Re: [Tails-testers] Some criticism about the 2.0 beta

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Author: intrigeri
Date:  
To: Yui Hirasawa
CC: tails-testers
Subject: Re: [Tails-testers] Some criticism about the 2.0 beta
Hi,

Yui Hirasawa wrote (28 Dec 2015 18:54:52 GMT) :
>> Which exact animations are slow in your experience? I think we can
>> easily disable some of them.


> Pretty much all of them lag a bit but especially the boot animation
> where the desktop expands from the middle.


OK, I'll try to disable them, and we'll see if it changes anything.
This is now tracked as https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/10808.

Not sure if I can easily disable that boot animation, and to be honest
I won't focus on it initially, since it's a once-per-boot annoyance,
that does not impact UX once the desktop is started. That specific
animation might also, quite simply, be slow because at that time, the
system is doing *lots* of setup work that includes heavy CPU and
I/O usage.

>> Also, it would be good to get more information about what exact
>> hardware such problems arise on: such problems are generally Linux
>> kernel or X.Org video drivers problems that can be fixed, rather than
>> GNOME Shell bugs per-se. Filing detailed bug reports with WhisperBack,
>> and asking frontdesk to forward them to me, would help :)


> I've used the 2.0 beta on two machines, I've experienced the lag on both
> of them.


> The first machine is a Lenovo Thinkpad x200, using the integrated
> graphics in the Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 processor.


OK. The good news is that I have access to a X200 so I can test there.
I'll also check if one can allocate more memory to the graphics
adapter, perhaps it could improve things a bit.

How much RAM in that X200?

> The second machine is Asus N53J laptop which has Nvidia GeForce GT 425M
> graphics card.


Thanks. I guess our frontdesk will forward me the debugging info you
sent us so I can check what's happening (there's not much I can do
without that info).

> The laptops aren't very new. But they're not much older than what I
> expect the average Tails user to have.


Yes, it would be sad if X200 -class hardware, provided it has enough
RAM, was not usable in Tails anymore already. (It will happen some
day, but right now feels too early.)

> I don't experience any video lag on these machines with older versions
> of Tails or other distributions so the video drivers shouldn't be an
> issue,


FYI older versions of Tails don't ship a desktop that uses moderately
advanced graphics functionality (OpenGL), while GNOME Shell does.
Quite possibly, these "other distributions" don't rely on such
features either. If video drivers were outdated or buggy when it comes
to OpenGL handling, one would not notice it on older Tails, and
possibly not on other distributions. That's where my hypothesis that
drivers may be at fault came from.

> Happy new year :)


Happy new year for you too! :)

Cheers,
--
intrigeri