Intense processor activity when Amarok is maximized

[Vlad Socaciu]

Binary package hint: compiz

System monitor is showing 100% processor activity when Amarok runs maximized, even thought the computer is pretty much idle and Amarok is not playing any song.

I also noticed that when i cover Amarok with another maximized program, for example Mozilla Firefox, the processor activity drops to 50% on average. now, when i minimize Amarok to the tray, but keep Mozilla maximized, the processor drops to 0%.

Another observation: when i shrink Amarok (drag the borders) to about half the size of the desktop, processor activity also drops to about 50%.

i use compiz-freedesktop, version 0.3.5.git20061221-0gandalfn1 with Aiglx and the original ubuntu edgy video driver.
i hope i posted this in the right place, because the synaptic package manager shows me there is also another set of compiz packages (compiz 1:0.3.3) that conflicts with what i have installed.

[Corey Burger (corey.burger)]

Thanks for your bug. It seems you are using gandalfns packages rather than official ones. Can you test with official compiz and amarok packages?

[Vlad Socaciu (vladsocaciu)]

i wanted to use compiz with the ubuntu included mesa drivers. i'm a linux
beginner so i looked for tutorials. the only ones i could find for
installing compiz + aiglx referred to gandalfn's repositories.
if you could give me a link to a how to that uses the official compiz, i'll
try it.

i'm also having some trouble with the compiz now. i tried to install fglrx
and xgl because i wanted to use google earth. unfortunately it wasn't very
stable so i rolled back my original xorg.conf and reinstalled the mesa
drivers. the problem is that i can't get direct rendering on and now,
gandalfn's compiz does'n work.

On 2/4/07, Corey Burger <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Thanks for your bug. It seems you are using gandalfns packages rather
> than official ones. Can you test with official compiz and amarok
> packages?
>
> ** Changed in: compiz (Ubuntu)
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Corey Burger
> Status: Unconfirmed => Needs Info
>
> --
> Intense processor activity when Amarok is maximized
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/77164
>

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

I wouldn't say "intense" processor activity but it does make compiz jump to 8% CPU usage here. Amarok must redraw some part of itself very rapidly triggering a damage event. I'm thinking this should be an amarok bug since this is just the way compiz works by design and it's obviously amarok doing something weird to make this happen.

[Janne Hyötylä (janne-hyotyla)]

I opened another bugreport about this some time ago because I didn't find this one first when searching. Bug #108580

I think I have an explanation there about what triggers this bug. It's the "analyser" part of the main window (between playback and volume controls at the bottom).

[Andrew Ash (ash211)]

It appears that this bug is a byproduct of Amarok's analyzer. Redrawing that portion of the window so often causes high cpu usage compiz, but I haven't heard anything of the sort about kwin or metacity. Therefore, I'm inclined to think this is more a problem with compiz than Amarok itself.

Can someone please confirm if there is high processor activity when using a window manager that isn't compiz? Also, with the rapid pace of development in compiz and now compiz fusion, this may have been a general bug that has been fixed already. Is it still a problem for anyone running a more current version of compiz?

[Janne Hyötylä (janne-hyotyla)]

With metacity (standard Ubuntu 7.04, not composited, with nv driver on an GF 8800 GTS) no high CPU usage can be seen when the analysers are turned on. The graphically more intensive ones (the last few ones when clicking through) do cause a bit more CPU usage by the 'Xorg' process (15% compared to 5% when analysers off), but I think this is realistic.

It is maybe noteworthy that those analysers which do *not* cause more CPU usage by 'Xorg' with metacity are the ones that used a lot of CPU with Beryl for me (see description of Bug #10850 ). But I have since exchanged almost all parts of my PC, and I cannot run compiz at the moment here, so I do not know what the behaviour would be with current compiz packages.

[Andrew Ash (ash211)]

I don't really think this is an Amarok bug then. Compiz just may not be handling rapid window redraws as well as it could be. I'm closing the amarok task then but leaving open the compiz one. Reopen the amarok task if there's some way things can be helped on Amarok's side.

iirc, a right-click on the window or somewhere in the options allows the redraw rate of the analyzer to be changed. This may help alleviate the processor activity until the bug is otherwise fixed.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Can you try with latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

Also, there really isn't any way to optimize this case in compiz, it's just the way it works. However, compiz doesn't use enough CPU to slow down games running at at least 60 fps so I'm not really sure what is going on. Is the analyzer updating 500 times a second or something? :)

[Vlad Socaciu (vladsocaciu)]

Hi

I probably should've mentioned it earlyer, sorry i haven't. Since Ubuntu 7.10 everything is all right, the processor activity is normal no matter what analyser I have activated. The bug can be closed as far as I'm concerned.