gnome-shell + chrome doing nothing consumes high CPU all the time

[Ivan Yarych]

This is somewhat similar to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/1696305

After a few cycles of suspend, working with external monitor, running Chrome with 10+ opened tabs causes gnome-shell and chrome to use 60% of CPU just idling. When I do some more active work - it consumes even more. My laptop is hot all the time.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: gnome-shell 3.28.1-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-20.21-generic 4.15.17
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-20-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Mon May 21 10:34:07 2018
DisplayManager: gdm3
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-01-31 (474 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.10 "Yakkety Yak" - Release amd64 (20161012.2)
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I think this is probably expected for now.

Chrome using significant CPU when tabs are open on non-trivial pages is expected.

And Gnome Shell using noticeable CPU when any window is updating is a known issue, but really a whole class of bugs. For a list of known causes (subject to change), see https://trello.com/c/pe5mRmx7

[Ivan Yarych (iyarych)]

Well, it worked well on Ubuntu 17.10, so it looks like a regression for me. Not sure what has changed between those versions though.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

All,

Can you please test to see if moving the Chrome window away from the launcher (on the left) reduces the CPU usage of gnome-shell?

I know that having windows changing near the launcher is a problem. And I will get back to fixing that soon (bug 1743976).

[Lorens Kockum (lorensk)]

I am not quite sure I have *this* bug, because it continues after I close Chrome.

I am using Bionic Beaver in a VirtualBox with 4 CPU threads and 4096 (later 6144) MB RAM out of my 2015 MacBook Pro's 8 CPU threads and 16 GB RAM. When I start up, everything seems fine. With one single Terminal open running top, without touching the keyboard or mouse, the gnome-shell runs at some 1 to 4%, which I find extreme, but the system is perfectly useable. The slightest use (unlocking the screen after lock, moving the terminal window, of just hitting space repeatedly to make top refresh), makes the CPU usage of gnome-shell shoot well over 50%, up to 95%. When hitting space, top and xorg never go above 6% each.

Using Chrome in itself does not cause any problems for me.

However, after opening a video full-screen, the system slows down to a point where it is not useable, and this state continues after closing Chrome. The mouse pointer itself moves without difficulty, but the highlighting of elements under the mouse and the change of shape of the mouse pointer takes up to twenty seconds. For example, opening a new terminal by right-clicking on the left icon and choosing New Terminal needs several (~ tens of) seconds for each click and mouse highlight to be echoed by the screen, while gnome-shell usage is in the 70s.

Before doing a fresh reinstall with 18.04, this same hardware was running 16.04, with no problems worth mentioning (when opening 20 heavy tabs at once by telling Chrome to open all the tabs in a folder, I could usually start reading one of the lighter ones after only a second or two, scrolling through it while the others loaded).

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Lorens,

You may be experiencing multiple bugs. We would like each bug report to be about a single issue, but here's a list of some of the major issues we hope to fix soon:

  https://trello.com/c/pe5mRmx7

The list is likely to grow a little too.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Francesco Pretto (ceztko)]

I think what reported by Lorens may be totally unrelated to the use of Chrome. The use of VirtualBox, latest version 5.2.18, with a Ubuntu 18.04 64bit guest with 3D acceleration **enabled** and maximum VRAM configured (128MB) is completely unusable because of extremely high memory usage of gnome-shell, independently of the application launched: you can launch nothing or launch firefox, for example, and the session will become unusable pretty soon. It may be worth some more investigation of VirtualBox+3D acceleration use case. My host is actually Windows 10 64bit.