gvfs-disks2-volume-monitor and gsd-housekeeping processes can eat a lot of CPU with k3s workload

[Mossroy]

On Ubuntu 22.04.3 desktop, when running a k3s workload that uses volumes (using default local-path storageClass), process gvfs-disks2-volume-monitor can take around 100% of one CPU core, and process gsd-housekeeping around 25% of one CPU core.
Even if the actual k3s workload is idle.

Steps To Reproduce:

- Use or install a desktop Ubuntu 22.04.3 (with default settings)
- Install K3s on it (current version is "v1.28.4+k3s2"), with default settings: "curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -"
- Deploy k8s manifests with many volumes, like https://gitlab.com/-/snippets/3634487: "wget https://gitlab.com/-/snippets/3634487/raw/main/deployment-with-many-volumes.yaml && sudo k3s kubectl apply -f deployment-with-many-volumes.yaml"
- Check CPU consumption on the host, with top, gnome-system-monitor or anything else

Expected behavior:
Gnome desktop tools should not interfere with k3s.

Actual behavior:
Processes gvfs-disks2-volume-monitor and gsd-housekeeping consume a lot of CPU, at least at provisioning time.
Same CPU consumption if you then remove the workload ("sudo k3s kubectl delete -f deployment-with-many-volumes.yaml"), until the PVs are deleted by k3s.
I have other workloads (with data in PVs) where this CPU consumption is always there, when the workload is running (even if idle)

Additional context:
The symptoms are very similar to https://github.com/k3s-io/k3s/issues/522, but the workaround of comment https://github.com/k3s-io/k3s/issues/522#issuecomment-811737023 (adding a udev rule to ignore some loopback devices) does not help.

Executing "systemctl stop --user gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor" can be a temporary workaround

Technical details:
k3s uses containerd to run containers. The local-path storageClass mounts local volumes (physically stored in /var/lib/rancher/k3s/storage subfolders) in these containers.
I suppose gnome applications try to scan these mount points. In this case, the solution might be to make them ignore them, a bit like https://github.com/moby/moby/blob/master/contrib/udev/80-docker.rules does for docker

NB: Was initially reported on https://github.com/k3s-io/k3s/issues/9093

[Mossroy (mossroy)]

I have the same behavior with Ubuntu 23.10.1 (with all current updates), using latest stable k3s (v1.28.5+k3s1)

[Mossroy (mossroy)]

Same behavior on Ubuntu 24.04 daily (2024-01-20, with Gnome 46), and on Fedora Workstation 39 (with Gnome 45)

[Patryk Skorupa (skoruppa)]

I have the same issue. It is hard to work with docker as those two processes consume almost 70% of my cpu. The udev rule does not help me :/

[Mossroy (mossroy)]

Thanks for your feedback, I feel less alone.
Can you mark that this issue affects you at the top of this page (under the issue description)?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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