Inkscape Issues Date : Started this on 28 March 2007
Version : 0.45.1 self-compiled on Kubuntu Dapper (32 bit version) Machine : Brand new AMD 64x2, Gigabyte m/b, 1 gig DDR2 RAM, lots of drive space (old IDE drives), PCI-Express nvidia card of no particular specs. (My old machine literally went boom!)
I reported this slowing-down on my last machine (an old AMD 1 ghz) on the inkscape-users list. I was very surprised to see the same thing on my new machine. I apt-get installed the build requirements (as per the Inkscape wiki) and compiled 0.45.1 to see if that would boost performance, it *was* much quicker but the slow-down still happens.
Inkscape starts nice and fast. For example panning is very quick, even with a complex drawing. After a time, perhaps 20/30 minutes, the panning becomes choppy and then unusable. I find it quicker to zoom out and zoom-in to a new area than to pan across to it.
After a time the GTK dialogs start to draw very slowly. I have noticed this on: 1. The fill/stroke dialog (particular culprit) 2. The Doc properties 3. The Global prefs 4. Export sub-dialogs like the 'confirm file replace' dialogue. 5. Now and then on the Font dialog
After they begin to 'go slow' they quickly stop working at all. I often get blank forms (see attached -- assuming it does not get stripped.) BTW - This is the only GTK app that does this. Pan, Gimp, Tomboy, FontyPython, Firefox all work fine, if slowly.
When I feel Inkscape slowing, I save and restart it. Inkscape can take up to 30 seconds to close. The entire machine is non-responsive during that time. Music playing usually stutters and while the mouse will move around, nothing can be clicked or dragged.
Is there something I can do to help diagnose this? Can I compile with other flags (I am clueless about gcc/g++) in order to produce debug info or something? Or perhaps there is a trick to track memory useage to a logfile that I can post?
Could this issue be a problem with the quality of the supporting libraries as released on Kubuntu Dapper? I have always thought GTK apps were easily half the speed of QT apps on Kubuntu Dapper (and before that Fedora Core 1 and 3).
Please let me know what I can do to help, I am not well so I often fall off the net, but I thought I needed to let you know about my experiences.
Donn.
