Screen composer that does the bare minimum and is lightweight
by fpp from LinuxQuestions.org on (#6HN40)
I've been playing a bit with Debian 12 and i3wm on my HP G43 notebook (AMD Athlon II P340), and after a lot of tweaking the looks and feel, I noticed that i3 does not come with a screen compositor. At first, I didn't care, but after noticing that a lot of apps (gui) rely on a composer to display menus properly (chrome, for instance. attached), I started to worry.
After looking a bit, I settled on picom, which looks to be the "latest developed" composer.
Just installing and launching it on login (through i3 config file), I noticed a big performance drop and a high CPU usage. While before, the CPU usage was always stuck on 1%, now it was hovering around 20%. Scrolling on chrome felt like a slideshow, and dragging windows (something not common on i3) was a similar story.
After that, I made a config file (attached) based from the one available on the github page, and tried to disable everything I thought could impact performance. It defenetley made a difference, but still, some gui apps felt laggier than with no composer.
I want to know if there is any other composer/tool that could perform better. Or maybe a guide to tune picom to do the most basic stuff (like fix the menu issues) and nothing more.
I know my hardware may not meet the "bare minimum" for most composers, but I would like to get rid of that ugly black box on the back of menues.
Just in case:
Code:fpp@fpp-g42:~$ inxi -Frxzz
System:
Kernel: 6.1.0-15-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
Desktop: i3 v: 4.22 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP G42 Notebook PC
v: 0596110000242710010010100 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 1444 v: 69.37 serial: <superuser required>
BIOS: Hewlett-Packard v: F.27 date: 02/16/2011
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 43.0 Wh (100.0%) condition: 43.0/43.0 Wh (100.0%)
volts: 12.6 min: 11.1 model: Hewlett-Packard Primary status: full
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M280/320/275
charge: Normal status: discharging
CPU:
Info: dual core model: AMD Athlon II P340 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: K10
rev: 3 cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/2200 boost: disabled cores: 1: 800
2: 800 bogomips: 8777
Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD RS880M [Mobility Radeon HD 4225/4250] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: radeon v: kernel arch: TeraScale bus-ID: 01:05.0
Device-2: Suyin HP Webcam-101 type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-3:2
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 driver: X: loaded: radeon
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: r600 gpu: radeon
resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
API: OpenGL v: 3.3 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: AMD RS880 (DRM 2.50.0 /
6.1.0-15-amd64 LLVM 15.0.6) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus-ID: 00:14.2
Device-2: AMD RS880 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 4200 Series]
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 01:05.1
API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-15-amd64 status: kernel-api
Server-1: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: active
Network:
Device-1: Ralink RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: rt2800pci v: 2.3.0 bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: wlo2 state: up mac: <filter>
Device-2: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 2000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Ralink Motorola BC4 Bluetooth 3.0+HS Adapter type: USB
driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 7-1:2
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 1.2
lmp-v: 2.1
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 36.23 GiB (3.9%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HTS541010A9E680
size: 931.51 GiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 45.53 GiB used: 8.29 GiB (18.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
ID-2: /home size: 839.73 GiB used: 24.61 GiB (2.9%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/sda5
ID-3: /tmp size: 4.5 GiB used: 10.1 MiB (0.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4
ID-4: /var size: 18.16 GiB used: 3.32 GiB (18.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 7.45 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
dev: /dev/sda3
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 58.9 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
Packages: 1924
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
1: deb http://mirror.sitsa.com.ar/debian/ bookworm main non-free-firmware
2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main non-free-firmware
3: deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main non-free-firmware
4: deb http://mirror.sitsa.com.ar/debian/ bookworm-updates main non-free-firmware
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list
1: deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free
Info:
Processes: 154 Uptime: 1h 13m Memory: 5.54 GiB used: 1.65 GiB (29.8%)
Init: systemd target: graphical (5) Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 Shell: Bash
v: 5.2.15 inxi: 3.3.26
Attached Thumbnails
Attached Files
After looking a bit, I settled on picom, which looks to be the "latest developed" composer.
Just installing and launching it on login (through i3 config file), I noticed a big performance drop and a high CPU usage. While before, the CPU usage was always stuck on 1%, now it was hovering around 20%. Scrolling on chrome felt like a slideshow, and dragging windows (something not common on i3) was a similar story.
After that, I made a config file (attached) based from the one available on the github page, and tried to disable everything I thought could impact performance. It defenetley made a difference, but still, some gui apps felt laggier than with no composer.
I want to know if there is any other composer/tool that could perform better. Or maybe a guide to tune picom to do the most basic stuff (like fix the menu issues) and nothing more.
I know my hardware may not meet the "bare minimum" for most composers, but I would like to get rid of that ugly black box on the back of menues.
Just in case:
Code:fpp@fpp-g42:~$ inxi -Frxzz
System:
Kernel: 6.1.0-15-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
Desktop: i3 v: 4.22 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP G42 Notebook PC
v: 0596110000242710010010100 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 1444 v: 69.37 serial: <superuser required>
BIOS: Hewlett-Packard v: F.27 date: 02/16/2011
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 43.0 Wh (100.0%) condition: 43.0/43.0 Wh (100.0%)
volts: 12.6 min: 11.1 model: Hewlett-Packard Primary status: full
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M280/320/275
charge: Normal status: discharging
CPU:
Info: dual core model: AMD Athlon II P340 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: K10
rev: 3 cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/2200 boost: disabled cores: 1: 800
2: 800 bogomips: 8777
Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD RS880M [Mobility Radeon HD 4225/4250] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: radeon v: kernel arch: TeraScale bus-ID: 01:05.0
Device-2: Suyin HP Webcam-101 type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-3:2
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 driver: X: loaded: radeon
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: r600 gpu: radeon
resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
API: OpenGL v: 3.3 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: AMD RS880 (DRM 2.50.0 /
6.1.0-15-amd64 LLVM 15.0.6) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus-ID: 00:14.2
Device-2: AMD RS880 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 4200 Series]
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 01:05.1
API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-15-amd64 status: kernel-api
Server-1: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: active
Network:
Device-1: Ralink RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: rt2800pci v: 2.3.0 bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: wlo2 state: up mac: <filter>
Device-2: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 2000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Ralink Motorola BC4 Bluetooth 3.0+HS Adapter type: USB
driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 7-1:2
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 1.2
lmp-v: 2.1
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 36.23 GiB (3.9%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HTS541010A9E680
size: 931.51 GiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 45.53 GiB used: 8.29 GiB (18.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
ID-2: /home size: 839.73 GiB used: 24.61 GiB (2.9%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/sda5
ID-3: /tmp size: 4.5 GiB used: 10.1 MiB (0.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4
ID-4: /var size: 18.16 GiB used: 3.32 GiB (18.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 7.45 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
dev: /dev/sda3
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 58.9 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
Packages: 1924
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
1: deb http://mirror.sitsa.com.ar/debian/ bookworm main non-free-firmware
2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main non-free-firmware
3: deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main non-free-firmware
4: deb http://mirror.sitsa.com.ar/debian/ bookworm-updates main non-free-firmware
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list
1: deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free
Info:
Processes: 154 Uptime: 1h 13m Memory: 5.54 GiB used: 1.65 GiB (29.8%)
Init: systemd target: graphical (5) Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 Shell: Bash
v: 5.2.15 inxi: 3.3.26
Attached Thumbnails
 | picom.conf.txt (14.0 KB) |