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I have an AMD E2-3200 APU (integrated Radeon GPU in CPU), running Ubuntu 12.10 (generic Ubuntu image, Linux 3.5 kernel).

My ubuntu works too slow on GUI related process. I wonder what is the best to do to get better performance here?

lshw -c video shows that it uses radeon driver. ps -ef | grep compiz shows that it uses Compiz. I did metacity --replace to disable Compiz, however the GUI was not usable after executing that command (desktop and folders disappeared, window's menu and GUI related buttons disappeared).

gertvdijk
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Johan Elmander
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2 Answers2

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Installing the proprietary drivers from AMD may fix slow graphics. You can install them from the Ubuntu Software Center. Search for "fglrx" and install the package. After a reboot graphics should be better.

As MiJyn commented below, it is necessary to run sudo amdconfig --initial -f after installation. To do that, you need to open a terminal (search the Dash) and paste the command. Press enter and you will be prompted to enter your password. After you did that, you can reboot safely.

Your graphics processor is fast enough to render Ubuntu Unity.

R110
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From your problem description I get that you're using the default Ubuntu graphical environment - Unity - which is performing poorly on your video card.

If the suggestion of installing fglrx doesn't work/provide the required performance, please read below.

If you don't necessarily want to run Unity, the best idea that comes to my mind is to try an alternate graphical environment - XFCE or LXDE - which is much lighter than Unity on graphical resources.

I run a (custom, built on my own) XFCE/LXDE version successfully on systems with Pentium 4 CPU, 512 MB RAM and integrated Intel 82865G graphics card. The Intel 82865G graphics card is a very old & poor performance video card. Oh, I should also mention I'm running as LiveUSB (which eats some additional RAM).

While you could install only the parts required to run a XFCE/LXDE session, I think it's easiest to install the full desktop experience for Xubuntu/Lubuntu. Please know there won't be a huge volume of data to be downloaded as most part of the system is already there, only specific packages will be downloaded.

You can get XFCE/Xubuntu or LXDE/Lubuntu easily by running sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop or sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop in a terminal (CTRL+ALT+T). After that, logout and login back in, and remember to change the session from Ubuntu to Xubuntu/Lubuntu at the login screen.

Good luck and let us know if this works!

MiJyn
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Fane
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