gnome-panel dapper 100% cpu


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Thread: gnome-panel dapper 100% cpu

  1. #1
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    Aug 2004
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    Question gnome-panel dapper 100% cpu

    Hi--

    I have two desktop Ubuntu Dapper 6.06 boxes and one of them has developed this problem recently:

    gnome-panel forces cpu usage to 100%. Running top gnome-panel's usage runs between about 80% and 95%. If I sudo kill -9 pid, it clears up the problem--for a little while. Then it comes back again.

    The sequence seems to be: start Firefox, start OOo, jump to 100% cpu.

    ctrl-alt f1 will sometimes give me a terminal from which I can kill the process. ctrl-alt-backspace always seems to work to give a new panel.

    Often at this 100% usage, the panel flickers or wavers.

    I have seen some old stuff from 2006 or so about similar problems, but no reported solution that works for me. I just used update manager to update firefox a couple days ago, then reinstalled it last night, that did not resolve the problem. Also reinstalled gnome-panel and gnome-panel-data with no effect. Running gnome-session-remove gnome-panel did work; but then I had no panels for the rest of the session.

    This is a production machine so I would really like for it to play nice!

    On the other 6.06 box the problem does not happen as often.

    I have found that if I start firefox from the command line instead of from the panel, the problem does not occur, or at least as much.

    Any ideas?

    PS: I have seen this thread and will try it, too:
    http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showt...2100%25+cpu%22
    :-Doug.

  2. #2
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    Have you tried another desktop manager like Fluxbox or XFCE, to eliminate possible hardware problems?
    "I was pulled over for speeding today. The officer said, "Don't you know
    the speed limit is 55 miles an hour?" And I said, "Yes, but I wasn't going
    to be out that long."

    How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
    COME VISIT ME IN RUSSIA NOW!!

  3. #3
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    Question

    JohnT--

    You are quick! Thanks!

    No I have not tried them--don't even know where to start. In the back of my mind there was a choice between gnome and kde when I installed.... Do I need to reinstall the whole box from scratch to try these out?

    I have had this box into the techs days ago to check out if this was a hardware issue. They ran tests on it for a couple of days and overnight and pronounced the system in full health.

    I tried this tonight: mv both .gnome and .gnome2. Rebooted. These directories were recreated on login, and the problem was still present.

    Somehow I think it is the interplay between ff and gnome-panel.

    Thanks, JohnT!
    :-Doug.

  4. #4
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    Have you tried the top command to see just whats hogging the cpu? Open a terminal and type top it will give you a list of proc.


    dgermann
    No I have not tried them--don't even know where to start
    At your log in screen check the session option and it should list other wm. If none were installed open your package manager and install from there.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    681
    don't use gnome or kde. thats your problem !!!! LOL
    "Software is like sex: it's better when its free."
    -LINUS TORVALDS

  6. #6
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    Ubuntu is just a pain and the *** distro. i couldn't get it to even boot on 3 computers i have and i try to stay away from binary distros like that. maybe your processor can't handle all the applications running .
    "Software is like sex: it's better when its free."
    -LINUS TORVALDS

  7. #7
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    crow2icedearth

    maybe your processor can't handle all the applications running .

    I don't think that's the problem as from his post he implies the problem just started.

    I have two desktop Ubuntu Dapper 6.06 boxes and one of them has developed this problem recently:

  8. #8
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    mrrangerman43--

    Yup: top it is that tells me gnome-panel is taking 80-95% of the cpu.

    I'll check out the machine and see if any other manager is installed.

    crow2icedearth--

    Well, have been running gnome and Ubuntu for at least a couple years on a total of 5 machines without the kinds of problems you have had. Guess that YMMV stuff is definitely true!

    As to the processor, this is what lshw shows:
    Code:
       description: Computer
        width: 32 bits
        capabilities: smbios-2.3 dmi-2.3
        configuration: boot=normal uuid=[blanked]
      *-core
           description: Motherboard
           product: D915GAV
           vendor: Intel Corporation
           physical id: 0
           version: AAC64134-403
           serial: [Blanked]
         *-firmware
              description: BIOS
              vendor: Intel Corp.
              physical id: 0
              version: EV91510A.86A.0482.2006.0222.2350 (02/22/2006)
              size: 64KB
              capacity: 448KB
              capabilities: pci pnp apm upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect edd int13floppynec int13floppytoshiba int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video acpi usb agp ls120boot zipboot biosbootspecification netboot
         *-cpu
              description: CPU
              product: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.53GHz
              vendor: Intel Corp.
              physical id: 4
              bus info: cpu@0
              version: 15.4.1
              serial: [blanked]
              slot: J2E1
              size: 2533MHz
              capacity: 3060MHz
              width: 64 bits
              clock: 133MHz
              capabilities: fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx x86-64 pni monitor ds_cpl tm2 cid cx16 xtpr
              configuration: id=0
            *-cache:0
                 description: L1 cache
                 physical id: 5
                 slot: None
                 size: 16KB
                 capacity: 16KB
                 capabilities: pipeline-burst internal varies data
            *-cache:1
                 description: L2 cache
                 physical id: 6
                 slot: None
                 size: 256KB
                 capacity: 256KB
                 capabilities: pipeline-burst internal varies unified
         *-memory
              description: System Memory
              physical id: 40
              slot: System board or motherboard
              size: 1536MB
            *-bank:0
                 description: DIMM DDR Synchronous 400 MHz (2.5 ns)
                 product: PartNum1
                 vendor: Manufacturer1
                 physical id: 0
                 serial: [blanked]
                 slot: J6G1
                 size: 256MB
                 width: 64 bits
                 clock: 400MHz (2.5ns)
            *-bank:1
                 description: DIMM DDR Synchronous 400 MHz (2.5 ns)
                 product: PartNum2
                 vendor: Manufacturer2
                 physical id: 1
                 serial: [blanked]
                 slot: J6G2
                 size: 512MB
                 width: 64 bits
                 clock: 400MHz (2.5ns)
            *-bank:2
                 description: DIMM DDR Synchronous 400 MHz (2.5 ns)
                 product: PartNum3
                 vendor: Manufacturer3
                 physical id: 2
                 serial: [blanked]
                 slot: J6H1
                 size: 256MB
                 width: 64 bits
                 clock: 400MHz (2.5ns)
            *-bank:3
                 description: DIMM DDR Synchronous 400 MHz (2.5 ns)
                 product: PartNum4
                 vendor: Manufacturer4
                 physical id: 3
                 serial: [blanked]
                 slot: J6H2
                 size: 512MB
                 width: 64 bits
                 clock: 400MHz (2.5ns)
    I hope that is sufficient to run ff + OOo + open a few pdf files along the way. I may not know what I need to look for, though, so if you see some problem there, please point it out to me!

    Thanks folks!
    :-Doug.

  9. #9
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    Could you list your applications that are attached to the panel?
    What recent updates on this machine prior to this incident?
    Last edited by JohnT; 02-16-2008 at 06:33 PM.
    "I was pulled over for speeding today. The officer said, "Don't you know
    the speed limit is 55 miles an hour?" And I said, "Yes, but I wasn't going
    to be out that long."

    How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
    COME VISIT ME IN RUSSIA NOW!!

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
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    Question

    JohnT--

    Not sure what recent updates on this machine--is there a way to find out? Is it logged somewhere?

    There are two panels, and what's on them has not changed:

    Top: Applications Places System; Firefox; Evolution; Disk Mounter; System Monitor (actually, I did add this to the panel recently, but I think after we started having this problem); Wanda the Fish; Lock you computer (screen saver); Volume Control; Time and date.

    Bottom: Workspace switcher; Trash; Show Desktop Button.

    Here is a current top display (I am running ff from command line):
    Code:
    top - 20:47:59 up  4:17,  3 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.12, 0.25
    Tasks: 110 total,   1 running, 109 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
    Cpu(s):  2.7% us,  0.3% sy,  0.0% ni, 97.0% id,  0.0% wa,  0.0% hi,  0.0% si
    Mem:   1547388k total,   637032k used,   910356k free,    17872k buffers
    Swap:  1485972k total,        0k used,  1485972k free,   300568k cached
    
      PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
     5072 mike      15   0 32148  13m 8316 S  1.7  0.9   0:02.48 gnome-terminal
     4222 root      15   0  287m  22m 8092 S  1.3  1.5  20:42.26 Xorg
     5025 mike      15   0 19068  10m 7688 S  0.3  0.7   0:00.79 update-notifier
        1 root      16   0  1568  528  460 S  0.0  0.0   0:01.11 init
        2 root      34  19     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0
        3 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/0
        4 root      10  -5     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.04 events/0
        5 root      11  -5     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 khelper
    If I run ff from the panel, I will see gnome-panel jump to 33% to as much as 95% and stay there. If I kill its pid, then it clears up the issue.

    Thanks for all your help, JohnT!
    :-Doug.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
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    Question

    And here is a current top display, loading ff from the panel (after removing Wanda the Fish):
    Code:
    top - 20:55:06 up  4:25,  3 users,  load average: 2.03, 0.94, 0.51
    Tasks: 110 total,   3 running, 107 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
    Cpu(s): 86.1% us, 13.6% sy,  0.0% ni,  0.0% id,  0.0% wa,  0.3% hi,  0.0% si
    Mem:   1547388k total,   640676k used,   906712k free,    18116k buffers
    Swap:  1485972k total,        0k used,  1485972k free,   295492k cached
    
      PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
     5151 mike      25   0 59136  38m  12m R 55.9  2.6   0:55.67 gnome-panel
     4222 root      16   0  282m  18m 7824 S 20.3  1.2  21:14.66 Xorg
     5007 mike      16   0 16952  10m 6796 R  7.3  0.7   0:24.73 metacity
     5014 mike      15   0 75872  15m  11m S  7.3  1.1   0:21.11 nautilus
     4995 mike      15   0 27176 8964 6944 S  3.0  0.6   0:09.04 gnome-settings-
     5095 mike      15   0 14956 5564 4348 S  3.0  0.4   0:08.81 gnome-screensav
     5072 mike      15   0 32148  13m 8320 S  2.0  0.9   0:03.02 gnome-terminal
    11513 mike      15   0 98212  38m  19m S  0.7  2.6   0:07.33 firefox-bin
        1 root      16   0  1568  528  460 S  0.0  0.0   0:01.11 init
    And a minute or so later, after shutting down OOo:
    Code:
    top - 20:56:54 up  4:26,  3 users,  load average: 1.87, 1.25, 0.66
    Tasks: 108 total,   2 running, 106 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
    Cpu(s): 89.7% us, 10.3% sy,  0.0% ni,  0.0% id,  0.0% wa,  0.0% hi,  0.0% si
    Mem:   1547388k total,   623484k used,   923904k free,    18180k buffers
    Swap:  1485972k total,        0k used,  1485972k free,   295488k cached
    
      PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
     5151 mike      25   0 78584  57m  12m R 71.2  3.8   2:05.71 gnome-panel
     4222 root      15   0  282m  17m 7824 S 13.3  1.2  21:32.35 Xorg
     5014 mike      15   0 75872  15m  11m S  6.0  1.1   0:27.79 nautilus
     5007 mike      15   0 16952  10m 6796 S  4.7  0.7   0:31.10 metacity
     4995 mike      15   0 27176 8964 6944 S  2.3  0.6   0:11.78 gnome-settings-
     5095 mike      15   0 14956 5564 4348 S  2.3  0.4   0:11.41 gnome-screensav
        1 root      16   0  1568  528  460 S  0.0  0.0   0:01.11 init
        2 root      34  19     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0
        3 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/0
    Its use seems to be growing.

    kill pid 5151 and it drops to 0.3 usage!

    FWIW
    Last edited by dgermann; 02-16-2008 at 10:03 PM.
    :-Doug.

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