Bug#265951: gnome-terminal: intermittent slow output

[Lee Revell]

Package: gnome-terminal
Version: 2.6.1-6
Severity: important


gnome-terminals ouytput is intermittently about 100x slower than normal.  There 
is no other load on the system.  Here is a demonstration: 

rlrevell@mindpipe:~/kernel-source$ time ls
2.6.8-rc1-mm1.bz2                         ketchup-0.8.1                         rdtsc-robust-2.6.8-rc3-A0           voluntary-preempt-2.6.8-rc2-M5
2.6.8-rc2-mm1.bz2                         linux-2.6.8.1                         runlevel.mk                         voluntary-preempt-2.6.8-rc2-O2
2.6.8-rc2-mm2.bz2                         linux-2.6.8.1.tar.bz2                 softirq.patch                       voluntary-preempt-2.6.8-rc2-O3
2.6.8-rc3-mm2.bz2                         mlockall-test.cc                      start5.mk                           voluntary-preempt-2.6.8-rc2-mm1-M5
 README                                    mm2                                   stop5.mk                            voluntary-preempt-2.6.8-rc2-mm2-O3
defer-softirqs-2.6.8-rc2-A2               patch-2.6.8-rc3.bz2                   via-rhine-testing                   voluntary-preempt-2.6.8-rc3-O4
fast_clear_page.patch                     preempt-timing-on-2.6.8-rc2-O2        voluntary-preempt-2.6.7-vanilla-H3  voluntary-preempt-2.6.8-rc3-O5
fast_clear_page.patch~                    preempt-timing-on-2.6.8-rc3-O4.patch  voluntary-preempt-2.6.8-rc2-H4      voluntary-preempt-2.6.8-rc4-O6
kallsyms_lookup.patch                     preempt-timing-on-2.6.8-rc3-O5-A2     voluntary-preempt-2.6.8-rc2-I4      voluntary-preempt-2.6.8-rc4-O7
kernel-image-2.6.7_10.00.Custom_i386.deb  rc                                    voluntary-preempt-2.6.8-rc2-L2      voluntary-preempt-2.6.8.1-P0

real    0m2.078s
user    0m0.006s
sys     0m0.008s
rlrevell@mindpipe:~/kernel-source$ time ls

[output deleted] 

real    0m2.078s
user    0m0.004s
sys     0m0.009s
rlrevell@mindpipe:~/kernel-source$ time ls

real    0m0.013s
user    0m0.005s
sys     0m0.008s
rlrevell@mindpipe:~/kernel-source$ time ls

real    0m2.076s
user    0m0.008s
sys     0m0.006s
rlrevell@mindpipe:~/kernel-source$ time ls

real    0m0.013s
user    0m0.006s
sys     0m0.007s

In each of these cases the screen was full of output, so the effect of blank space 
above the output is not the issue.

xterm does not have the same bug.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.8-rc4-O7
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C

Versions of packages gnome-terminal depends on:
ii  gnome-control-center      1:2.6.1-12     The GNOME Control Center for GNOME
ii  libart-2.0-2              2.3.16-6       Library of functions for 2D graphi
ii  libatk1.0-0               1.6.1-3        The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libaudiofile0             0.2.6-4        Open-source version of SGI's audio
ii  libbonobo2-0              2.6.2-5        Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libbonoboui2-0            2.6.1-1        The Bonobo UI library
ii  libc6                     2.3.2.ds1-16   GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libesd0                   0.2.34-1       Enlightened Sound Daemon - Shared 
ii  libfontconfig1            2.2.3-1        generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6              2.1.7-2.2      FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libgconf2-4               2.6.3-2        GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libgcrypt11               1.2.0-6        LGPL Crypto library - runtime libr
ii  libglade2-0               1:2.4.0-1      Library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0              2.4.5-2        The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome-keyring0         0.2.1-2        GNOME keyring services library
ii  libgnome2-0               2.6.1.2-2      The GNOME 2 library - runtime file
ii  libgnomecanvas2-0         2.6.1.1-2      A powerful object-oriented display
ii  libgnomeui-0              2.6.1.1-4      The GNOME 2 libraries (User Interf
ii  libgnomevfs2-0            2.6.2-1        The GNOME virtual file-system libr
ii  libgnutls11               1.0.16-6       GNU TLS library - runtime library
ii  libgpg-error0             1.0-1          library for common error values an
ii  libgtk2.0-0               2.4.4-2        The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libice6                   4.3.0.dfsg.1-6 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libjpeg62                 6b-9           The Independent JPEG Group's JPEG 
ii  libncurses5               5.4-4          Shared libraries for terminal hand
ii  liborbit2                 1:2.10.2-1.1   libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii  libpango1.0-0             1.4.1-1        Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpopt0                  1.7-4          lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii  libsm6                    4.3.0.dfsg.1-6 X Window System Session Management
ii  libstartup-notification0  0.7-1          library for program launch feedbac
ii  libtasn1-2                0.2.10-4       Manage ASN.1 structures (runtime)
ii  libvte4                   1:0.11.11-5    Terminal emulator widget for GTK+ 
ii  libx11-6                  4.3.0.dfsg.1-6 X Window System protocol client li
ii  libxft2                   2.1.2-6        FreeType-based font drawing librar
ii  libxml2                   2.6.11-3       GNOME XML library
ii  libxrender1               0.8.3-7        X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  scrollkeeper              0.3.14-8       A free electronic cataloging syste
ii  xlibs                     4.3.0.dfsg.1-6 X Window System client libraries m
ii  zlib1g                    1:1.2.1.1-5    compression library - runtime

-- no debconf information