xscreensaver does not protect the system against its children

Bug #807685 reported by gpk
12
This bug affects 2 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
xscreensaver (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Xscreensaver should set the oom killer to preferentially attack its children.
See, for example this bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xscreensaver/+bug/768032
where a screensaver (gltext) leaks memory and eventually renders the system inoperable. It's a real problem: it's just frozen several of my computers.

The thing is, a screensaver is *NOT* a critically important part of the system. It should die early if it is a resource hog. All you have to do is write "10" into /proc/PID/oom_adj and Bob's your uncle. Until then, Xscreensaver is failing its duties.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: xscreensaver 5.12-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-10.46-generic 2.6.38.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-10-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Jul 8 20:40:44 2011
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xscreensaver
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Revision history for this message
gpk (gpk-kochanski) wrote :
Changed in xscreensaver (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
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