Activities overview freezes and becomes unresponsive after a few hours

[pramathesh ambasta]

I am reporting this as a separate bug because the earlier bugs apply to earlier versions of Ubuntu and have been invalidated.

My system is Ubuntu 17.04 (updated not clean install)

The problem occurs after a few hours of work.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Keep working on the system for some hours
2. Press the Left Win key to get into search mode

What happens then:
An overview of windows will be displayed. The UI will freeze or become unresponsive. Mouse pointed can be moved around but clicking on any window thumbnail does not give the focus to it

Switch to a shell using Ctrl+Alt+F1. Run top. gnome-shell is at the top with 100% CPU usage.

I tried disabling some extensions to see if these cause the problem. I also tried changing the gnome-shell theme to default but no impact. Problem remains.

If someone could point me to what more information needs to be gathered, I will be happy to provide it.

Thanks

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
Package: gnome-shell 3.24.2-0ubuntu0.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.10.0-22.24-generic 4.10.15
Uname: Linux 4.10.0-22-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu4.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Mon Jun 19 16:57:19 2017
DisplayManager: lightdm
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-01-16 (154 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.10 "Yakkety Yak" - Release amd64 (20161012.2)
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to zesty on 2017-04-17 (62 days ago)

[pramathesh ambasta (pramathesh-ambasta)]

Closer examination reveals the following:

1. In "normal" times, gnome-shell cpu usage could vary between around 7% and go up to 50%
2. The cpu usage figure keeps going up and down frequently
3. However, the problem starts when I press the Left Win key and enter the activities overview/search mode
4. gnome-shell cpu usage starts steadily rising.
5. As I type in the search box gnome-shell rises to 100% cpu. UI becomes unresponsive.
6. I click on the app icon which I want to launch
7. After a few seconds, cpu usage comes down. Wait indicator starts rolling
8. After a few seconds of wait indicator, the app launches

Even if no app is selected, simply entering overview mode and exiting it pulls gnome-shell down

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Upstream bug reports (take your pick?)

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=772977
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=737958
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=683204

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 17.04 (zesty) reached end-of-life on January 13, 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.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Ah, sorry. This is also the wrong bug.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 17.04 (zesty) reached end-of-life on January 13, 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.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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