Compiz is consuming constantly 50%-60% of CPU. That didn't happen with 12.04

[Josep]

It takes perfomance down of the whole system and make almost impossible to work in a daily basis.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: compiz 1:0.9.8.4-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-17.27-generic 3.5.5
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-17-generic i686
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,mousepoll,wall,snap,move,place,imgpng,grid,regex,resize,gnomecompat,vpswitch,session,animation,expo,ezoom,workarounds,fade,scale,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: compiz
Date: Wed Oct 10 08:45:56 2012
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: quantal
DistroVariant: ubuntu
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) [8086:2a02] (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Fujitsu Technology Solutions Device [1734:1117]
   Subsystem: Fujitsu Technology Solutions Device [1734:1117]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Beta i386 (20120926)
MachineType: FUJITSU SIEMENS ESPRIMO Mobile M9400
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=ca_ES.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-17-generic root=UUID=9b6d0e5f-c261-4f46-8e1e-f20cf75f249a ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: compiz
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 11/01/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix
dmi.bios.version: 1.03 - R052 - 1471
dmi.board.name: M11D
dmi.board.vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: CID
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenix:bvr1.03-R052-1471:bd11/01/2007:svnFUJITSUSIEMENS:pnESPRIMOMobileM9400:pvr1.0:rvnFUJITSUSIEMENS:rnM11D:rvr1.0:cvnFUJITSUSIEMENS:ct1:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: ESPRIMO Mobile M9400
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.8.4-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.39-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 9.0~git20121004.b2048c5e-0ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 9.0~git20121004.b2048c5e-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.13.0-0ubuntu6
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.7.3-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.99.99~git20120913.8637f772-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.20.9-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.2-0ubuntu3

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please download the attached script to your home directory. Now while compiz is using high CPU, please run this command several times:
  sh dstack compiz >> stacks.txt

And then attach the file "stacks.txt" to this bug.

[Josep (josep-mangas)]

Hi,

Here it is. I've run it 10 times more or less ...
 Thanks for the quick reply.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Hmm, that didn't work. Could you please try sudo first:
    sudo -s
and enter your password.

Then repeat the above steps?

[Josep (josep-mangas)]

Hi, done it again as "su". It seems the outcome is the same.
I have updated the system with latests packages and remove the performance indicator from the top bar. No it seems working better, although fan is at full throtlle from time to time, and you can see compiz reaching 60%-70% of cpuload.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Do you have panel transparency enabled? This might be caused by bug 1064834

[Josep (josep-mangas)]

Yep, I have the installation by default. My hardware is almost 4 years old, so no 3D sorry. With 12.04 I didn't have any top unity feature and it was fine for me. I'l check the other bug if there's a way to disable the special effects until is fix.
Thanks.

[Jonas G. Drange (jonas-drange)]

Can confirm that removing panel transparency brought compiz down to normal CPU usage (from ~40% to ~0%).

[Josep (josep-mangas)]

Nop. Althought I removed the transparency feature the CPU is high, but I noticed that compiz consuming high cpu is a side effect of another problem. Evolution-address is eating the whole drive, replicating constantly the addressbook under the .cache/evolution/addressbook directory. Considering that my organization has an AD with more than 100k entries, caching the whole GAL is not a good idea. I don´t know why is making new and new directories under that path, each of them with 1 Gb files. That evolution process was consuming a lot of memory making the system to instensively use the swap memory (2Gb phisical + 2 Gb swap). So compiz was using swap space too, making everything impossible to work with.
So, basicaly I am trying to change from evolution to thunderbir+davmail to connect through EWS to my exchange ... never understood why not to use ActiveSync. If Android works fine with Exchange (including pictures of people), is frustating evolution or any other Linux email client, can't do it ...

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I don't yet understand how evolution-address can make the CPU usage of compiz high. Unless there's a relevant indicator running under Unity (and hence Compiz)?

[Josep (josep-mangas)]

Hi. Removed transparency (gconf and changing metacity-theme entries ... ) and it's ok now.
Regarding evolution-addressbook issue, I have opened another bug. I think the relation was the amount of memory used by evolution, with a lot of swap, and that affecting compiz.
Thanks