[i945gm] Stuttering mouse with Natty Narwhal

[Gunter Ohrner]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

Since 10.10 the mouse sometimes "stutters" while moving, freezing for a few hundred milliseconds.

The mouse stuttering / short freezes are much better than with Maverick, where even the sound was affected, but it's still pretty noticeable and annoying / distracting.

Using "top", I noticed a kernel thread called "kworker" being listed among the top-5 processes in the process list refresh following such a "mouse stuttering".

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-7.39-generic 2.6.38
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-7-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: kwin
DRM.card0.DVI.D.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: On
 modes: 1920x1080 1680x1050 1280x1024 1280x1024 1440x900 1440x900 1280x960 1152x864 1024x768 1024x768 1024x768 832x624 800x600 800x600 800x600 800x600 640x480 640x480 640x480 640x480 720x400
 edid-base64: AP///////wAmzQxWuwMAACwUAQOANB14KmBBplZKnCUSUFS/7wCBgIFAcU+VAJUPswABAQEBAjqAGHE4LUBYLEUACSUhAAAeAAAA/QA4TB5TEQAKICAgICAgAAAA/ABQTDI0MDlIRAogICAgAAAA/wAxMTAwNU0wQjAwOTU1AZsCAwgAQxITHowK0Iog4C0QED6WAAklIQAAGAEdAHJR0B4gbihVAAklIQAAHgEdALxS0B4guChVQAklIQAAHowK0JAgQDEgDEBVAAklIQAAGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA4w==
DRM.card0.LVDS.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: On
 modes: 1280x800
 edid-base64: AP///////wBEky4AAAAAAAAPAQOAGhB4CtLwllhOkSgjUFQAAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEB6hoAgFAgEDAVIEQABaMQAAAYAAAADwAIGBJyAQoCMh6gBDIBAAAA/gBRVUFOVEFESVNQTEFZAAAA/gBRRDEyVEwwMTEKICAgAGA=
DRM.card0.VGA.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: Off
 modes:
 edid-base64:
Date: Thu Mar 31 00:04:12 2011
DistUpgraded: Log time: 2011-03-30 20:52:28.836629
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: kubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a2] (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Fujitsu Technology Solutions Device [1734:10ad]
   Subsystem: Fujitsu Technology Solutions Device [1734:10ad]
MachineType: FUJITSU SIEMENS Amilo Si 1520
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 LANG=de_DE@euro
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-2.6.38-7-generic root=UUID=37d94e9a-f57d-4c87-b661-20c037b7643e ro quiet
Renderer: Unknown
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-intel
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-03-30 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 07/21/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix
dmi.bios.version: 1.10
dmi.board.name: 10AD
dmi.board.vendor: FUJITSU
dmi.board.version: 3D22
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenix:bvr1.10:bd07/21/2006:svnFUJITSUSIEMENS:pnAmiloSi1520:pvrRev1:rvnFUJITSU:rn10AD:rvr3D22:cvnFUJITSUSIEMENS:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Amilo Si 1520
dmi.product.version: Rev 1
dmi.sys.vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu5
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.1-0ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6~3ubuntu11
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110107+b795ca6e-0ubuntu6

[Claudio André (claudioandre.br)]

Seems related to:
- Bug #744154
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=638912
----

Having the same issue here in a T400 ThinkPad.

[Abrahm Scully (abrahm-scully)]

little output from top:
11137 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 47 0.0 9:18.99 kworker/1:0
 3238 abrahm 20 0 1199m 334m 37m S 3 4.2 6:48.71 firefox-bin
 1203 root 20 0 162m 23m 8112 S 1 0.3 2:20.40 Xorg
 1606 abrahm 20 0 144m 26m 19m S 1 0.3 0:02.78 urxvtd
11955 abrahm 20 0 19352 1312 956 R 0 0.0 0:00.04 top

My mouse cursor stutters as well. Seems to affect other system performance as well (disk, network, X)...

I've been running natty since january. I noticed this started in the past several weeks after an apt-get update.

[Matt Shirley (mdshw5)]

I'm experiencing this issue as well, after and apt-get upgrade today. top shows 3 kworker processes - each has been working for 75 - 100 hours.

[Matt Shirley (mdshw5)]

Rolling back to a 2.6.35 kernel solves the issue for me. I'll be sitting at 2.6.35 until this is fixed, or something else breaks...

[Gtmoraes1 (gtmoraes1)]

Seems like this bug only happens when the USB Suspension is enabled.
At the moment I'm writing this, I'm on a netbook with a Celeron ULV 723 1.2GHz (no speedstep) and i915 drivers. Enabling USB Suspensions makes Kworker go mad and start eating all CPU Resources. It also kills the USB ports for every device (HID or not)

Disabling USB Suspension is a workaround, but makes the energy consumption sligtly higher, depending on what's connected thru USB. On my case (I've only got a Microsoft nanoreceptor connected thru USB), it jumps from 6.5W to 8W Idle.

[Gunter Ohrner (gohrner)]

Mh, I've not yet tried to disable USB power save, but apparently we've got to do with two issues here, right?

The kswapd-bug which seems to be solved and another bug with USB power saving which may or may not have been present before, but if it was, was suppressed by the more severe swapd problem and which surfaces now...

Maybe someone with sufficient permission could split this bug, or should I simply open a new one if I observe the same USB power save behaviour, so that this bug can be closed?

[Gtmoraes1 (gtmoraes1)]

Try disabling and post here what happens. Might work as a workaround 'till the devs work on it
For now, I'm just unplugging my devices when not in use. It's the best powersaving measurement, I think =P

[Gtmoraes1 (gtmoraes1)]

Tried with a HP Mini 210-1020BR. Same issue when I enable USB Suspension.

It's really the USB Suspension that's causing this.

[Meister0815 (meister0815)]

I have to same problem. Stuttering Mouse and Keyboard corresponding with CPU consuming kworker - processes. I noticed this since yesterday, before everything was fine.

How can I disable USB Suspension? I want to try, if this solves the problem for me, too.
--
T61p, Natty.

[IKT (ikt)]

Can someone who is feeling adventurous please test out any .39 kernel after rc2, there has been an update which indirectly affects kworker which I think is the root cause of this issue.

The commit in question:

http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.commits.head/295092

Upgrading to the latest kernel in ubuntu:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds

Any questions respond here or contact me.

thanks

[Meister0815 (meister0815)]

I just testet 2.6.39rc3 and the daily build. And ...... ta taaaa: kworker Problem and stuttering Keyboard solved. BUT: for me this is not an option, because .39 brokes my WLAN-Support, which is more important to me. :-(

[Gunter Ohrner (gohrner)]

I wanted to try rc4, but first I also had no WLAN interface and soon after logging in the kernel just OOPSed.

[Abrahm Scully (abrahm-scully)]

It looks like this is the Intel graphics kernel driver searching for monitors.

sudo perf record -ag sleep 10
sudo perf report

# Events: 217 cycles
#
# Overhead Command Shared Object Symbol
# ........ .............. ........................... ..........................................
#
    27.26% kworker/0:2 [i915] [k] get_clock
               |
               --- get_clock
                  |
                  |--99.12%-- sclhi
                  | |
                  | |--86.83%-- i2c_bit_add_numbered_bus
                  | | i2c_bit_add_numbered_bus
                  | | i2c_bit_add_numbered_bus
                  | | i2c_bit_add_numbered_bus
                  | | intel_gpio_create
                  | | intel_gpio_create
                  | | i2c_transfer
                  | | drm_do_probe_ddc_edid
                  | | drm_edid_block_valid
                  | | intel_hdmi_detect
                  | | drm_target_preferred.clone.9
                  | | process_one_work
                  | | worker_thread
                  | | kthread
                  | | kernel_thread_helper
                  | |
                  | --13.17%-- i2c_stop
                  | i2c_bit_add_numbered_bus
                  | |
                  | |--83.32%-- i2c_bit_add_numbered_bus
                  | | i2c_bit_add_numbered_bus
                  | | intel_gpio_create
                  | | intel_gpio_create
                  | | i2c_transfer
                  | | drm_do_probe_ddc_edid
                  | | drm_edid_block_valid
                  | | intel_hdmi_detect
                  | | drm_target_preferred.clone.9
                  | | process_one_work
                  | | worker_thread
                  | | kthread
                  | | kernel_thread_helper
                  | |
                  | --16.68%-- intel_gpio_create
                  | intel_gpio_create
                  | i2c_transfer
                  | drm_do_probe_ddc_edid
                  | drm_edid_block_valid
                  | intel_hdmi_detect
                  | drm_target_preferred.clone.9
                  | p...

[Pablo Curras (pablo-curras)]

I also had the mouse stuttering problem and saw kworker using ~20% cpu on each core.

I found this bug report and seems to have fixed it:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/upower/+bug/758593

Just had to update upower from 0.9.5-5 to 0.9.9-4 (the bug report says it's fixed since 0.9.9-1)

I'm using Debian with kernel 2.6.38-2

[Jeffrey Ballagh (jballagh)]

Changing to linux based on cause and fix identified in comment #11

[Jeffrey Ballagh (jballagh)]

upower bug above describes a freeze/hang approx. every 30 seconds
Much more frequent interruptions in my case. Anyone else?

As indicated in comment #11 likely fix in upstream. 2.6.39rc4 resolved this issue and idle processes overall seem to be demanding less CPU time.

[Wiggy (brian-wigginshouse)]

My issue is explained here. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/779753

Updating the kernel to 2.6.39rc4 has not resolved the issue. If anything it has made it worse, last time It froze I needed to reboot.

For testing I have 11.04 installed on a new partition with not addition packages installed. If anyone want me to run any tests please let me know,

[Krisztian Poos (rocky-poos)]

Hello everyone, I also have the issue on a Thinkpad T500. Rolling back to 2.6.35 did not solved it, but on 2.6.34 I don't have the issue. upgrading to 2.6.39-02063903 also did not solve the issue. however on my laptop it is quite better than the with the default kernel. The system is unusable with that...
I would be also glad to provide any logs and information you need for resolving the issue.
By the way I have a bug uploaded also about the same topic: it can be related to this I guess: Bug #772704

I may think that it may somehow related also to the wifi card/driver, as usually during these periods when kworker eats up my cpu (it uses more than 50% of the cputime) the system often dropped from the wifi access point as well.

If anyone has a solution, it would be great to have, as this is a really annoying issue, and makes working impossible on the system.

Thanks and regards,
RockY

[core (core.comic)]

In Bug #779753 (comment #18) somebody posted a link to a workaround which solved the issue for me on a Thinkpad T400s, 2.6.38-8-generic: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/779753/comments/26

[Gard Spreemann (gspreemann)]

I don't know if this is related: I suffer from the same symptoms with the nouvau driver in Oneiric. The workaround [1] described in bug #779753 (comment #18) seems to fix the problem for me.

[1] http://souriguha.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/how-to-solve-problem-with-thinkpadkslowd-kworker-on-linux-kernel-2-35-2-36/

[Gard Spreemann (gspreemann)]

I'm sorry, I'm referring to comment #26, not comment #18.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Gunter Ohrner, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. 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 in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

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

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.

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream'.

Please let us know your results. Thanks in advance.

[Gunter Ohrner (gohrner)]

This is fixed for me with the current Natty updates. (Actually it's fixed since a while, otherwise Natty would not have been usable for me. Sorry for forgetting about that report.)