Bug#701767: libgtk2.0-0: Gtk2 windows draw slowly compared to QT windows and other non-Debian distros using Gtk2

[Will Brokenbourgh]

Package: libgtk2.0-0
Version: 2.24.10-2
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

Compared to Debian Squeeze, non-Debian-based distros and QT windows, Gtk2
windows draw noticeably slower.  When launching or restoring an iconified Gtk2
window on Debian Wheezy, you can see that the window decorations and blank
child container are drawn, then a moment later (perhaps 10 ms or so) the
window's contents are drawn.  This happens every time the same Gtk2 window is
restored, so it's not just after the Gtk2 window's creation.

This can be seen with open-source AND proprietary X drivers for both Nvidia and
ATI/AMD, on multiple computers running modern hardware, so it doesn't appear to
be an xorg driver or hardware issue.  It happens on both 32 and 64-bit Wheezy,
installed from Debian Installer RC1 (and earlier).  The problem is seen with or
without a desktop background image, with or without windows behind the Gtk2
window and is not limited to just Xfce's window manager as the problem can be
seen on Openbox and Fluxbox, as well.

[How to test]
A good test is to launch Thunar, wait for it to completely load its contents,
then minimize it.  Then repeatedly restore and minimize the Thunar window and
you can see the slowness of the drawing.  If you have another non-Debian/non-
Ubuntu-based distro, perform the same test on modern hardware and you can see
that Debian draws Gtk2 windows much slower.

[What was expected]
If you perform the same test with VirtualBox gui or CMake gui windows, which
are QT, the problem is not seen.  The window decorations and child contents
appear together, without any noticeable delay.



-- System Information:
Debian Release: 7.0
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/3 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages libgtk2.0-0 depends on:
ii  libatk1.0-0         2.4.0-2
ii  libc6               2.13-38
ii  libcairo2           1.12.2-3
ii  libcomerr2          1.42.5-1
ii  libcups2            1.5.3-2.14
ii  libfontconfig1      2.9.0-7.1
ii  libfreetype6        2.4.9-1.1
ii  libgcrypt11         1.5.0-3
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0  2.26.1-1
ii  libglib2.0-0        2.33.12+really2.32.4-5
ii  libgnutls26         2.12.20-4
ii  libgssapi-krb5-2    1.10.1+dfsg-4
ii  libgtk2.0-common    2.24.10-2
ii  libk5crypto3        1.10.1+dfsg-4
ii  libkrb5-3           1.10.1+dfsg-4
ii  libpango1.0-0       1.30.0-1
ii  libx11-6            2:1.5.0-1
ii  libxcomposite1      1:0.4.3-2
ii  libxcursor1         1:1.1.13-1
ii  libxdamage1         1:1.1.3-2
ii  libxext6            2:1.3.1-2
ii  libxfixes3          1:5.0-4
ii  libxi6              2:1.6.1-1
ii  libxinerama1        2:1.1.2-1
ii  libxrandr2          2:1.3.2-2
ii  libxrender1         1:0.9.7-1
ii  multiarch-support   2.13-38
ii  shared-mime-info    1.0-1+b1
ii  zlib1g              1:1.2.7.dfsg-13

Versions of packages libgtk2.0-0 recommends:
ii  hicolor-icon-theme  0.12-1
ii  libgtk2.0-bin       2.24.10-2

Versions of packages libgtk2.0-0 suggests:
ii  gvfs             1.12.3-4
ii  librsvg2-common  2.36.1-1

-- no debconf information