…

:crossed_fingers:

Thank you, Fabby, I did and it set me on the right track! It was something with picom and there only in my custom configuration file; if I rename/delete the config file, it runs well. It would have been smart to check into that direction, as it is probably not an untypical culprit. I’m now able to bisect the config file at least with a functioning computer, as well as, most importantly, continue regular work. Thanks so much for pointing my head into the right direction!

2 Likes

:bowing_man:

Please do me a favour and next time and post an inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width which would be the minimum required information for us to be able to help you. (Personally Identifiable Information like serial numbers and MAC addresses will be filtered out by the above command)

:crossed_fingers:

1 Like

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