Desktop experience gets slow and sluggish a couple of times per hour

[Serge van Ginderachter]

This problem definitely kicked in after upgrading Lucid to Maverick.

The exact issue is difficult to describe. Most obviously, the mouse starts to respond very sluggishly, other Xorg features (as switchuing desktops) then also get a lot slower. Running top, vmstat or dstat do not show excessive resource usage.

Might be unrelated, but as another example of a problem: clicking on drop down menu's in Chromium does not get the proper responce: the drop down menu only opens when moving the mouse down.

Looking around, I find other reports of similar problems with the latest 2.6.35 kernel, although nothing seems to relate to an exact issue. I suspect the problem might be in the kernel (scheduling?) but I actually don't really know.
Other reports being bug reports on other distributions, mentions on forums, and even some bugs in Ubuntu. but none of them seem directly related, which is why I've choosen to file a separate report, at least until we can get more down the lane.

- I experience the same problem on another Desktop running Maverick (Intelm mobo & Nvidia card).
- A coworker with the same Dell laptop upgraded earlier this week to Maverick, just as I did, and does not experience this problem.

I'm not sure which tools to run or which parameters to monitor to further troubleshoot this or to give the needed information.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: linux-image-2.6.35-22-generic 2.6.35-22.34
Regression: Yes
Reproducible: Yes
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-22.34-generic 2.6.35.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-22-generic x86_64
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: serge 2741 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf6afc000 irq 46'
   Mixer name : 'Intel Cantiga HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:111d76b2,10280262,00100302 HDA:80862802,80860101,00100000'
   Controls : 22
   Simple ctrls : 11
Date: Fri Oct 15 10:26:28 2010
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=a5e7cb54-0b4a-418a-8775-79cc87fb7dde
MachineType: Dell Inc. Latitude E5400
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: root=/dev/mapper/hostname-root ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.38
SourcePackage: linux
WpaSupplicantLog:

dmi.bios.date: 04/29/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A12
dmi.board.name: 0D695C
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA12:bd04/29/2009:svnDellInc.:pnLatitudeE5400:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0D695C:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Latitude E5400
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Serge van Ginderachter (svg)]

Looks like this kicks in eacht tilme the kslowd* processes kick in.
I also found similar reports: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9984926

[the_madman (marcus-harrisonland)]

I'm also having this problem and, after posting this - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9998313#post9998313 - found the link posted bySerge van Ginderachter.

This wouldn't normally be an issue, except it's also affecting sound and video playback.

Unfortunately, I can't find an earlier kernel in the repositories for desktops and wouldn't know how to get the GRUB menu to show if I could. And it's late, I'm tired and I'm lazy, dammit!

Even worse is that the 10.04 LiveCD doesn't seem to be working with this laptop, so I can't even install the LTS and make the problem vanish.

[baracus2k (baracus2k)]

Same issue here on a Dell Inspiron 1150 which has a Pentium 4 2.8GHZ with Intel 852/855 graphics. The only solution I've found so far was to downgrade the kernel (2.6.35-rc5). There's also another bug report here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/662946 and there's a modded beta 2.6.36 which also fixes the issue. Problem for me is that my wireless doesn't work under both 35-rc5 and the modded beta 36.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Serge van Ginderachter, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. Maverick reached EOL on April 10, 2012.
Please see this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We were wondering if this is still an issue in a supported release? If so, could you please test for this 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 please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Please do not test the kernel in the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested and remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

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 text:
needs-upstream-testing

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, please comment as to why specifically you were unable to test it and add the following tags:
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested.

Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful Bug Reporting Tips:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

[Serge van Ginderachter (svg)]

I'm not running Maverick any more.
It's also not an issue any more in the latest stable release.

Serge

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Serge van Ginderachter, did you need a backport to a release prior to Precise or may we close this report as Status Invalid?

[Serge van Ginderachter (svg)]

On 16 October 2012 10:02, Christopher M. Penalver <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Serge van Ginderachter, did you need a backport to a release prior to
> Precise or may we close this report as Status Invalid?
>
> At the time of the maverick release, I ran a backport of Maverick+1, which
didn't solve the issue.
As of Maverick+2 the issue didn't occur anymore AFAIK.
I also switched hardware at that time, so I can't provide any current
information anymore.

serge

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Serge van Ginderachter, this bug report is being closed due to your last comment https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/661012/comments/8 regarding you no longer having the hardware. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.