Continuos strong variations in CPU load

In the System Monitor, if you choose the option to show all processes, do you see anything using your CPU ?

Hi.
Yes, there's a process events/1 using a variable amount of CPU.

On Tue, 2010-10-19 at 20:04 +0000, François Tissandier wrote:
> Your question #130226 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/130226
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> François Tissandier requested for more information:
> In the System Monitor, if you choose the option to show all processes,
> do you see anything using your CPU ?
>

Mmm not to easy to know what it is exactly...

But could you try to deactivate your Wireless card and see if the CPU is quieter? That seems to be a common reason for this.

No effect on the variations
See attachment.

Regards
GunnarØ

On Tue, 2010-10-19 at 20:21 +0000, François Tissandier wrote:
> Your question #130226 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/130226
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> François Tissandier requested for more information:
> Mmm not to easy to know what it is exactly...
>
> But could you try to deactivate your Wireless card and see if the CPU is
> quieter? That seems to be a common reason for this.
>

If it's a laptop, there is maybe a way to know.
Work on battery, click on the battery icon, then the first option. I should open the windows to monitor your alimentation settings. You have 3 options on the left, including one called "processor". Click on this one. Then on the right, it will display what is making your kernel busy. Look what is on top of the list please, when you leave the laptop idle.

Yes, there's a plugin-container at the top most of the time.

On Tue, 2010-10-19 at 20:44 +0000, François Tissandier wrote:
> Your question #130226 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/130226
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> François Tissandier requested for more information:
> If it's a laptop, there is maybe a way to know.
> Work on battery, click on the battery icon, then the first option. I should open the windows to monitor your alimentation settings. You have 3 options on the left, including one called "processor". Click on this one. Then on the right, it will display what is making your kernel busy. Look what is on top of the list please, when you leave the laptop idle.
>

plugin-container? That's the full name of it? How many wakeups per second? Could you copy here all the fields for this line? We are looking for something with a very big wakeups value I think.

Process ID 2544, No of wakeups 105.3, total wakeups 233

It disappeared when I put the mouse pointer on it, but the CPU load is
still variable.

On Tue, 2010-10-19 at 21:03 +0000, François Tissandier wrote:
> Your question #130226 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/130226
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> François Tissandier proposed the following answer:
> plugin-container? That's the full name of it? How many wakeups per
> second? Could you copy here all the fields for this line? We are looking
> for something with a very big wakeups value I think.
>

I did a reboot, the top process is now IRQx Interprocessor interrupt,
120 to 220 wakeups.

Still CPU variations.

On Tue, 2010-10-19 at 21:15 +0000, GunnarØ wrote:
> Your question #130226 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/130226
>
> Status: Answered => Open
>
> You are still having a problem:
> Process ID 2544, No of wakeups 105.3, total wakeups 233
>
> It disappeared when I put the mouse pointer on it, but the CPU load is
> still variable.
>
>
> On Tue, 2010-10-19 at 21:03 +0000, François Tissandier wrote:
> > Your question #130226 on Ubuntu changed:
> > https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/130226
> >
> > Status: Open => Answered
> >
> > François Tissandier proposed the following answer:
> > plugin-container? That's the full name of it? How many wakeups per
> > second? Could you copy here all the fields for this line? We are looking
> > for something with a very big wakeups value I think.
> >
>

Plugin-container could be a firefox plugin. Do you have the problem without running Firefox?

200 wakeups is not abnormal I think...
How high is your max CPU usage after a reboot?

here's no problems with Firefox

The CPU usage is 25 to 100 %

If you reboot and don't run Firefox at all, do you still have the problem?

Yes, problem is still there before I run Firefox.

I found this:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=581620

Could you try to deactivate the network completely (right click on the network icon, uncheck "enable network", that should be enough I think) and see if it has an impact ?

However they don't provide a solution, seems to be a bug with a network driver. You'd better make sure it's what you have first before we decide what to do next.

I have both shut down the WiFi radio hardware and disabled wireless, the variations are still there.

Maybe it's related to the etherned card. Try to disable network completely with the option in the network icon.

That's it. When disabling network, the variations ceased, and came back as I enabled it. So, what's the cure?

Good question... Here is what I suggest:
-you can deactivate the ethernet card for the moment if you don't use it. To do that, I think you have to blacklist the driver. I can tell you how to do that once we know which driver you are using
-you should identify the ethernet card and look for a bug report on Launchpad, maybe there is a solution there. If not, you can subscribe to the bug or report a new one, and just wait for it to be fixed.

It seems that the network interface is an Intel 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection.
I've tried to find a bug report, but without sucess.

What does "lsmod" give you in a terminal? The driver name should appear in this list.

gunnar@gunnar-ThinkPad-X61:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
aes_i586 7280 1
aes_generic 26875 1 aes_i586
rfcomm 33811 4
binfmt_misc 6599 1
sco 7998 2
bnep 9542 2
l2cap 37008 16 rfcomm,bnep
parport_pc 26058 0
ppdev 5556 0
snd_hda_codec_analog 59649 1
arc4 1165 2
thinkpad_acpi 67659 0
snd_hda_intel 22107 2
iwlagn 178948 0
snd_hda_codec 87552 2 snd_hda_codec_analog,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 5040 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 71475 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
i915 291004 3
pcmcia 35973 0
snd_seq_midi 4588 0
drm_kms_helper 30200 1 i915
iwlcore 127415 1 iwlagn
snd_rawmidi 17783 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 6047 1 snd_seq_midi
mac80211 231541 2 iwlagn,iwlcore
snd_seq 47174 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 19067 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 5744 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
drm 168054 4 i915,drm_kms_helper
btusb 10969 2
i2c_algo_bit 5168 1 i915
bluetooth 50500 9 rfcomm,sco,bnep,l2cap,btusb
tpm_tis 7562 0
yenta_socket 21518 0
pcmcia_rsrc 10566 1 yenta_socket
snd 49006 14 snd_hda_codec_analog,thinkpad_acpi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
psmouse 59033 0
intel_agp 26360 2 i915
tpm 13741 1 tpm_tis
cfg80211 144470 3 iwlagn,iwlcore,mac80211
video 18712 1 i915
pcmcia_core 14657 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,pcmcia_rsrc
nvram 6342 1 thinkpad_acpi
tpm_bios 5310 1 tpm
serio_raw 4022 0
output 1883 1 video
agpgart 32011 2 drm,intel_agp
soundcore 880 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 7120 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
lp 7342 0
parport 31492 3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp
ahci 19013 0
firewire_ohci 21106 0
sdhci_pci 6339 0
sdhci 15890 1 sdhci_pci
e1000e 132956 0
firewire_core 46643 1 firewire_ohci
crc_itu_t 1383 1 firewire_core
led_class 2633 2 thinkpad_acpi,sdhci
libahci 21667 3 ahci
gunnar@gunnar-ThinkPad-X61:~$

Ok, should be e1000e
So if you are OK to deactivate the driver, you should add this driver to the blacklist:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
Add this at the end of the file:

blacklist e1000e

Reboot. Your ethernet card should not be usable anymore. And your CPU should be fine. I hope it won't disconnect your wireless connection. If it does, remove the line from the file.

And you should file a bug report, otherwise who knows when it will be solved?
Maybe you can try to reopen this one :
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/564706

Or fill a new one

Yeah, that eased the CPU. Thanks a lot for your help and patience with a new Ubuntu user.

The CPU-fluctuation has just reappeared. And I'm not able to solve it by blacklisting the e1000e driver. However, the fluctuations stop when disabling networking.