[scribus] Speed and CPU

[John Beardmore]

John Jason Jordan wrote:
> Scribus has always been slow, and 1.3.5 Rc2 is no exception. I am
> currently working on a moderately long and complex document (a book),
> but even when I did the cover as a separate file Scribus was pretty
> slow. I mean, click on an item and it takes two or three seconds before
> it appears selected on the screen. And after selecting an object I
> cannot drag it for about ten seconds; longer if it is a complex object.
> My platform is Ubuntu Jaunty x96_64, up to date. My two year old
> computer has an Intel Core2 Due T7300 2.00GHz and 4 GB of RAM. The
> video is nVidia Quadro NVS 140M and I am using the open source driver,
> although I have tried the proprietary driver and there was no
> appreciable difference.
> 
> I read here comments that Scribus is fairly quick on 64-bit computers.
> That leads me to wonder if there is something in my configuration that
> is making Scribus not take advantage of all the resources available.
> 
> While working on my current project System Monitor reports Scribus as
> using close to a GB of RAM, but the CPU usage is not as high as I would
> expect. For example, while waiting to be able to drag a complex object
> I would expect the CPU usage to max out, but it does not. I also have a
> little CPU speed indicator applet in the Gnome panel which shows 800 -
> 1200 - 1600 - 2000 depending on the speed. While waiting for Scribus to
> do something it usually stays at 800.

So does linux automatically adjust the speed of your cores depending on 
the priority of the job ?

Does this improve if you renice scribus to 0 or higher ?


> The computer is a notebook, so perhaps there is something in power
> management that is throttling back the CPU in order to save the
> battery, even though I am almost always on the mains.

Linux drivers for my quad core AMD 2.6 gig chip run the cores at 1.3 GHz 
for low priority tasks. Not that I've tried scribus on it yet.


> Unfortunately, I
> am not familiar enough with Linux to know what to poke at. 
> 
> Any comments and suggestions welcome.

Find the PID of scribus with the

     ps -fe command

then try a

     renice 0 PidNumber


Let us know if that perks it up.


Cheers, J/.
-- 
John Beardmore, MSc EDM (Open), B.A. Chem (Oxon), CMIOSH, AIEMA, MEI
Managing Director, T4 Sustainability Limited. http://www.T4sLtd.co.uk/
Energy Audit, Carbon Management, Design Advice, Sustainable Energy
Consultancy and Installation, Carbon Trust Standard Registered Assessor
Phone: 0845 4561332   Mobile: 07785 563116   Skype: t4sustainability