GTK applications leading Xorg to huge memory usage

[Max Moura Wolosker]

Binary package hint: gtk2-engines-gtk-qt

Enabling the use of KDE styles in gtk applications makes the Xorg use every little single bit of memory available in the system. Closing the application doesn't deallocate memory and only a X restart makes the computer usable again.

I believe, but I'm not sure, that this problem was introduced when the package libqt3-mt was upgraded to version 3:3.3.6-1ubuntu6.

[kayeaco (kayeaco)]

I meet the problem too. When I use gtk program under KDE, it consumes the memory and doesn't release after I closed it. The package gtk2-engines-gtk-qt seem to be the effector. When I remove gtk2-engines-gtk-qt from my system, the memory consuming disappeared.

My input method is a gtk program, every time I use it to input Chinese words, the memory is consumed. But after I remove gtk2-engines-gtk-qt, memory doesn't be consumed again.

[Lothar (lothar-tradescape)]

I can confirm the bug. xorg used all 2G on my machine due to this bug while running eclipse. There's also a bug report on eclipse https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=128617 that makes clear that gtk-qt-engine is to blame. The only workaround is to uninstall gtk-qt-engine

[Lothar (lothar-tradescape)]

the bug is well known, see https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=128617

[Obi Bok (obibok)]

I can confirm this bug as well. I'm unsure if the problem is actually related to 'gtk2-engines-gtk-qt' but it seems to originate from applications using GTK toolkit running in KDE.

At times (apparently when changing color settings, etc. in 'kcontrol'), applications like 'Firefox' or 'streamtuner' freeze for well over 10 sec causing the 'Xorg' process to allocate more and more memory. Once GTK-based applications start responding, memory usage stops increasing. Closing the applications in question doesn't deallocate memory. Eventually, memory usage grows out of control, slows down the entire system and the only solution is to restart X.

[Obi Bok (obibok)]

After some more testing, I can confirm that the memory leak actually occurs in 'gtk2-engines-gtk-qt'. In KDE, setting 'GTK styles and fonts' to use a specific style instead of "Use my KDE style in GTK applications" makes GTK apps run smoothly and without any freezes. After several hours the 'Xorg' process uses around 40MiB, as opposed to 200MiB+ (topped at close to 2GiB!) before.

[Oscar (osh-nbit)]

Is there some way to "vote" on bugs. This one bugs me to no end.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Oscar, best way to "vote" is to identify a patch.

[Oscar (osh-nbit)]

Bryce,
unfortunatly I'm not a programmer so this is a bit hard for me.
I'd love to see this bug get some attention though, but I guess I'll just wait since I don't have the financial resources to pay a developer to fix it.