firefox 200% CPU usage while idle/shutdown: mpegaudioparse0 and mpegaudioparse1 processes

[Peter Schüller]

Firefox regularly eats up 100% or 200% CPU usage while just gmail and google calendar pages are opened.

Shutting down firefox does not really shut it down, only the window disappears, the processes that eat CPU stay, so restarting firefox does not work until I manually kill these processes.

While they show up as "firefox" in $ top, I now managed to activate the "thread view" where these processes show up as "mpegaudioparse0" and "mpegaudioparse1" processes.

Actually this might not be a bug in firefox but in one of the extensions, e.g., flashplugin, but I am not sure. Firefox should kill these harshly when exiting, so that restarting firefox is a possible solution to CPU-eating buggy plugins and extensions.

I am using ubuntu 12.4.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: firefox 28.0+build2-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-19.33~precise1-generic 3.11.10.5
Uname: Linux 3.11.0-19-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version k3.11.0-19-generic.
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.6
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: 92HD90BXX Analog [92HD90BXX Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: ps 2607 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ps 2607 F.... pulseaudio
BuildID: 20140317233623
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xe6760000 irq 46'
   Mixer name : 'IDT 92HD90BXX'
   Components : 'HDA:111d76e7,10280494,00100102'
   Controls : 28
   Simple ctrls : 13
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'NVidia'/'HDA NVidia at 0xe5080000 irq 17'
   Mixer name : 'Nvidia GPU 1c HDMI/DP'
   Components : 'HDA:10de001c,10280494,00100100'
   Controls : 21
   Simple ctrls : 3
Channel: Unavailable
Date: Tue Apr 8 14:25:11 2014
Extensions: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
ForcedLayersAccel: False
IncompatibleExtensions: Unavailable (corrupt or non-existant compatibility.ini or extensions.sqlite)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
IpRoute:
 default via 193.255.160.1 dev eth0 proto static
 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0 scope link metric 1000
 193.255.160.0/23 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 193.255.160.48 metric 1
Locales: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
MarkForUpload: True
MostRecentCrashID: bp-e838124b-7e27-4001-bba3-7c4442140319
PrefSources:
 prefs.js
 [Profile]/extensions/{3d7eb24f-2740-49df-8937-200b1cc08f8a}/defaults/preferences/flashblock.js
Profiles: Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=28.0/20140317233623 (In use)
RelatedPackageVersions:
 google-talkplugin 5.2.4.0-1
 icedtea-7-plugin 1.2.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.4
 rhythmbox-mozilla 2.96-0ubuntu4.3
 totem-mozilla 3.0.1-0ubuntu21.1
 gnome-shell 3.4.1-0ubuntu2
RunningIncompatibleAddons: False
SourcePackage: firefox
Themes: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 10/18/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A08
dmi.board.name: 0692FT
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 9
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA08:bd10/18/2011:svnDellInc.:pnLatitudeE6520:pvr01:rvnDellInc.:rn0692FT:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct9:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Latitude E6520
dmi.product.version: 01
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

mpegaudioparse is part of gstreamer, so I would suspect the totem plugin, especially if you don't have firefox's native gstreamer support enabled (check media.gstreamer.enabled in your config).

[Peter Schüller (schueller-p)]

In about:config I can see that media.gstreamer.enabled is default (true)

Should I try if this happens again if I set it to false?

Which functionality will I lose if I set it to false?

On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 3:56 PM, Daniel Letzeisen
<email address hidden> wrote:
> mpegaudioparse is part of gstreamer, so I would suspect the totem
> plugin, especially if you don't have firefox's native gstreamer support
> enabled (check media.gstreamer.enabled in your config).
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1304351
>
> Title:
> firefox 200% CPU usage while idle/shutdown: mpegaudioparse0 and
> mpegaudioparse1 processes
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1304351/+subscriptions

--
http://www.peterschueller.com/

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

Okay, Ubuntu enables firefox gstreamer by default.
To troubleshoot, I would first disable the totem plugin. If Firefox still misbehaves and leaves mpegaudioparse processes, then I would disable native gstreamer support (set media.gstreamer.enabled to false).

As for the functionality of gstreamer, it allows Firefox to play things like mp3's and supported video formats without using an external plugin (such as the totem plugin).

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

I'm also wondering whether you have gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly (or the gstreamer0.10 fluendo plugin) installed to support mp3.

[Peter Schüller (schueller-p)]

I have gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly installed
I have gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 installed
I have gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad installed
I do not know why I installed them, must be many months ago...

I removed the totem-mozilla package to see if the bug will occur
again, just to check one thing at a time. This problem occurs every
week or so so I expect I will see a change.

On Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 3:45 AM, Daniel Letzeisen
<email address hidden> wrote:
> I'm also wondering whether you have gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly (or the
> gstreamer0.10 fluendo plugin) installed to support mp3.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1304351
>
> Title:
> firefox 200% CPU usage while idle/shutdown: mpegaudioparse0 and
> mpegaudioparse1 processes
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1304351/+subscriptions

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http://www.peterschueller.com/

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Peter Schüller (schueller-p)]

After deinstalling gstreamer plugins and totem-mozilla plugin and
disabling gstreamer setting in firefox the problem disappeared.

I then step-by-step reactivated these packages except for the
totem-mozilla plugin. The bug did not appear again.

I will now install totem-mozilla and see what happens.

On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 5:27 PM, Launchpad Bug Tracker
<email address hidden> wrote:
> Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.
>
> ** Changed in: firefox (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Confirmed
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1304351
>
> Title:
> firefox 200% CPU usage while idle/shutdown: mpegaudioparse0 and
> mpegaudioparse1 processes
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1304351/+subscriptions

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http://www.peterschueller.com/

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

Changing to totem-mozilla based on user's feedback.

[skierpage (skierpage)]

Ubuntu 14.04 just updated Firefox to 30.0 and for the first time I'm seeing this problem. `top -H` shows two mpegaudioparse0/1 threads at 98.6 and 96.6 %CPU.

I have totem and totem-mozilla packages installed. Confusingly, Totem doesn't appear in about:addons > Plugins, but if I click the _More_ link for DivX® Web Player, QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.6, VLC Multimedia Plugin (compatible Videos 3.10.1), or Windows Media Player Plug-in 10 (compatible; Videos), each is being supplied by File libtotem-<someLibraryName>.so. It's a lot clearer if you visit about:plugins instead. Mozilla's plugin-check service identifies the one plugin masquerading as all these as "Totem - The Videos 3.10.1 plugin handles video and audio streams." and says it's up-to-date.

I ran `sudo apt-get remove totem-mozilla`, killed the two threads, and restarted Firefox and that fixed it. So I think somehow Firefox 30's new support for GStreamer should come with a "Suggest removing totem-mozilla". I don't recall ever explicitly installing totem-mozilla,maybe it was recommended for Firefox years ago.

Presumably the totem-mozilla plugin spoofs the DivX/QuickTime/VLC/Windows Media Player plugins so that Web pages that check for them work with Firefox. I don't know how many web pages are out there depending on this.

[George Christofis (geochr)]

I have the same problem, my computers' cpu usage is over 200%. which is the way to fix it ?

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

Disable (or uninstall) the totem-mozilla plugin.

[Gwildor Sok (gwildorsok)]

I removed totem-mozilla over a week ago, and I thought it was helping the first few days. The last few days, however, the issue seems to be returning. It's always after viewing a few YouTube-videos with their HTML5 player that Firefox starts to use over 100% CPU, the temperature of my cores rises to 100 °C and Firefox can only be stopped by killing it (so it continuus to run and use up the CPU when closing the window). After killing the process, the temperature of my cores drops within 10 seconds to around 50-65 degrees.

I'm on the Aurora channel, so I'm running Firefox 33.0a2, on Ubuntu 14.04. Also note I'm running the trusty-proposed channel and everything is up to date.

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

@Gwildor: is your CPU usage caused by mpegaudioparse process? If not, then you're probably experiencing a different bug.

[Gwildor Sok (gwildorsok)]

In top it was showing up as just "firefox", but that was in regular view. I will try it with threaded view now (which was harder to find how to enable than I thought, but apparently it's just shift + H to toggle. All I found in top's manpages was -H argument).

[Gwildor Sok (gwildorsok)]

Just an update: I got it again now (it's not always it seems, I would say once every 5 video's or so), and it showed up on top simply as "Media Decode #6". I guess it's an unrelated issue then.

[Mathew Hodson (mhodson)]

A of totem (3.13.90-1) the totem-mozilla (browser plugin) package is no longer shipped.