[Natty Intel 945GME] No desktop effects (kwin 100% cpu)

Same Problem here with Intel Mobile GMA 945GM/GMS with Kwin after upgrading Kubuntu from 10.10 to 11.04 (getac m230n with Intel GMA 950)

When checking "Disable Functionality checks" option and resuming effects again no normal work is possible, because the Laptop response very slow. After every click you have to wait 1-2 sec. for the answer.
kwin use 100% of one of the two cores.

I forgot to say: I use the 64bit version of Kubuntu 11.04

I confirm this for Kubuntu 11.04.

On eeepc 900 (32 bit) and a 2nd pc with 64 bit, desktop effects run with 2 fps and are then automatically disdabled.

On another PC with nvideo they seem to run normally with about 30 fps.

Ferry

Sounds like kwin is helping flag that your system won't run in that configuration but you've forced it to run under that configuration anyway. Talk to the kwin guys maybe to see why they do this. Or if you prefer, reproduce the issue with GNOME/compiz and reopen the bug if it affects that too.

I have read in german forum ubuntuusers.de, that with gnome/unity/compiz there are much more problems.

So I will check it next time with a live CD.

Got the same problem on a Lenovo s10e netbook. This is a showstopping bug! To make matters worse, Ubuntu Classic only shows me a flickering white triangle on the bottom left of the screen, and unity gives me only a completely black screen.

End result: I have no usable desktop environment, where gnome and KDE 4.6.2 both worked perfectly before the upgrade. This means Ubuntu Natty is hands down the worst linux I have ever used.

Waiting on any developments on this bug.

Confirmed same behavior here -- desktop effects disabled, yet glxgears gives 35 - 40 fps.

32-bit, Dell Inspiron e1505, Intel 945GM/GMS/GME Express. Running from Live CD, since the last time I upgraded before trying it out, I got burned.

BTW, can anyone here recommend a good, stable version of Kubuntu to run with this chipset? 9.10 -> 10.04 killed me with Intel graphics bugs in the new X.org driver architecture so I rolled back to 9.10, and I haven't been able to figure out if it's stabilized yet. Is 10.10 OK for Intel 945GM graphics?

I found a solution for KDE and Kwin:
You have to deactivate the Effect BLUR (german: Verwischen).

After this and activate Kwin everything works normal.

But note, "Blur" was still working in the release before (Maverick).

I can confirm that I had the same behavior until I disabled "Blur".
nVidia Corporation NV44 [Quadro NVS 285] (rev a1)
Ubuntu 11.04, 64 bit.

Bryce on #5:

This is not true. With Maverick and Kubuntu updated to 4.6.2 from the PPA it worked fine.

Right now I have updated both the eeepc and desktop again from the ppa to 4.6.3.

For the eeepc (900MHz Pentium M) I get about 30 FPS with desktop effects enabled and the FPS widget enabled (shows kwin's fps live).

On the Core 2 Duo 3GHz I get 2 (!) FPS. This used to be about 50 FPS in Maverick.

Something happened to the driver (since Maverick + kde 4.6.2 worked and Natty not) that is specific to at least 945G.

Please mark as valid.

Ferry

I can confirm on a Toshiba rR500 with a 945G chipset. Definitely a regression from Maverick.

I don't see why this bug was marked as invalid, as desktop effects clearly stopped working, as has been confirmed by several other users.

Bryce - perhaps you misunderstood my original report - the problem is not with the desktop effects functionality check itself - the point is that desktop effects worked just fine on the same hardware with Maverick up to the moment it was upgraded to Natty, after which it broke to the point that it cannot be turned on at all (because it's buggy and enters some infinite loop somewhere hogging up 100% cpu, which is why the functionality check rightfully disables it).

That being said, I was just about to try to confirm it's the Blur effect that triggers the bug, when I found that the effects are now working - probably since I upgraded to KDE 4.6.4 from the Kubuntu PPA a few days ago (at least that's my best guess as to what changed, since I don't recall seeing any other standard updates that might relate to this - but I might be wrong).

If anyone else affected by this bug feels like trying to upgrade to KDE 4.6.4 and confirming whether this fixes the issue, that would be nice. In any case, I don't think this bug should be marked as fixed until the fix is backported to the official repos. It certainly should not be marked invalid, in any case.

I just wanted to add to my previous post, in case it makes any difference:

- Right before the successful test I installed the toggle compositing plasma widget, and used it to toggle the effects (previously I did it directly in system settings)

- After a reboot, I did get the message that desktop effects have been suspended. However, after a couple of seconds if I click the toggle icon, the desktop effects are resumed and remain functional from this point on (previously it would always turn itself back off immediately no matter what I did)

- Although the system is now fully usable and effects work ok, on a clean system after reboot with a single open konsole window running top/htop and nothing else going on anywhere, I see plasma-desktop, Xorg and kwin processes all taking up 6%-12% CPU all the time. Still sounds to me like way too much for an idle system, and bad for battery life... but at least the system is usable.

@amichair:
An upgrade to KDE 4.6.4 doesn't fixes the Problem with "blur" for me.
Without "blur" Kwin is fast and stable.
(Intel 945GM)