xorg quickly eats all memory

[Rodney Lorrimar]

I start anki (a qt app) on an oneiric unity desktop and very soon the laptop dies a swap death with xorg consuming all the memory. Starting anki is a reliable way to trigger the problem since I have upgraded to oneiric beta. It didn't happen with 11.04.

Laptop: Acer aspire 3810T, i915 graphics (Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07))
Anki package version: 1.2.8-1
xorg package version: 1:7.6+7ubuntu6

With the attached bug report I ran ubuntu-bug on xorg before it used all the RAM.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.10.2.902-1ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-10.16-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-10-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
Date: Tue Sep 6 22:50:56 2011
DistUpgraded: Log time: 2011-09-05 16:00:57.366350
DistroCodename: oneiric
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/Xorg
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, whatever it takes to get this fixed in Ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0229]
   Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0229]
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release amd64 (20101007)
MachineType: Acer Aspire 3810T
ProcEnviron:

ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-10-generic root=UUID=314d1e12-58ec-4c9b-880d-89a6757d99b7 ro quiet splash i8042.reset vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg-server
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-09-05 (1 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 05/27/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: V1.04
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: Aspire 3810T
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: PSMBOU-1234567
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: None
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrV1.04:bd05/27/2009:svnAcer:pnAspire3810T:pvrV1.04:rvnAcer:rnAspire3810T:rvrPSMBOU-1234567:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrNone:
dmi.product.name: Aspire 3810T
dmi.product.version: V1.04
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.5.92+bzr2791-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu20
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.26-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.11-0ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+7ubuntu6
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.6.0-1ubuntu13
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20110811.g93fc084-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.15.901-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110411+8378443-1

[Rodney Lorrimar (rodney-rodney)]

More things I have noticed.

1. I have a suspicion that this bug isn't in xorg-server, just that xorg-server is allocating too much memory on behalf of e.g. compiz.

2. When running anki under gnome-shell, it won't always cause xorg to run out of memory. But there is still a strange problem. The anki window is really large and there is nothing drawn inside the frame. Anki seems to request a very large window. I get this message from anki:
=======================
QWidget::setMinimumSize: (MainWindow/AnkiQt) The largest allowed size is (16777215,16777215)
=======================

I get this output from gnome-shell:
=======================
 Window manager warning: Screen 0 on display ":0.0" already has a window manager; try using the --replace option to replace the current window manager.
vicki@acer:~$ gnome-shell --replace
    JS ERROR: !!! Exception was: TypeError: this._workspaces is undefined
    JS ERROR: !!! lineNumber = '804'
    JS ERROR: !!! fileName = '"/usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/workspacesView.js"'
    JS ERROR: !!! stack = '"([object _private_Meta_Screen],[object _private_GLib_ParamSpec])@/usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/workspacesView.js:804
_checkWorkspaces()@/usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/main.js:260
"'
    JS ERROR: !!! message = '"this._workspaces is undefined"'
Window manager warning: Invalid WM_TRANSIENT_FOR window 0x320000f specified for 0x320000d (anki).
Window manager warning: Window 0x3200039 (Anki) sets an MWM hint indicating it isn't resizable, but sets min size 16383 x 16383 and max size 2147483647 x 2147483647; this doesn't make much sense.
Window manager warning: Log level 16: Native children wider or taller than 65535 pixels are not supported
=======================

So it seems like gnome-shell handles the large window better than unity. At least it doesn't always bring down the system.

3. Anki works fine under metacity.

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 805303, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.

[Rodney Lorrimar (rodney-rodney)]

Hi Dmitry,

I tried your test case on #805303, it's very effective.

Is it right for a bad app to crash
1. the window manager
2. the x server
3. the entire machine in a horrible way

Certainly the fault is caused by a QT theme but compiz and/or xorg-server are not handling the error correctly.

Metacity doesn't crash when running test_v2.py with the GTK theme set. However it still makes a weird window and causes xorg-xserver to allocate 1gb of memory.

Perhaps there's a fairly simple way for the window manager and/or xorg-server to limit outrageous resource requests. But on the other hand, perhaps there is no way to differentiate between a faulty app and one with demanding resource requirements.