Desktop locks up after deleting files.

[Argyle]

Using Linux Mint 16 "petra", Cinnamon 64-bit edition. System CPU is Intel Core i5-2400 @ 3.1 GHz x 4 cores. Memory is 7.8 GiB.

Often when I delete a large number of files in nemo (last time 1.7GB worth), the desktop stops responding. The mouse will continue to update for a minute or two, but then even that slows down and eventually no longer responds. If I catch it fast enough, I can switch over to a console, which is responsive for a while, but eventually slows down and stops reacting to my inputs. "top" on the console shows high CPU usage by gvfsd-trash, also shows cinnamon uses all of my memory (8 gigs) and large, climbing amounts of virtual memory (16+ gigs). Killing gvfsd-trash and cinnamon (kill -9) returns responsiveness to the system. I see no "lockup" reports in kern.log or syslog (as pointed out in https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1228900, which may be similar?).

[Argyle (kruegejj)]

Further comments on observed behavior:

It seems every time I delete a file or set of files in nemo, the memory usage of cinnamon climbs. This memory does not seem to ever be released back to the system. Eventually responsiveness suffers and I have to restart cinnamon to get the memory back.

Immediately after I delete a bunch of files, the screen stops updating, except for the mouse. The more files I delete, the longer it takes to recover. After recovery, it can be seen from the system monitor that my memory usage has jumped. In the cases where my memory usage is nearly maxed out before I hit delete, the desktop may not recover.

[Chocmint (cpblond1)]

Using Linux Mint 16 "Petra", Cinnamon 64-bit edition. System CPU is Intel Core i7-3667U @ 2.00 GHz x 2 cores & hyperthreading. Memory is 7.5 GiB.

This just started happening to me, too, when I mount a large SMB share and access the files on it, either from the command line or from Nemo. It is 100% repeatable. I have not attempted to delete trash. Symptoms are virtually identical: I can switch to a console and see gvfsd-trash eating up CPU. I did not notice the memory usage. I just kill the Cinnamon session from the console, log back on, and everything's great.

I know this didn't happen before because it first hit when I ran my simple (roughly) weekly backup script. If I kill gvfsd-trash before mounting the share everything runs normally, with no desktop lockup or other issues. Otherwise I can list a small directory on the share once or twice, then BAM, the desktop is completely locked up except for the mouse cursor.

[saneearth (saneearth)]

Guess this is an old thread, but I have this issue also. I notice it especially if deleting multiple graphics files.

[pst007x (turone)]

I can confirm that the issue is with Cinnamon. If I delete many files with Gnome as my Desktop, Nemo does not hang, however if I switch back to Cinnamon, when deleting the same files, Nemo then hangs.

The same happens when using Nautilus.

[pst007x (turone)]

I run this script found here (LINK BELOW) If I restrict gvfsd-trash CPU usage, then Cinnamon does not hang and the issue clears.

So the problem does seem to be with Nemo/Nautilus and Cinnamon using excessive CPU usage when deleting files.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/633794/is-there-a-way-to-autostart-cpulimit-in-order-to-reduce-excessive-cpu-consumptio/634321#634321