i3: i3 in Virtualbox on Macbook Pro is slow
Big fan of i3wm here. Started using it about 3 years ago, haven’t looked back.
Now I’ve got a new computer at work, a 2016 Macbook Pro. I’m running Virtualbox and Ubuntu 16.04 and installed i3wm the first thing I did. It works, but it’s slow - not slow to the point of being useless, but annoying. Text appears half a second after I type it.
I thought it was a Virtualbox issue until I tried the default Ubuntu Unity interface, which works beautifully. Text appears the moment I type it, windows fade in and out, it’s all great and fast. It seems something happens when i3 is running that slows things down.
Here’s the other weird thing: System monitor reports that it’s only a few percent load on the processors. It’s definitely not running out of resources. I’m thinking maybe it’s 2D graphics vs. 3D - any clues?
I searched the forum for anything like this but failed to find it. I can certainly pull logs … but I’m hoping that someone recognizes this and has an easy fix. 😃
Output of i3 --moreversion 2>&- || i3 --version:
Binary i3 version: 4.11 (2015-09-30, branch “4.11”) © 2009 Michael Stapelberg and contributors Running i3 version: 4.11 (2015-09-30, branch “4.11”) (pid 5731) Loaded i3 config: /home/mattis/.config/i3/config (Last modified: Tue 31 Jan 2017 04:18:41 PM PST, 2571218 seconds ago)
The i3 binary you just called: /usr/bin/i3 The i3 binary you are running: i3 REPLACE: i3 version output
About this issue
- Original URL
- State: closed
- Created 7 years ago
- Comments: 15 (6 by maintainers)
Well, I’m running inside of Virtualbox, and I’m fairly certain that it uses the underlying HW acceleration of the platform for 3D, but not for 2D. Given that it runs well in Unity (window candy and all), and compositors tend to use the 3D capabilities of the graphics card, maybe in this case I should be using 3D. I don’t care one iota about the window candy, I’m just thinking that maybe it’ll hit a faster code-path than the (possibly software-rendered) 2D.
I’ll see what I can find out on Monday - this is my work-computer and I won’t see it for a few more days.
Since Ubuntu’s default environment seems to be working really well, and that uses a compositor … it may be that I should be using one. I think Virtualbox on Mac accelerates 3D but not 2D.
Thanks, I’ll let you all know how that goes.
I guess I didn’t properly understand the question - I took the second half of
as being related to the first somehow. Anyway, sorry about that!
How do I check whether I’m using a compositor? I’m running Ubuntu and I installed i3 from the mint/ubuntu repos. Unity obviously uses a compositor, but I don’t know whether i3 does. (I guess we’re talking something like Compiz here, right?).
Thanks for the help here, much appreciated!
You’ve ignored the compositor question twice now.