High cpu usage in Ubuntu

[jwmorrice]

I was running the latest Ubuntu and started getting messages about my cpu overheating. It's an old Athlon 64 3700. Googling 'ubuntu cpu usage' brings forth all kinds of hits on some longstanding bug(s). My machine would just be idling and the cpu would go to 100% usage and stay there.

I haven't found a commonly accepted solution to the problem so I pulled Ubuntu and installed Sabayon Linux. No such problem with that variant of Linux and a monitor for the cpu is standard right in the lower task bar so it's easy to check.

Unfortunately Sabayon is a little too demanding on this fool's computer skills so I'm back to Windows XP Pro.

Mr. Bill wins again!

jwm

 

[canucklehead]

I have never seen that and we have a few server running ubuntu that are web hosting 24/7 .... any link to the bug reports? I m interested from a work point of view.

 

[WoodPeckr]

This bug happens on some PCs

Did you check with the Ubuntu Forums?
This is discussed there.
What browser were you using?

It happens at times with Opera browser, or some other process that causes this spike. I would just go to; System>Administration>System Monitor>Resources, which will show your CPU usage. Then click on Processes Tab, to see what's running causing 100% CPU usage, highlight it, right-click it, to kill the process and all should be well.

Ubuntu Forums helped me with this one that happens once in awhile.
Before finding this fix I would reboot which did the same, only took longer.

 

[jwmorrice]

I have never seen that and we have a few server running ubuntu that are web hosting 24/7 .... any link to the bug reports? I m interested from a work point of view.

As I wrote, just google up 'ubuntu cpu usage' and you'll get plenty of hits from about 2006 on. As a computer professional, you'll be able to make more sense of them than I. I really don't have the knowledge to separate the wheat from the chaff.

jwm

 

[jwmorrice]

Did you check with the Ubuntu Forums?
This is discussed there.
What browser were you using?

It happens at times with Opera browser, or some other process that causes this spike. I would just go to; System>Administration>System Monitor>Resources, which will show your CPU usage. Then click on Processes Tab, to see what's running causing 100% CPU usage, highlight it, right-click it, to kill the process and all should be well.

Ubuntu Forums helped me with this one that happens once in awhile.
Before finding this fix I would reboot which did the same, only took longer.

In my situation, the only process change that seemed to cause the spike, was using the monitor programme!! Good grief, perhaps an example of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle at the macro level.

Seriously though, I don't want to spend a lot of time continually checking to see if a cpu is being stressed. If Windows did that, we'd all be on Microsoft's case and wondering why it wasn't being corrected. As I noted, in my experience, the problem doesn't happen with the Sabayon, another Linux distro so I'd say Ubuntu backers have some work to do.

I'm still running Ubuntu for porn hunting on one of my other desktops but it's a crappy machine and if it goes as a result of the flaw, it's not a big loss.

jwm

 

[WoodPeckr]

Seriously though, I don't want to spend a lot of time continually checking to see if a cpu is being stressed. If Windows did that, we'd all be on Microsoft's case and wondering why it wasn't being corrected.

As I said it happens once in awhile to me when running Opera.
Don't recall it happening with Firefox or any other app.
It is similar to a lockup/freeze in Windows, everything slows down and gets unresponsive. It did the same to me with XP Pro at times. When checking and right clicking XP task manager CPU usage was also at 100%. I would shut down the offending XP process and CPU usage went back to normal. This same thing would happen in Ubuntu at times with Opera and it was corrected as I posted above in post #3. I never had any heat problems though.

This issue is talked about in the Ubuntu Forums but it never became a big problem for my PCs.

 

[jwmorrice]

If it was just sluggishness, I wouldn't care. Oh well, I'll perhaps find another distro that works for my situation.

jwm

 

[WoodPeckr]

Tried openSUSE 11 for awhile. It like Ubuntu has great support in their forums. It was nice but seemed to require more tweaking than Ubuntu.
I see Fedora is coming on strong. Started out with Fedora and liked it till jumping on the Ubuntu bandwagon. There's so many distros to choose from now.

 

[Cassini]

Check if you are running the desktop search applet. That can cause your CPU and disk activity to go through the roof. I disable the applet in Ubuntu. Microsoft has added it into XP too. I disable it there as well.

Also, if your CPU is overheating, it may automatically slow itself down, so it never actually completes the work it has to do. The result is an unusably slow system. I have only ever seen the bug in Windows XP. In theory, I guess it could happen to Ubuntu too.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Just curious

Is 'desktop search applet' a default process?
Just checked my Ubuntu processes and didn't see it listed there.

 

[t482]

Ubuntu 9.04 has messed up video driver settings due to the new version of X.org. I had the same thing with my thinkpad.

I would either search the forums for a tweak, try 9.10 Beta (my buddy is doing that), or go back to an older version of ubuntu. Occurs with ATI and Intel video drivers...

cheers

 

[WoodPeckr]

What does he think of 9.10 Beta?

 

[jwmorrice]

My old Athlon 64 is now history. I upgraded to a Phenom II X4 and decided to try out the 64 bit 9.04 Ubuntu. This pc also has an ATI video card. No problem with high cpu usage. Hopefully this is an indication that the software problem was fixed.

jwm

 

[WoodPeckr]

I have been very impressed with Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit performance the last few months, Nice and snappy and runs leaner than 32 bit versions...