High load when running VirtualBox
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unity |
Invalid
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
Virtualbox |
New
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
unity (Ubuntu) |
Invalid
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
When running VirtualBox, the system load suddenly raises without stopping. When I kill compiz (which includes Unity), the load goes down again. If I don't kill it quick enough, the system locks up completely and I need to power off the machine.
I was searching very long for a solution because I thought it's a VirtualBox problem. I'm using the Oracle 4.2.12 package provided on http://
Before I had this problem, I was using Ubuntu 12.10 without any issues. When 13.04 came out, I decided to make a fresh installation and have this problem since then.
Description of the problem:
- I'm running Ubuntu 13.04 on an Asus Zenbook UX31A with 4 GB memory and 128 GB SSD.
- Before I start VirtualBox, I have already opened several programs: Chromium, Firefox, Skype are the biggest in terms of memory usage (I think the problem occured less often when VirtualBox was running alone, so maybe it's related to memory usage)
- When I start VirtualBox, the problem occurs sometimes during boot, but sometimes only after a a few minutes of uptime. Most of the time, it happened when the machine was idle and I was working in a different window.
Workarounds:
1) I can use Unity only when I run a background job which checks for the load and kills / replaces compiz & unity if the system load is too high.
2) I decided to install ubuntu-
Changed in unity (Ubuntu): | |
status: | New → Invalid |
Changed in unity: | |
status: | New → Invalid |
Here's an update. After a few days of running GNOME, the same problem occured again. Apparently the problem is not caused by Unity!
Meanwhile, I found some lines in the logfile:
May 17 11:47:48 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: The canary thread is apparently starving. Taking action.
May 17 11:47:54 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Demoting known real-time threads.
May 17 11:47:59 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2257 of process 2250 (n/a).
May 17 11:48:16 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2256 of process 2250 (n/a).
May 17 11:48:37 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2255 of process 2250 (n/a).
May 17 11:48:45 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2254 of process 2250 (n/a).
May 17 11:48:55 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2250 of process 2250 (n/a).
May 17 11:49:02 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Demoted 5 threads.
May 17 11:49:12 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: The canary thread is apparently starving. Taking action.
May 17 11:49:16 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Demoting known real-time threads.
May 17 11:49:20 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2257 of process 2250 (n/a).
May 17 11:49:29 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2256 of process 2250 (n/a).
May 17 11:49:52 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2255 of process 2250 (n/a).
May 17 11:50:22 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2254 of process 2250 (n/a).
May 17 11:50:28 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2250 of process 2250 (n/a).
May 17 11:50:39 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Demoted 5 threads.
May 17 11:50:47 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: The canary thread is apparently starving. Taking action.
May 17 11:50:55 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Demoting known real-time threads.
May 17 11:51:02 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2257 of process 2250 (n/a).
May 17 11:51:07 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2256 of process 2250 (n/a).
May 17 11:51:13 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2255 of process 2250 (n/a).
May 17 11:51:32 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2254 of process 2250 (n/a).
May 17 11:52:05 zenbook rtkit-daemon[1691]: Successfully demoted thread 2250 of process 2250 (n/a).
Therefore I tried to disable rtkit-daemon (sudo rtkitctl --exit) and since then the system runs fine.
Not sure yet, but I believe the problem is caused by rtkit, not unity!