[RPi4] Midnight Commander screen updates really clunky

frankvw · October 22, 2023 at 9:55 AM

As with all my previous LE installations, I added Midnight Commander from the repo because I use it a lot. But this time, with LE12.0.3 on the RPi4B, using it is a pain. When I start it takes about 5 seconds for MC to appear on screen, and every time I move the selection bar up or down the entire screen is being redrawn. Previously screen updates were quite smooth and only those characters on the screen that needed it were redrawn.

Has something fundamentally changed in how MC (and perhaps other applications like it) work with the terminal client during an SSH session?

// F

tokul · October 23, 2023 at 6:21 PM

You are talking about thing that is happening since v11.0.0. I think nano is impacted by same ridiculous screen redraw too. You probably got typo in "LE1`2.0.3" or time machine.

Thread

LibreELEC 11.0.0 MC 4.8.28 Migraine edition

If you changed Midnight Commander build parameters in v11 builds, rollback, check why your QA testers end up in ER after tests or fix screen redraw.

MC screen redraw speed is too slow or redraw algorithm is broken in LibreELEC 11.0.0. Screen is flashing black on any fast actions (navigate, copy or move, paste).

details from two versions in spoiler. I don't see MC version changes, yet LE v10 mc is usable and I don't recall having problems with mc on x86 before update. I might try loading LE v10…

tokul

March 10, 2023 at 4:50 PM

frakkin64 · October 23, 2023 at 10:30 PM

It's probably something related to ncurses library or terminfo. It would require someone probably reverting commits to identify when it worked and when it was broken, and doing runtime testing to isolate the cause.

It doesn't really bother me, but I have also noticed it. I don't use midnight commander, so don't care about that. But I have noticed it in htop.

frankvw · October 24, 2023 at 8:47 AM

Quote from frakkin64

It's probably something related to ncurses library or terminfo. It would require someone probably reverting commits to identify when it worked and when it was broken, and doing runtime testing to isolate the cause.
It doesn't really bother me, but I have also noticed it. I don't use midnight commander, so don't care about that. But I have noticed it in htop.

Yes, you're right, htop is also affected (although it's less noticeable there).

frakkin64 · October 24, 2023 at 11:54 AM

Quote from frankvw

Yes, you're right, htop is also affected (although it's less noticeable there).

Yeah, mc is a trainwreck, there is just so much more to draw. There is a PR now, just waiting on review by the developers. The other big issue is it would require bumping the addons and rebuilding.

I rebuilt system-tools & network-tools with the PR for LE12, and it's smooth now.

mitekpl · December 1, 2023 at 2:00 PM

I use alias to change default mc behavior:
alias mc='TERM=xterm;mc -X -u'

This speedup execution (something with subshell) and remove screen flickering (TERM=linux is default).

Disadvantage is lack of frames and different keyboard handling.

elmangomez · February 3, 2025 at 6:20 PM

Quote from mitekpl

I use alias to change default mc behavior:
alias mc='TERM=xterm;mc -X -u'
This speedup execution (something with subshell) and remove screen flickering (TERM=linux is default).
Disadvantage is lack of frames and different keyboard handling.

Sorry to bring up an old thread... How/where exactly do you set the "alias mc" parameters above. MC is practically not usable with the flickering.

Thanks.