Bug#384105: /usr/X11R6/bin/X: X server slow

[Paul Szabo <psz@maths.usyd.edu.au>]

Package: xserver-common
Version: 4.3.0.dfsg.1-14sarge1
Severity: normal
File: /usr/X11R6/bin/X

At sarge, the X server is "slow", particularly for flushed (STDERR)
output into xterm or gnome-terminal. To demonstrate, run

  p=`ps -fC XFree86`
  time perl -e '$|=1; foreach $x (1..500) { print "x" foreach(1..$x); print " $x\n" }'
  #time perl -e 'foreach $x (1..500) { print STDERR "x" foreach(1..$x); print STDERR " $x\n" }'
  echo "$p"; ps -fC XFree86

in a terminal window: takes 18 seconds on a dual-Xeon2.2GHz and 50
seconds on a Celeron2GHz, with /usr/bin/X11/X taking almost 100% CPU
time. At woody the above completed in under 1 second.

It is interesting to see more than one of those running simultaneously
in several windows: only one at a time is "running".

Cheers,

Paul Szabo   psz@maths.usyd.edu.au   http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/psz/
School of Mathematics and Statistics   University of Sydney    Australia


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.8-spm1.5
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

Versions of packages xserver-common depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2 1.4.30.13             Debian configuration management sy
ii  libc6              2.3.2.ds1-22          GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  xfree86-common     4.3.0.dfsg.1-14sarge1 X Window System (XFree86) infrastr

-- debconf information:
  xserver-common/xwrapper/nice_value/error:
  xserver-common/xwrapper/allowed_users: Console Users Only
  xserver-common/xwrapper/actual_allowed_users: console
  xserver-common/xwrapper/nice_value: -10