Ubuntu
xserver-xorg-video-intel package

Xorg sometimes seems to use up CPU and only reboot will solve problem

Asked by ByteSoup

Im running a Dell E6400 with 10.04-64bit desktop. I have a site on my work intranet which basically tries to run a java app but due to some java version problem it doesnt run correctly. Anyway, firefox spawns this java process which cranks up to 100% CPU, I qui firefox and also kill the java process so you would think that all should return to normal. However, for a while after it seems the Xorg process starts to eat up a lot of CPU% and continues to do so, slowing down everything thats running on the desktop.

I usually run compiz by selecting the regular "System --> Appearance --> Effects", and tried turning that off to "None". This does not seem to have any effect however. The only way I can workaround this problem is to either:

1. Wait for some time for the CPU% to settle down (this can take even an hour)
2. Shutdown and startup the PC

Heres some details on my system:
===========================

sudo lshw -C display

  *-display:0
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 07
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: msi pm bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:30 memory:f6c00000-f6ffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff(prefetchable) ioport:ef98(size=8)
  *-display:1 UNCLAIMED
       description: Display controller
       product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2.1
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.1
       version: 07
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:f6b00000-f6bfffff

... some other output from lshw...

homer
    description: Portable Computer
    product: Latitude E6400
    vendor: Dell Inc.
    serial: B97174J
    width: 64 bits
    capabilities: smbios-2.4 dmi-2.4 vsyscall64 vsyscall32
    configuration: boot=normal chassis=portable uuid=44454C4C-3900-1037-8031-C2C04F37344A
  *-core
       description: Motherboard
       product: 0HT027
       vendor: Dell Inc.
       physical id: 0
       serial: .B97174J.CN1296192A2681.
     *-firmware
          description: BIOS
          vendor: Dell Inc.
          physical id: 0
          version: A11 (12/17/2008)
          size: 64KiB
          capacity: 1664KiB
          capabilities: isa pci pcmcia pnp upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect int13floppy720 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video acpi usb agp smartbattery biosbootspecification netboot
     *-cpu
          description: CPU
          product: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9400 @ 2.53GHz
          vendor: Intel Corp.
          physical id: 400
          bus info: cpu@0
          slot: Microprocessor
          size: 800MHz
          capacity: 800MHz
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 266MHz
          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 syscall nx x86-64 constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 lahf_lm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority cpufreq
        *-cache:0
             description: L1 cache
             physical id: 700
             size: 128KiB
             capacity: 128KiB
             capabilities: internal write-back data
        *-cache:1
             description: L2 cache
             physical id: 701
             size: 6MiB
             capacity: 6MiB
             clock: 66MHz (15.0ns)
             capabilities: pipeline-burst internal varies unified

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Ubuntu xserver-xorg-video-intel Edit question
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ByteSoup
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Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

This highly experimental PPA may help, yu will get a later video driver and a later xorg version which may help:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa; sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade; sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Use as a last ditch only but it may work. You could try it now butt if its bad you will need to reinstall.

Revision history for this message
ByteSoup (bytesoup) said : 		#2

Thanks. When you say I'll need to re-install, you mean if this PPA breaks something? I cant really afford to take this risk as this is my daily use machine. I could install and boot from a USB drive but it seems a lot of work, although I dont mind doing this.

I would like to know first if there were some easier way of diagnosing this, perhaps there would be something in the logs, could I cranks up some logs to debug level? Also coudl I exit to a TTY session and kill Xorg and restart?

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

Its a bit risky and is just VERY bleeding edge xorg and VERY bleeding edge intel drivers. It may work or it may REALLY break stuff.

It will upgrade the packages so a restart will not fix it

Revision history for this message
ByteSoup (bytesoup) said : 		#4

Thank you, but before I start using PPAs isnt there a recommended way to back out of the desktop, kill my Xorg process and restart things without rebooting? As I said, the machine runs fine if I avoid these certain sites and running these dodgy java apps (unintentionally of course)

Revision history for this message
ByteSoup (bytesoup) said : 		#5

I hit the problem again this morning and I killed the "X" process which had the effect of starting the desktop. However it seemed that the "Xorg" process after everything started up again just went up to around 80% CPU and the whole desktop was running very slowly. Is there anyway I can get around this, without shutting down and restarting?

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#6

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

Revision history for this message
ByteSoup (bytesoup) said : 		#7

Hi, I tried the following:

sudo service gdm stop
sudo service x11-common stop

Then the same in reverse to start

sudo service x11-common start
sudo service gdm start

Does this seem like a feasible workaround?

Revision history for this message
ByteSoup (bytesoup) said : 		#8

Argh! This is really annoying. The workaround above does work sometimes but this time i used "startx" to restart the session it seems that X11 is hanging onto something even on a restart and even when it restarted gdm the desktop was very very sluggish. If you wait some time before restarting say 10 mins or so, it seems to be responsive again.

Perhaps if someone could point me to logs to check, but it seems I cannot find anything obvious under /var/logs.

I know here in the Linux word we pride ourselves on not having to restart all the time to recover from errors. Coming from a windows background initially I was used to restarting, since I used Linux its been refreshing not having to restart so much, but it seems im regressing and its making me sad :-(

Can anyone help with some advice?

Revision history for this message
John Stevenson (jr0cket) said : 		#9

Have you tried running under a different username? This could help identify if it something with the account or the system

You create a new user, or rename your usual account folder (/home/youraccountname) and create a new empty folder with the original account name. I suggest logging out of X before moving your account folder around and doing the change in the terminal session (Ctrl-Alt-F1).

If this action makes a difference, then maybe there is a configuration setting in your account folder that was causing the problem.

Revision history for this message
ByteSoup (bytesoup) said : 		#10

@JRocket, I gave this a go, added a new user, rebooted and logged in. I connected to my work VPN and visited the site which cause the problem. All seemed ok, I did see a java process ramping up in CPU useage but then it dropped again. I then added "noscript" to firefox as its an add-on i always use. I then was able to reproduce the problem

So, now I know the elements that seem to cause it, however as much as I could avoid this one site (and I do) I could easily stumble on another site. I need to know how to effectively corner this problem, reset or kill whatever is responsible for making Xorg eat up all the CPU and then resume my desktop session.

Note: simply restarting the X server does not seem to solve this problem. If stop X wait about 15 minutes and then start the X server things seem to resume ok. As you can see its quicker to reboot.

Revision history for this message
ByteSoup (bytesoup) said : 		#11

Perhaps this was indirectly fixed but im no longer seeing this issue... many updates later, so to all the developers, thank you! :-)