With version of 0.9.8.8-0ubuntu5 I still see one of the threads doing:

inotify_add_watch(8, "/var/lib/ofono", IN_MODIFY|IN_ATTRIB|IN_CLOSE_WRITE|IN_MOVED_FROM|IN_MOVED_TO|IN_CREATE|IN_DELETE|IN_DELETE_SELF|IN_MOVE_SELF|IN_UNMOUNT|IN_ONLYDIR) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
poll([{fd=9, events=POLLIN}, {fd=8, events=POLLIN}], 2, 3997) = 0 (Timeout)
inotify_add_watch(8, "/var/lib/ofono", IN_MODIFY|IN_ATTRIB|IN_CLOSE_WRITE|IN_MOVED_FROM|IN_MOVED_TO|IN_CREATE|IN_DELETE|IN_DELETE_SELF|IN_MOVE_SELF|IN_UNMOUNT|IN_ONLYDIR) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
poll([{fd=9, events=POLLIN}, {fd=8, events=POLLIN}], 2, 3998) = 0 (Timeout)
inotify_add_watch(8, "/var/lib/ofono", IN_MODIFY|IN_ATTRIB|IN_CLOSE_WRITE|IN_MOVED_FROM|IN_MOVED_TO|IN_CREATE|IN_DELETE|IN_DELETE_SELF|IN_MOVE_SELF|IN_UNMOUNT|IN_ONLYDIR) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
poll([{fd=9, events=POLLIN}, {fd=8, events=POLLIN}], 2, 3995) = 0 (Timeout)
inotify_add_watch(8, "/var/lib/ofono", IN_MODIFY|IN_ATTRIB|IN_CLOSE_WRITE|IN_MOVED_FROM|IN_MOVED_TO|IN_CREATE|IN_DELETE|IN_DELETE_SELF|IN_MOVE_SELF|IN_UNMOUNT|IN_ONLYDIR) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
poll([{fd=9, events=POLLIN}, {fd=8, events=POLLIN}], 2, 3996) = 0 (Timeout)
inotify_add_watch(8, "/var/lib/ofono", IN_MODIFY|IN_ATTRIB|IN_CLOSE_WRITE|IN_MOVED_FROM|IN_MOVED_TO|IN_CREATE|IN_DELETE|IN_DELETE_SELF|IN_MOVE_SELF|IN_UNMOUNT|IN_ONLYDIR) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
poll([{fd=9, events=POLLIN}, {fd=8, events=POLLIN}], 2, 3996) = 0 (Timeout)

So a 0.25 Hz timeout and an inotify watch being added each time which seems redundant on the desktop.

This is on a cleanly installed machine as of last week so I'm confident that my laptop is relatively sane when it comes to installed packages.

To track this down I did:

sudo health-check -p NetworkManager

this showed up as:


System calls traced:
  PID  Process              Syscall               Count    Rate/Sec    Total μSecs  % Call Time
   949 NetworkManager       recvmsg                 211       3.5167          2520      0.0021
   949 NetworkManager       sendmsg                 108       1.8000          2044      0.0017
   949 NetworkManager       poll                     97       1.6167      53977531     45.3342
   949 NetworkManager       write                    77       1.2833           873      0.0007
   949 NetworkManager       read                     52       0.8667           606      0.0005
   949 NetworkManager       restart_syscall           1       0.0167       5542655      4.6551
   952 NetworkManager       rt_sigtimedwait           1       0.0167             0      0.0000
   959 NetworkManager       inotify_add_watch        15       0.2500           301      0.0003
   959 NetworkManager       poll                     15       0.2500      56001456     47.0340
   959 NetworkManager       restart_syscall           1       0.0167       3537933      2.9714
   963 NetworkManager       restart_syscall           1       0.0167             0      0.0000
 Total                                              579       9.6500     119065919

and also:

Inotify watches added:
  PID  Process              Rate/Sec File
   959 NetworkManager          0.250 /var/lib/ofono


so then I just strace'd pid 959 and the rogue polling and inotify watch is apparent.  Hope that clarifies.