gnome-appearance-properties spikes the CPU

[mxyzptlk]

Binary package hint: gnome-control-center

On boot, gnome-appearance-properties spikes to around 70%-80%, and doesn't go down. This happens on two separate installations of Ubuntu 10.10, one clean install on a Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 (laptop) and one upgrade on a Dell Inspiron 520 (desktop).

Not sure what's triggering it, but I'm seeing it quite a bit. Ending the process sends it back to normal without any problems.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: gnome-control-center 1:2.32.0-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-23.40-generic 2.6.35.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-23-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Nov 23 20:29:07 2010
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-appearance-properties
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-control-center

[Victor Vargas (kamus)]

Have you checked with system-monitor if really gnome-appearance-properties eating all your CPU? I have tried to reproduce it here locally openning 5-6 instances and can't reproduce same effect (Ubuntu Maverick fully updated)

[daniellibonati (libonati)]

I'm using Maverick here and the same happens. CPU usage gets to 80 % and process has to be killed manually. Once it is killed, CPU usage gets normal. Please notify me if additional info is required.

[KLEIN Stéphane (stephane-harobed)]

Here Ubuntu 10.10, I've same issue.

[KLEIN Stéphane (stephane-harobed)]

On my system, when I launch "gnome-appearance-properties" I have 3 processus for this application and one that have 99% cpu usage.

$ ps aux | grep "appear"
harobed 22587 0.6 0.2 20736 5516 ? T 12:57 0:17 gnome-appearance-properties
harobed 32267 0.6 2.4 56120 49880 pts/0 S 13:41 0:00 gdb /usr/bin/gnome-appearance-properties
harobed 32270 0.7 0.8 85296 18068 pts/0 Sl+ 13:42 0:00 /usr/bin/gnome-appearance-properties
harobed 32273 99.4 0.2 18200 5180 pts/0 R+ 13:42 1:35 /usr/bin/gnome-appearance-properties

When I quit "gnome-appearance-properties" the processus here 32273 not quit.

[KLEIN Stéphane (stephane-harobed)]

If I disable some lines in "gnome-appearance-properties" source code, issue is fixed :

In "capplets/common/theme-thumbnail.c" source file :

void
theme_thumbnail_factory_init (int argc, char *argv[])
{
#ifndef __APPLE__
  gint child_pid;
#endif

  pipe (pipe_to_factory_fd);
  pipe (pipe_from_factory_fd);

/* Apple's CoreFoundation classes must not be used from forked
 * processes. Since freetype (and thus GTK) uses them, we simply
 * disable the thumbnailer on MacOS for now. That means no thumbs
 * until the thumbnailing process is rewritten, but at least we won't
 * make apps crash. */
#ifndef __APPLE__
  /*
  child_pid = fork ();
  if (child_pid == 0)
  {
    ThemeThumbnailData data;
    GIOChannel *channel;

    /* Child */
    /*gtk_init (&argc, &argv);

    close (pipe_to_factory_fd[1]);
    pipe_to_factory_fd[1] = 0;
    close (pipe_from_factory_fd[0]);
    pipe_from_factory_fd[0] = 0;

    data.status = READY_FOR_THEME;
    data.type = g_byte_array_new ();
    data.control_theme_name = g_byte_array_new ();
    data.gtk_color_scheme = g_byte_array_new ();
    data.wm_theme_name = g_byte_array_new ();
    data.icon_theme_name = g_byte_array_new ();
    data.application_font = g_byte_array_new ();

    channel = g_io_channel_unix_new (pipe_to_factory_fd[0]);
    g_io_channel_set_flags (channel, g_io_channel_get_flags (channel) |
          G_IO_FLAG_NONBLOCK, NULL);
    g_io_channel_set_encoding (channel, NULL, NULL);
    g_io_add_watch (channel, G_IO_IN | G_IO_HUP, message_from_capplet, &data);
    g_io_channel_unref (channel);

    gtk_main ();
    _exit (0);
  }

  g_assert (child_pid > 0);

  /* Parent *//*
  close (pipe_to_factory_fd[0]);
  close (pipe_from_factory_fd[1]);*/
#endif /* __APPLE__ */

  async_data.set = FALSE;
  async_data.theme_name = NULL;
  async_data.data = g_byte_array_new ();
}

[KLEIN Stéphane (stephane-harobed)]

Same bug with 11.04

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

That configuration dialog is deprecated in GNOME3 and Oneiric so closing the bug, feel free to open new bugs about other issues you might find though