Gnome-shell CPU load dramatically high and stuck high with Eclipse

[Alex B]

Hello,

I recently upgraded Ubuntu from 16.04 to 17.10. Since I did, I cannot use Eclipse any more.
I can start Eclipse, but as soon as I try to de-maximize it, gnome-shell CPU load raises to 80%-95% and remains that level. I ¥t sometimes drops a bit down to 70% but still keeps high and blocks everything. Even if by chance and patience I succeed closing Eclipse, the CPU load keeps high.
Until now I found no way to recover.

Ubuntu 17.10
Gnome 3.26.2
Runs in Virtual box
Core i7x2
8 GB RAM

Eclipse Photon 4.8 M6
But same happened with Oyxgen 4.7.2

Other info needed, please let me know... not sure how to circle this closer. Once it happens, it's over .
---
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.7
Architecture: amd64
DisplayManager: gdm3
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-02-20 (759 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20160217.1)
Package: gnome-shell 3.26.2-0ubuntu0.1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-37.42-generic 4.13.13
Tags: artful
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-37-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to artful on 2018-01-18 (60 days ago)
UserGroups:

_MarkForUpload: True

[Alex B (aalleexx)]

Well, might appear out of topic but ... The same problem happens with Firefox, when watching a video for example. gnome-shell now peaks at 90% !
Is there any kind of logs I can check here ?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I thought the issue with Firefox was resolved by a Firefox update (bug 1696305).

Regardless, let's keep one bug per problem. Make this bug about Eclipse only right now.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please execute the following command only once, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:

apport-collect 1756508

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Alex B (aalleexx)]

apport information

[Alex B (aalleexx)]

apport information

[Alex B (aalleexx)]

apport information

[Alex B (aalleexx)]

apport information

[Alex B (aalleexx)]

apport information

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

If I had to guess, I would guess that Eclipse is using a software-rendered toolkit. And those are particularly expensive to render in Gnome Shell. The reason why nobody has paid much attention to such bugs so far is that the problem is pretty uncommon. You need both a software-rendered toolkit, AND an app that redraws constantly.

[Alex B (aalleexx)]

Hello,
I'm not expert at all, but is seems strange to me that the the workload keeps high even in the (rare) event I could kill Eclipse. Would the sw-rendering toolkit keep alive in the case Eclipse is killed ? Would be a bug in Eclipse ?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Yes you're right; that is strange. Maybe Eclipse is only the trigger for a gnome-shell bug here.

[Alex B (aalleexx)]

Update.
I stopped using Eclipse on Ubuntu for now, but I'm just facing the same problem again, now with Emacs 25.2.1. It appeared when I maximised the window and then tried to reduce it.
gnome-shell CPU load reached 95% and after a while decreased down to 70%, but it's not stable, sometime increases again to some peaks...
Seems not Eclipse related and seems Emacs too can trigger the same troubles.
Please tell me if you need further logs - not sure I can reuse the same reference as above for apport-collect...

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 17.10 (artful) reached end-of-life on July 19, 2018.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test. If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in and change the bug status to Confirmed.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gnome-shell (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Magosányi Árpád (mag-magwas)]

this happens to me. latest bionic, latest eclipse