gnome-shell is using over 13GB of ram after 5 days

[Richard e Collins]

This is on Ubuntu 22.04
All updates
After 5 days gnome-shell is using 13GB or ram.

System is a Asus PN50
512 GB m.2 drive
64 GIG Ram.
AMD 4800U

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 22.04
Package: gnome-shell 42.0-2ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.15.0-27.28-generic 5.15.30
Uname: Linux 5.15.0-27-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu82
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sat May 14 11:27:20 2022
DisplayManager: gdm3
InstallationDate: Installed on 2022-05-07 (6 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS "Jammy Jellyfish" - Release amd64 (20220419)
RebootRequiredPkgs: Error: path contained symlinks.
RelatedPackageVersions: mutter-common 42.0-3ubuntu2
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks for the bug report.

1. Please open the Extensions app (from package gnome-shell-extension-prefs) and ensure you only have the three Ubuntu extensions loaded.

2. Please run these commands in a Terminal to remove any locally-installed extensions you might have:

   cd ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/
   rm -rf extensions

3. Log in again and tell us if the problem returns.

4. If the problem does return then it might be related to the flood of 'unable to update icon for multiload' messages in your log. To test that theory please disable 'Ubuntu AppIndicators' in the Extensions app.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Also while the problem is happening please run:

  ps auxw | grep gnome-shell > psoutput.txt

and attach the resulting text file here.

[Richard e Collins (richarduk)]

I have looked in ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/ There is no extensions folder. This is a new install of Ubuntu 22.04 with no modifications yet. Here is the ls output of the folder ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/

drwx------ 2 richard richard 4.0K May 16 07:24 .
drwx------ 23 richard richard 4.0K May 15 16:21 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 2.0K May 16 07:24 application_state
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 0 May 7 15:13 gnome-overrides-migrated
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 592 May 14 23:56 notifications

I will apply a updates again, if there are any, reboot and create the file you need. It'll take a day or so.

Many thanks for your feedback. :)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Since the cause of gnome-shell leaks is almost never gnome-shell itself I am unassigning that package.

[Richard e Collins (richarduk)]

You can close this bug now. After 11 days gnome-shell memory usage has been stable. I must have had an application causing the issue. As I leave my PC on for a long time, never shutdown, I do not know what it would have been that caused this. But I am sure it is not gnome-shell.