Panel Indicator uses 25% cpu

[Romik Forest]

Ubuntu Studio 16.04 LTS, 4.4.0-22-lowlatency, xfce4 4.12, Compiz 0.9.12.2

top always shows 18-28% cpu used by panel-6-indicat (immediately after system start)
Reinstalling xfce4-panel and xfce4-indicator-plugin doesn't help.
Killing the panel-6-indicat by pid doesn't help

Indicators: Sound menu, Messaging Menu, nm-applet, skype, caffeineplus, alarm-clock
Killing skype, caffeineplus,alarm-clock doesn't help.

$ top
  PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
 2183 romik 20 0 446808 35028 26832 S 21,3 0,9 2:21.52 panel-6-indicat

$ ps ax | grep panel
 2183 ? Rl 0:43 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/panel/wrapper-2.0 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/panel/plugins/libindicator-plugin.so 6 16777271 indicator Индикаторы Предоставляет место на панели для индикаторов Unity. Индикаторы позволяют приложениям и системным сервисам показывать свой статус и взаимодействовать с пользователем.

$ dpkg -S /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/panel/plugins/libindicator-plugin.so
xfce4-indicator-plugin: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/panel/plugins/libindicator-plugin.so

$ apt-cache show xfce4-indicator-plugin
Package: xfce4-indicator-plugin
Priority: optional
Section: universe/xfce
Installed-Size: 370
Maintainer: Xubuntu Developers <email address hidden>
Original-Maintainer: Debian Xfce Maintainers <email address hidden>
Architecture: amd64
Version: 2.3.3-0ubuntu4
Provides: indicator-renderer
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.4), libdbus-glib-1-2 (>= 0.78), libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 (>= 2.22.0), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.37.3), libgtk-3-0 (>= 3.6), libido3-0.1-0 (>= 13.10.0daily13.06.19), libindicator3-7 (>= 0.4.90), libxfce4panel-2.0-4 (>= 4.11.0), libxfce4ui-2-0 (>= 4.11.0), libxfce4util7 (>= 4.9.0), libxfconf-0-2 (>= 4.6.0), upstart
Filename: pool/universe/x/xfce4-indicator-plugin/xfce4-indicator-plugin_2.3.3-0ubuntu4_amd64.deb
Size: 60824
MD5sum: ab1d273990915238c7fca0ea67c074f5
SHA1: ca96db3e21960cf1b36b66a444368e7749c4dc3d
SHA256: 2c1a4193aa68dfce9bcb4f37ea663d245815ee85457d7eb8f2d16fded72e90fa
Description-ru: модуль отображения информации от приложений на панели Xfce4
 Небольшое расширение для последовательного отображения информации от
 различных приложений в панели Xfce4 по правилам описанным в спецификации
 Ubuntu MessagingMenu design.
Description-md5: 9840efa394a05eab71be8c0a6217040f
Homepage: http://goodies.xfce.org/projects/panel-plugins/xfce4-indicator-plugin/
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Origin: Ubuntu
Supported: 3y
Task: xubuntu-core, xubuntu-desktop, mythbuntu-frontend, mythbuntu-desktop, mythbuntu-backend-slave, mythbuntu-backend-master, ubuntustudio-desktop-core, ubuntustudio-desktop

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Jakub Vaněk (vanek-jakub4)]

It's the same here on Xubuntu 16.04. I managed to lower the CPU usage by killing indicator-application-service in a loop:

for((;;)) do killall indicator-application-service; done

After a few seconds press Ctrl+C.

[Stephan Mueller (stephan-mueller)]

Hi, I've the same problem, but only if I use a GTK3 based theme! If I use a GTK2 based theme the indicator goes down from around 30% to a load of around 3%.

So I assume it has something to do with the use of GTK3.

I hope this helps solving the indicator bug :)

[cha0s (the-real-cha0s)]

I can confirm it is the same for me. I attached a theme to this post. I place this theme in ~/.themes

If I remove the gtk-3.0 directory from the Xfce-darkness directory and restart, the CPU usage goes back to normal. If I put the gtk-3.0 directory back in the Xfce-darkness directory, panel-6-indicat AND Xorg takes up 25%+ of cpu! This is not a weak machine either.

It seems fairly obvious there is some issues with gtk-3.0 themes. Also I am on xubuntu 16.04

[lz1 (lz1)]

The same story.
15% CPU, xubuntu 16.04.1

[lz1 (lz1)]

screenshot of top cmd:

[lz1 (lz1)]

I found the solution (workaround).
The simplest way to avoid this is not to use indicators panel at all.
I added 'System tray' to xfce panel and now everything works fine.
I have Bluebird theme and nm-applet icon at usual place.
There is no hi cpu usage.
Background of system tray corresponds to system theme.

[Jonathan Boler (galatians)]

I can confirm comment #7 that using Notification Area instead of Indicator Plugin fixes the issue.

[hungrywolf (hungrywolf)]

I was able to solve this by removing/renaming the file ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
The file appears to contain several customized gradients that are applied to panel applets, on top of whatever theme is already in use.

1. Rename or remove ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
2. Kill the process panel-(number)-indica
3. If prompted, click 'Execute' to restart the plugin

After doing this, process panel-14-indica went from 5% cpu to 0%, and stayed at 0%.

Replacing the gtk.css file, and killing and restarting the indicator plugin, reversed the process and raised the cpu usage again. For me, changing which GTK theme I was using had no effect. I am using Xubuntu 16.04.

[Akom (akomakom)]

Changing themes fixed this for me on Ubuntu 17.04, as per #3 above (Settings->Appearance->Styles).

Radiance/Ambiance themes: high cpu usage.
All others: no problem.

Other suggestions did not work for me:
I don't have a ~/.config/gtk-3.0/*.css that was mentioned in #9.
I am already using a Notification Area, as mentioned in #7.

[Theo Linkspfeifer (lastonestanding)]

I cannot reproduce this bug in Xubuntu 18.04.

Can anyone else confirm that this is fixed in the newest release?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xfce4-indicator-plugin (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[cipricus (cipricus)]

I have this problem in Mint 19.1 with xfce4-panel 4.12.2 (Xfce 4.12), based on Ubuntu 18.04. The CPU high load started when switching themes. Changing theme back solved it.

[Akom (akomakom)]

Still happens on a clean XFCE install on Ubuntu 18.04, exactly like in #10 (only Ambiance/Radiance themese cause high CPU usage)