Ubuntu - my 2cents
#1
Hi all. Currently using Ubuntu Mate, while experimenting with OpenSuse and admiring Debian. Most things work on Ubuntu while a steady flow of upgrades and improvements keep coming out. Unfortunately Mate-system-monitor (25-30%) and the X-server (25-30%) grab the lions share of cpu. Any thoughts on why this may be the case? Is it to do with lack of Mali support?
On my normal day to day desktop, the x-server is using minimal resources. I would like to see this in Ubuntu Mate.

Firefox is also a heavy user of cpu and memory, probaby because of web pages with masses of images and graphics and media. But newer releases of Firefox are very good at releasing resources as soon as a page is closed. So some consolation here. I am Interested to hear your observations
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#2
(10-04-2016, 12:31 AM)S265 Wrote: Unfortunately Mate-system-monitor (25-30%) and the X-server (25-30%) grab the lions share of cpu. Any thoughts on why this may be the case? Is it to do with lack of Mali support?

No. 

... mali has nothing to do with how many resources ( like cpu % ) are used by mate-system-monitor , or the X-server. The kernel controls directly the resources of the system ( for instance which processes run, in which order, and how much time-slice or cpu % ).  I am of course over-simplifying.

The mali driver is an in-memory accelerator for openGL GLES;  and that is all !  ( um, if you have the 'gears' demo program on your system its 'mali' that will make that work well with openGLES. That's it. 

A common misconception about cpu % is that the number is somehow 'bad' if its high for one or more processes;  this is of course not true. ( it 'might' be true under some conditions )

A background process can 'look' like its using 100% of the cpu , well , because nothing else needs the cpu just now...  but will quickly be reduced in priority by the kernel if something else requires the cpu atm. Also, there are 4 cores active in our little processor. Four processes can be running 100% on their particular core and not affect the other processes on the system which are free to run on the other cores. Very seldom does a process(s) like the X-server , nor the system monitor , cause a performance problem which is systemic !
marcushh777    Cool

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#3
(10-04-2016, 12:31 AM)S265 Wrote: Unfortunately Mate-system-monitor (25-30%) and the X-server (25-30%) grab the lions share of cpu. 

But, you have to remember here... the system-monitor is grabbing CPU cycles because you want it to show you all the pretty graphs and information! Big Grin  And because the display is busy updating, the system is busy being interrogated for information, x-server is just a bit busier! Wink 

And as Marcus pointed out, OpenGL ES (OpenGL for Embedded Systems) will NOT help here... as it is mean for rendering 2D and 3D graphics - not for boring old display stuff. Now, if you wanted to do some 3D animation stuff, you would need it! Big Grin

Basically, the cpu usage isn't anywhere near as high as you would think it is, and even it if were, you have four CPU cores, and one of them could be constantly pegged at 100% and you would barely notice the performance hit. Regardless of that, try opening a terminal, and running htop, and see what sort of cpu usage is shown then... be you it will be a lot lower!
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#4
(10-04-2016, 04:06 AM)pfeerick Wrote:
(10-04-2016, 12:31 AM)S265 Wrote: Unfortunately Mate-system-monitor (25-30%) and the X-server (25-30%) grab the lions share of cpu. 

But, you have to remember here... the system-monitor is grabbing CPU cycles because you want it to show you all the pretty graphs and information! Big Grin  And because the display is busy updating, the system is busy being interrogated for information, x-server is just a bit busier! Wink 

And as Marcus pointed out, OpenGL ES (OpenGL for Embedded Systems) will NOT help here... as it is mean for rendering 2D and 3D graphics - not for boring old display stuff. Now, if you wanted to do some 3D animation stuff, you would need it! Big Grin

Basically, the cpu usage isn't anywhere near as high as you would think it is, and even it if were, you have four CPU cores, and one of them could be constantly pegged at 100% and you would barely notice the performance hit. Regardless of that, try opening a terminal, and running htop, and see what sort of cpu usage is shown then... be you it will be a lot lower!

Ok thanks for the explanation guys. Indeed it may not be as bad as I perceive. Interactivity is important on a desktop. Moving between displays, opening/closing windows and stop/starting software has to happen without fuss for your system. I am on the lookout for things that may hinder the Pine64 from doing this and making a nice desktop experience.
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#5
(10-04-2016, 12:31 AM)S265 Wrote: Hi all. Currently using Ubuntu Mate, while experimenting with OpenSuse and admiring Debian. Most things work on Ubuntu while a steady flow of upgrades and improvements keep coming out. Unfortunately Mate-system-monitor (25-30%) and the X-server (25-30%) grab the lions share of cpu. Any thoughts on why this may be the case? Is it to do with lack of Mali support?
On my normal day to day desktop, the x-server is using minimal resources. I would like to see this in Ubuntu Mate.

Firefox is also a heavy user of cpu and memory, probaby because of web pages with masses of images and graphics and media. But newer releases of Firefox are very good at releasing resources as soon as a page is closed. So some consolation here. I am Interested to hear your observations

Thinking about burning a chip for Ubuntu. Does it work with the touch screen lcd display?
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#6
(10-14-2016, 03:37 PM)mcrognale Wrote:
(10-04-2016, 12:31 AM)S265 Wrote: Hi all. Currently using Ubuntu Mate, while experimenting with OpenSuse and admiring Debian. Most things work on Ubuntu while a steady flow of upgrades and improvements keep coming out. Unfortunately Mate-system-monitor (25-30%) and the X-server (25-30%) grab the lions share of cpu. Any thoughts on why this may be the case? Is it to do with lack of Mali support?
On my normal day to day desktop, the x-server is using minimal resources. I would like to see this in Ubuntu Mate.

Firefox is also a heavy user of cpu and memory, probaby because of web pages with masses of images and graphics and media. But newer releases of Firefox are very good at releasing resources as soon as a page is closed. So some consolation here. I am Interested to hear your observations

Thinking about burning a chip for Ubuntu. Does it work with the touch screen lcd display?

Yes, but without touch at the moment.

Once you are done burning the image and booting it up, follow the instructions to enable LCD support.
Donate BTC: 3Eav9uqXi8Nx1axb7QjK6xV4km4K9YGv9a
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#7
(10-04-2016, 12:31 AM)S265 Wrote: On my normal day to day desktop, the x-server is using minimal resources. I would like to see this in Ubuntu Mate.
My annoyance goes somewhat the other way. If I am waiting for something to happen, why are the CPUs loafing at less than 100%? I don't buy my computer equipment to have it  sit around, keeping cool, and consume 10% of resources. When I am doing something I need done, I want it to pump iron.

 When I am using my "big" computer, with 8 cores at 4300 Mhz, recoding a video, I want to know why all 8 cores are running at 80% instead of 100% (I run Ubuntu on the big guy too.)

 Even more, on my Pine64, I want the SOB to run 100% flat out to get around to doing what my mouse click says, instead of waiting until I count to 5.

 But after I get used to counting to 5 before assuming my computer has locked up, which is not so bad (it is calming actually), I will be doing normal sorts of things for like 10 to 90 minutes, when the computer quits responding at all. The system monitor suddenly is showing 100% on all CPUs, but I am not doing anything different than I have been doing. If I wait 3 minutes, the computer calms itself, and I can continue. What does the computer suddenly need to do? The system monitor, like everything else, will not respond to inform me. Once it acts up, it does it more and more often.

 As for CPU usage, the big computer does use 10% at idle while viewing with system monitor, which does seem to be xorg doing the work to display the info graphically in system monitor, but I don't think that is out of proportion to the speed of the ARM and the number of cores.

 I believe the percent CPU usage is not adjusted for speed. But the ARM is doing less at 100% at 400 MHz, than it is at 100% at 1162 MHz. The x86 CPU likewise is doing less at 100% at 1400 Mhz than it is at 100% at 4300 Mhz. CPUs today normally switch into different modes based on activity. 30% usage at 400 MHz translates into roughly 10% usage at 1162 MHz.

 It is mentioned elsewhere that hardware acceleration is working, and has been working for a long time. This is not the same thing as Mali. It is because GPUs can provide hardware acceleration in x86 PC computers that there is a confusion between this and Mali. I can't say I follow what each does or does not do. Windows however do redraw quickly, so I'm not sure what is bogging down the Pine64.

 For videos, it does seem that is hard or not possible, depending on the video player, to get videos to play well. Longsleep has a script that does better than anything I can get by manually changing any player's settings.
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#8
If you load cpufrequtils you can set the governor you want to be active ; interactive would probably be better than ondemand; but that depends on your use case. The problem with ondemand is that it does not recognize network activity as a 'demanding' processing... so that does not boost the freq...

You can also set the governor to performance. As you might guess that boosts the freqs to max... what you called "pumping iron". (have a good heatsink and fan)
marcushh777    Cool

please join us for a chat @  irc.pine64.xyz:6667   or ssl  irc.pine64.xyz:6697

( I regret that I am not able to respond to personal messages;  let's meet on irc! )
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