X memory leak with desktop effects enabled.

[Jose Ildefonso Camargo Tolosa]

On Sat, Jan 3, 2015 at 2:51 AM, O. Sinclair <o.sinclair at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 02/01/2015 20:36, Jose Ildefonso Camargo Tolosa wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Jan 2, 2015 at 6:38 AM, Myriam Schweingruber <myriam at kubuntu.org
> > <mailto:myriam at kubuntu.org>> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >     On Fri, Jan 2, 2015 at 5:53 AM, O. Sinclair <o.sinclair at gmail.com
> >     <mailto:o.sinclair at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >
> >         On 01/01/2015 18:28, Jose Ildefonso Camargo Tolosa wrote:
> >         >
> >         >
> >         > On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 12:14 PM, Jose Ildefonso Camargo Tolosa
> >         > <ildefonso.camargo at gmail.com <mailto:
> ildefonso.camargo at gmail.com>
> >         <mailto:ildefonso.camargo at gmail.com
> >         <mailto:ildefonso.camargo at gmail.com>>> wrote:
> >         >
> >         >
> >         >
> >         >     I am confirming this only occurs with kwin, I used compiz
> and it
> >         >     didn't leak memory for 12 hours.  I tried replacing kwin
> with compiz
> >         >     on a kde session (it worked, mostly), had some
> compatibility issues,
> >         >     but I was able to use it for several hours.  I later tried
> "unity"
> >         >     session with compiz and many effects enabled: it worked
> just fine too.
> >         >
> >         >     Today I tried to wipe-clean my .kde directory, and refrain
> from
> >         >     changing any settings.  I am still observing and will
> update.
> >         >
> >         >
> >         > It leaks memory, at a slower rate, but still X memory usage
> gets to over
> >         > 2GB in less than 12 hours.
> >         >
> >         I am not seeing this at all on my laptop with intel i5 cpu and
> intel
> >         graphics,
> >
> >
> >     Same here, no leaks whatsoever with Kubuntu 14.10, KDE 4.14.2 with
> >     Intel on board graphics on this Intel Core i7 laptop. Uptime is now
> >     around 90 hours, Kwin uses 14 Mb of shared memory, XOrg uses 65 Mb.
> >
> >     I strongly suggest you check on your installation, something must be
> >     wrong somewhere.
> >
> >
> >
> > I think I already did it, I tried to wipe *all* KDE configurations,
> > tried to purge and reinstall, finally tried another windows manager
> > (compiz), since I switched from kwin to compiz: no issues.  There is
> > *something* peculiar about KDE code in general that has a tendency on
> > "exposing" driver issues, there was a time when "konsole" would crash
> > nvidia drivers, and would cause other issues with AMD drivers (random
> > freezing), KDE's solution was something like "hey, it is a driver issue,
> > not our fault, the driver maker should fix it", and the problem remained
> > there for *years*, I cared *so* much about KDE, that I stopped using
> > konsole and still used the rest of the desktop, however, my coworkers
> > just switched to other windows managers, and even other OS.
> >
> > It is already hard to get people out of the "Unity" momentum caused by
> > Ubuntu, it is even harder if KDE can't run reliably, but Unity or Gnome
> > does... people won't think about drivers and stuff, they will point to
> > KDE, even if it is not KDE's fault, because Gnome and  Unity work just
> > fine (I really don't know if they implemented workarounds or whatever,
> > but the facts are: Gnome AND Unity work just fine with nVidia, AMD, and
> > Intel, whereas KDE only seems to work reliably on Intel, and mostly
> > nVidia, at least recently).
> >
> > It is painful for me, but this time I was not able to stop using just
> > the part of KDE that was failing (like I did with konsole a few years
> > ago), because compiz won't work reliably with KDE, so, I  had to switch
> > desktop environment (because I won't stop using my GPU just for a
> > desktop environment, and because I have no other GPU I can use with
> OpenCL).
> >
> > I will keep an eye on KDE, because I really like it, but for the time
> > being, I have to work, and I just can't do that with KDE for now.
> >
> Given that my laptop has the dreaded hybrid intel/amd graphics I am not
> so sure you are correct. Or put differently it still works though the
> AMD is rarely used as I don't game or whatever much
>

I am not sure you will be able to make kwin use AMD chipset on that
laptop.  Next time either the graphics driver gets updated, or when next
KDE gets released, I will give another try, for now, I just leave this
piece of warning to those fellow AMD users out there: keep an eye on X
memory usage while using KDE.  It is likely that using free driver will fix
this, but it just doesn't work with my current GPU (and OpenCL was not
properly supported last time I checked).

Unfortunately, some apps would be *really* slow on KDE with desktop effects
disable (only workaround I was able to find without dropping KDE),
particularly in LibreOffice you can see toolbar icons being draw one at a
time...
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