xorg consumes up to 25% of CPU after upgrading to Ubuntu 9.10

[manolo]

Binary package hint: xorg

Upgrading from Ubuntu 9.04 (stable, fresh install) to 9.10 (stable, net install) causes Xorg consume at least ~25% of CPU.
The problem persists at each time I start Ubuntu and the situation gets worse each time other applications are running: it can get to consume 100% of CPU making the system almost unusable. For that reason I'm sorry in advance for not have been the possibility to evaluate other bug reports (just because it's quite a nightmare to write this report too...).
Yesterday I made a movie whith the best performing session since when I upgrader to 9.10 three or four days ago. That's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skuog28ZnoM

Before upgrading everithing was fine on my Acer Aspire 5730z.
Thanks for your attention.

Linux manolo-laptop 2.6.28-16-generic #55-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 20 19:48:24 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

sudo ubuntu-bug -p xorg
  Warning: The options -p/-P are deprecated, please do not use them. See /usr/bin/ubuntu-bug --help

lsb_release -rd
  Description: Ubuntu 9.10
  Release: 9.10

dpkg -S /usr/bin/Xorg
  xserver-xorg-core: /usr/bin/Xorg

root@manolo-laptop:~# apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-core
xserver-xorg-core:
  Installed: 2:1.6.4-2ubuntu4
  Candidate: 2:1.6.4-2ubuntu4
  Version table:
 *** 2:1.6.4-2ubuntu4 0
        500 http://it.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Nov 3 10:08:21 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Lsusb: Error: command ['lsusb'] failed with exit code 1:
MachineType: Acer Aspire 5730
Package: xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu7
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-16-generic root=UUID=a7866b6b-ce76-423d-a735-cf4b488700c8 ro single
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.28-16.55-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu7
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0-1ubuntu4
 libdrm2 2.4.14-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: xorg
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-16-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1557): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1557): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:1658): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1675): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (gnome-panel:1657): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_widget_size_allocate(): attempt to allocate widget with width -3 and height 24
dmi.bios.date: 08/27/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
dmi.bios.version: V1.07
dmi.board.name: CathedralPeak
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: Rev
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologiesLTD:bvrV1.07:bd08/27/2008:svnAcer:pnAspire5730:pvr0100:rvnAcer:rnCathedralPeak:rvrRev:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Aspire 5730
dmi.product.version: 0100
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.28-16-generic

[Ride (acpride)]

Hi,

I have the same problem with an Acer Aspire 5810T laptop (with integrated Intel graphics card). It worked fine with 9.04, but just after upgrading to 9.10 the Xorg cpu problem appeared.

- Logging out and logging in again doesn't have any effect
- Killing Xorg process doesn't have any effect
- Restarting gdm doesn't have any effect
- No desktop effects

Owing to the fact my laptop cpu is single core, the system gets almost frozen sometimes when opening applications as Xorg cpu usage increses.

I can attach some logs if needed.

[Julian Edwards (julian-edwards)]

Same here, although I use Kubuntu.

I'm not sure if it's an Xorg bug or plasma bug, because top says:

 1439 root 20 0 280m 106m 15m S 52 5.3 8:43.88 Xorg
 2191 ed 20 0 552m 43m 22m S 16 2.2 2:44.27 plasma-desktop

This only started happening the last time I rebooted today but I'm not sure when the change happened as I didn't reboot over the weekend at all.

[Julian Edwards (julian-edwards)]

Ok ignore that, it's a KDE bug with plasma.

[Ride (acpride)]

Any news for this bug? It really annoys me, I can't work with my laptop, I will have to install 9.04 again in a new partition.

Can I help with some logs or something?

[manolo (mac-man2005)]

Hi Ride.

I suppose our problem is that this bug hasn't stil been assigned to anyone. Till then, we can only provide more informations or, even better, try to group here as more people as possible who experimented the same issue.
In this way:

A) The more information provided the better for developers in order to resolve the bug

B) The more people asking to resolve the bug, the more interest by developers.

What I've done is opening a new thread in other forums trying to collect more people and invite them on this page. For example:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1315297&highlight=xorg+cpu+25

So, my suggestions: try to provide more informations (for example attaching files as those https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/472406/comments/1) and also try to collect more people towards this bug page.

Good luck (to you and to me too!)

[Ride (acpride)]

Hi,

I attach some logs too.

This is a real nightmare, even a silly thing like get and attach the logs took me an hour or so. You could see in the "top" log that my problem is huge, with cpu peaks arriving to 95% and up.

I hope this could help. Thanks in advance.

Bye

[Albert Damen (albrt)]

The xorg logs for both Manolo and Ride show you are using the old Jaunty kernel (2.6.28) and drm is not properly working. Please make sure you boot with the new Karmic kernel (2.6.31) and see if that solves the problem.
If the karmic kernel still has this problem, please attach xorg.0.log and dmesg output with the Karmic kernel.

[manolo (mac-man2005)]

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!

Albert, thank you very much! The nightmare terminated, although the solution has been not so immediate!!!

I've been trying to upgrade to kernel 2.6.31 as you suggested but after installing through Synaptic and rebooting, my surprise to find out that the new kernel did not appear into the Grub2 menu list !!!
Also, after installing the new kernel for the first time, I realised that neither Synaptic marked that kernel as "installed". Actually no kernel was marked as "installed". Actually, as far as I can remember, a couple of days ago Synaptic notified about that 2.6.31 kernel upgrade: I ran the upgrade but, AFAICS, it didn't installed it.

So, getting back to the point, after installing the 2.6.31 once more I decided to run 'sudo update-grub' which retrieved the new kernel but actually did not updated /boot/grub/grub.cfg
So I've been trying to "manually" add the 2.6.31 line into the grub2 menu. My first try was 'sudo gedit /boot/grub/grub.cfg' but it didn't saved my changes because of "read only file system" !??!?!?!
I also tried to open gedit as super user (I run the 'su' command first) but still no way to save changes for the same reasons.

So my last try was to modify grub.cfg using 'pico' from command line:
sudo pico /boot/grub/grub.cfg

and I did was able to save the f*ck|ng changes!!! In detail I added the lines related to 2.3.31 just copying the lines related to the old kernel and modifying a very little bit accordingly :)
My grub.cfg is attached to the present post.

Hope it helps Ride and all the others experiencing this problem too.
Albert, thank you one more :)

[Ride (acpride)]

Hi,

I solved it too, in my case I already had the new kernel in /boot but it seems that grub haven't been modified.

In my case, I had to modify /boot/grub/menu.lst (grub instead of grub2 I suppose), changing /vmlinuz-2.6.28-16-generic to /vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic and /initrd.img-2.6.28-16-generic to /initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic

Now works great, but this was an upgrade bug? I mean, for some reason grub haven't been modified during the upgrading to 9.10.

Thanks everybody

Bye

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Wow, weird that this would cause high X CPU, but stranger things have happened. Since modifying grub solved it, it sounds like this may be more of a kernel issue than X so I'm reassigning.

[manolo (mac-man2005)]

Hi Brice.

Thanks for your interest. Actually I had grub2 installed before upgrading to 9.10.
On the other hand, as you notice, it's very strange that modifying grub.cfg made the new kernel appear as "installed" reading the list of programs offered by Synaptic. Actually, before pointing my attention on this issue, no kernel resulted to be "installed" using Synaptic!

The question is. Did the upgrade forget to upgrade kernel packages? Or is it a grub2 bug?
Ride, what do you think about it?

Thank you all.
Gnu/Linux rocks!

[Ride (acpride)]

Hi,

In my case, I don't have grub2 installed, I have grub (called now "grub legacy"), so couldn't be a grub2 bug.

For me, it seems an upgrade problem. Due to some error during the upgrade, the process didn't updated the grub configuration (in my case, the menu.lst file). And the error may have to be with the 9.04 configuration or the hardware, because otherwise it would be an general bug for everybody, and it seems there are only a few cases, in fact only two confirmed.

In a few days I will upgrade my desktop computer to 9.10 (from 9.04). Let's see what happens. Cross your fingers :-)

Bye

[manolo (mac-man2005)]

Hi Ride.

I've already been upgrading a desktop computer (AMD 64 bit) from 9.04 to 9.10 and I had no upgrading problem.

No grub2 problem, no grub legacy problem, no general net-upgrading problem.

Hardware problem? Uhm... are me and you the only ones having such a buggy kind of hardware?

Random problem, that is problem that happens in very rare cases or because net-install interrupted due to connection faults or something unpredictable? Me and you unlucky people?

[Don Estberg (destberg1)]

I had this same problem after upgrading from 9.04 to 9.10 caused by the kernel not being upgraded, and the discussion here got me around this problem. Thanks!

I think in general the upgrade has bugs caused by untested (special) cases. I still have other problems (see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/474543).

[Mikael Honkala (mikael-honkala)]

I just did a clean network install (keeping old /home) of 9.10.

1 CPU at 100% from boot. Logging out and in again puts both CPUs at 100%.

Grub installed. Correct kernel in the list and started:
Linux laptop 2.6.31-14-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 16 14:05:01 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

For some reason I have no /grub/boot/menu.lst.

Any advice?

[Mikael Honkala (mikael-honkala)]

Ok, so the "no menu.lst" is a red herring, we are using grub2 now (GNU GRUB 1.97~beta4).

My CPU problem seems to be unrelated then.

[Mikael Honkala (mikael-honkala)]

Yep, unrelated, and now fixed. Caused by legacy custom startup script that did not have the necessary module in kernel anymore, or something.

[StarWorm (sshishov-sshishov)]

I have the same behavior with:

sshishov@sshishov:~$ uname -a
Linux sshishov 2.6.31-19-generic #56-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jan 28 01:26:53 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

I had this issue with older kernels too. What may be the reason of this annoying bug?

I don't have any slowness on my laptop (Lenovo Y550) with the same kernel. It happens only on my desktop computer. I even cannot work in Excel (using VirtualBox due to this halting process). Though I may do this affairs using my laptop pretty well.

P.S. now my laptop is broken (the display shows nothing and I'm awaiting its repairing).

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi manolo,

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 472406

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

    [This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[manolo (mac-man2005)]

It doesn't affect me anymore. The problem is that upgrading to 9.10 didn't actually upgraded the kernel.
Something strange happened: the kernel was not marked as "installed" all in Synaptic or it was installed but not the one coming up with Karnic.

I solved it installed the latest kernel at that moment.

[Rudianto Sugiyarto (rudi2610)]

Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
   Subdevices: 2/2
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
   Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: rsugiyarto 1823 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: rsugiyarto 1823 F...m pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf6adc000 irq 21'
   Mixer name : 'Intel G45 DEVCTG'
   Components : 'HDA:111d76b2,10280233,00100302 HDA:14f12c06,14f1000f,00100000 HDA:80862802,80860101,00100000'
   Controls : 32
   Simple ctrls : 19
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=4fd9ffcd-be83-4471-a975-78069576d14e
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 eth0 no wireless extensions.
MachineType: Dell Inc. Latitude E6400
Package: linux (not installed)
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-20-generic root=UUID=08950c70-c00c-4368-9c14-d69cdbafe096 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_SG.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-20.58-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-20-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.26
RfKill:

Uname: Linux 2.6.31-20-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
WifiSyslog: Apr 26 14:07:18 mrsugiyarto kernel: [259776.200053] CIFS VFS: No response for cmd 50 mid 21663
dmi.bios.date: 07/21/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A01
dmi.board.name: 0RX493
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA01:bd07/21/2008:svnDellInc.:pnLatitudeE6400:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0RX493:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Latitude E6400
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.