Compiz burns at least 8% CPU constantly

[Izidor Matušov]

I installed Ubuntu 12.10. Since then compiz burns at least 8% of CPU constantly. It makes fans go nonstop and decreases usability of Unity because of the noise.

Sometimes I accidentally trigger another/similar bug and compiz uses at least 25% of CPU making the desktop laggy -- processing a keyboard event takes too long.

I can reproduce this problem either using nouveau or nvidia drivers. This problem doesn't occur when I use GNOME Shell instead of Unity.

What information do you need to find the root of the problem?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please:
1. Copy the attached script to your home directory
2. Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T)
3. Run: sudo sh dstack compiz >> compizcpu.txt
4. Repeat #3 many times.
5. Attach "compizcpu.txt" to this bug.

[Izidor Matušov (izidor)]

When I run the script, I get the following error:

87 ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/poll.c: No such file or directory.

Is it harmless?

[Izidor Matušov (izidor)]

This is compizcpu.txt. It was generated dstack script in a loop every second for about 14 minutes.

[Izidor Matušov (izidor)]

An observation: I can reproduce this bug only when an external monitor is plugged in. (I spent whole weekend without the monitor and the bug didn't occur)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Izidor,

It appears the combination of a large desktop (multiple monitors), the nvidia driver, and Unity is the problem. Obviously we should only expect Nvidia or Unity to change.

A relevant fix has been released in Nux 3.10 recently. Please make sure your libnux packages are at 3.10 or later.

For Nvidia, they claim to have made major leaps in Unity performance with their v310 beta driver, so please try that too:
  http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux-display-amd64-310.14-driver.html
  http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux-display-ia32-310.14-driver.html

Finally, please provide details of your installation by running this command:
  apport-collect 1071284

And in future, please report bugs using this command:
  ubuntu-bug unity

[Izidor Matušov (izidor)]

I can reproduce it with the newest nux and v310 nvidia driver. I don't experience behavior like that when using GNOME Shell.

[Izidor Matušov (izidor)]

BTW: apport-collect fails on traceback:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/apport/apport-gtk", line 588, in <module>
    app.run_argv()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport/ui.py", line 639, in run_argv
    return self.run_update_report()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport/ui.py", line 559, in run_update_report
    attachment_comment='apport information')
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport/crashdb_impl/launchpad.py", line 358, in update
    report.write_mime(mime, skip_keys=skip_keys)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/problem_report.py", line 504, in write_mime
    attach_value = CompressedValue(v, k).gzipvalue
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/problem_report.py", line 44, in __init__
    self.set_value(value)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/problem_report.py", line 50, in set_value
    gzip.GzipFile(self.name, mode='wb', fileobj=out).write(value)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gzip.py", line 131, in __init__
    self._write_gzip_header()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gzip.py", line 176, in _write_gzip_header
    self.fileobj.write(fname + '\000')
TypeError: 'unicode' does not have the buffer interface

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Ptitphysik (amalpeyre)]

For me.

Thx.

[Walter Garcia-Fontes (walter-garcia)]

Sorry @Ptiphysik for the long time without attention in this issue. If you can (and you want to try) still reproduce this issue in a currently supported fully updated version of Ubuntu please mark the Status of the report back to "New".

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for nvidia-graphics-drivers (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for Nux because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for Unity because there has been no activity for 60 days.]