Reducing cpu usage?(solved)

[danthemannewtolinux]

Hey guys....is there a way i can reduce cpu usage in vector, i'm having a problem playing videos and them being choppy in the regular desktop environment(music plays fine), and have to go to fluxbox to get them to stream smooth and i've noticed thru htop on the regular environment, when streaming, my cpu usage is like 98%, and half of that in fluxbox, is there any way i can lower this cpu usage in my regular desktop environment rather than having to change sessions every time i wanna watch a video, i know it's not a big deal changing sessions but it would be more convenient if i didn't have to......thanks in advance for those who can help me with this.

[nightflier]

Obviously your computer is not fast enough to handle a complex desktop environment in addition to decoding the videos. You can try lightening the load by disabling features and services, but if you want to keep all of the goodies of xfce for your regular use, switching to fluxbox for videos is a good workaround.

You can also try some intermediate setup, like openbox with fbpanel plus pcmanfm. It may give you a better balance of performance vs. features.

[hata_ph]

what is your hardware spec?

[danthemannewtolinux]

my specs are:

   Mobile Intel Pentium III, 1.13 GHz with SpeedStep technology
512K, Integrated
30Gb ATA
512 Mb ram
15" XGA TFT
ATI Mobility Radeon D, 16 Mb (a.k.a. Mobility M6, Radeon LY)
AC'97 compatible, 3D Surround, Analog devices AD1881A
CD-RW/DVD Combo drive (CD-RW: 24x/8x/4x, DVD: 8x)
V.90 Compatible SoftModem (Lucent chipset)
Two Type I/Type II or one Type III. CardBus supported
Three USB 1.1 ports on-board
i.Link port
One 10/100 Ethernet port (Intel chipset)
One slot, supporting MagicGate and standard media
Synaptics touchpad
RJ11, Parallel, VGA, Docking Bay
Microphone, Headphone, A/V-out
ACPI

[nightflier]

Now that is how it's done when someone asks about your hardware specs! 

Check to see if you have direct rendering enabled, command:

Code:

glxinfo | grep direct

[Joncho]

Do you have xfce composite enable? if so, have you tried to disable it before playing videos?

Also i'd recommend that you disable the softmodem if you are not using it. I too think that openbox + fbpanel + pcmanfm or even lxde could be a good alternative, i tell you later if i can think of any other way to reduce your cpu usage.

[danthemannewtolinux]

Yeah, i have direct rendering enabled.....should it be disabled? And how do i know if i got composite enabled? ....also disabling softmodem? I hope i'm allowed to do these sub questions....anyhow thanks so far guys.

[nightflier]

Direct rendering is a good thing. You need that for decent video performance.

I don't know about compositing and softmodems, look for someone who use them to chime in. Your questions are good, keep at it.

[danthemannewtolinux]

thanks nightflier, the answers are quick and correct, and friendly....don't worry, i'll have lots of questions lol

[danthemannewtolinux]

i got lxde-meta from gslapt, all videos smooth as butter

[Joncho]

I'm sorry, i was out for a few days and couldn't reply, you know that you have compositor enable if cairo dock looks all beatiful, if  compositor weren't enable it would be inside an ugly black frame, or something like that, cause compositor manage real transparency.

To disable xfce compositor go to MENU --> Settings --> Windows Manager Tweaks. Once there go to the "Compositor" tab and disable it.

Softmodem should be disabled at your computer's BIOS settings.

[danthemannewtolinux]

ok, thank you for that information, i noticed when i changed over to lxde cairo, had that black rectangle around it and i didnt know why, now i do....good tips

[pierce.jason]

i got lxde-meta from gslapt, all videos smooth as butter

I love the LXDE desktop!!