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Package: xterm
Version: 4.3.0-7
Severity: normal
Please include the analagous patch that suggested and tested here (for
multi-gnome-terminal) into xterm (and send upstream - why didn't
reportbug ask me the upstream question this time?):
http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0404.0/0467.html
In kernel 2.6, the scheduler changes have uncovered a bug in xterm
that make the scrolling speed hideously slow[1] because it causes
xterm to output one character at a time in a busy loop instead of jump
scrolling. This will affect all terminals based on xterm, which is
well, all of them. Presumably upstream will include this, but they
don't seem to have done so yet[2][3], so I am submitting this bug
report.
[1] To demonstrate, open up an xterm to maximised, `ls -trlA --color`
a big directory - say the 500 files in your home directory. See how
slow. Now pipe the same through `cat` or `dd`, and see how quick. You
may need a slow (~500MHz) computer to appreciate the full effect of
just how hideous this is (6-10 seconds on my machine).
[2] At least, xterm is still as slow as normal for me, but I can't
download the xterm sources myself and verify yet, because hey, 50MB
[3] the poster of the patch said it was in debian unstable already - I
presume he meant only for gnome-terminal, because I just upgraded to
test for the existance of this patch
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (50, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i586)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.4
Locale: LANG=en_AU, LC_CTYPE=en_AU
Versions of packages xterm depends on:
ii libc6 2.3.2.ds1-11 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii libexpat1 1.95.6-8 XML parsing C library - runtime li
ii libfontconfig1 2.2.2-1 generic font configuration library
ii libfreetype6 2.1.7-2 FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii libice6 4.3.0-7 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii libncurses5 5.4-2 Shared libraries for terminal hand
ii libsm6 4.3.0-7 X Window System Session Management
ii libxaw7 4.3.0-7 X Athena widget set library
ii libxext6 4.3.0-7 X Window System miscellaneous exte
ii libxft2 2.1.2-5 FreeType-based font drawing librar
ii libxmu6 4.3.0-7 X Window System miscellaneous util
ii libxpm4 4.3.0-7 X pixmap library
ii libxrender1 0.8.3-5 X Rendering Extension client libra
ii libxt6 4.3.0-7 X Toolkit Intrinsics
ii xlibs 4.3.0-7 X Window System client libraries m
ii xlibs-data 4.3.0-7 X Window System client data
-- debconf information:
* xterm/clobber_xresource_file: true
xterm/xterm_needs_devpts:
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