Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Hello, i run right now digikam and rebuild my thumbnails. It seems like that this task takes a lot of cpu power and its not digikam itself, rather xorg takes the load.
Is this right? I just wonder.

Code:

top - 17:37:14 up 11:35, 5 users, load average: 0.77, 0.77, 0.79 Tasks: 169 total, 3 running, 166 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 51.1%us, 2.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 46.8%id, 0.0%wa, 0.2%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 4055392k total, 4008052k used, 47340k free, 255244k buffers Swap: 4193276k total, 1276k used, 4192000k free, 2311168k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 7615 root 20 0 531m 414m 11m R 97 10.5 82:58.48 Xorg 14211 joerg 20 0 1275m 359m 59m S 3 9.1 17:56.03 digikam 15309 joerg 20 0 430m 35m 20m S 2 0.9 0:36.96 ksysguard 7868 joerg 20 0 568m 72m 34m S 1 1.8 11:57.40 kwin 7923 joerg 20 0 91272 27m 7296 S 1 0.7 3:33.63 skype 16290 joerg 20 0 359m 31m 17m S 1 0.8 0:01.17 konsole 16500 joerg 20 0 61944 14m 8484 R 1 0.4 0:01.67 npviewer.bin 7891 joerg 20 0 470m 30m 21m S 0 0.8 0:29.35 kopete 7895 joerg 20 0 644m 123m 23m S 0 3.1 0:21.46 akregator 16532 joerg 20 0 8668 1140 788 R 0 0.0 0:00.19 top 1 root 20 0 12408 744 600 S 0 0.0 0:00.42 init 2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd 3 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0 4 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:02.58 ksoftirqd/0 5 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0 6 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1 7 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.54 ksoftirqd/1 8 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/1 9 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.57 events/0 10 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:01.11 events/1 11 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 netns 12 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 async/mgr 13 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 pm 14 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.01 sync_supers 15 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.02 bdi-default 16 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/0 17 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/1 18 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:01.24 kblockd/0 19 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:01.24 kblockd/1 20 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpid 21 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpi_notify

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Quote:

yester64 says: Hello, i run right now digikam and rebuild my thumbnails. It seems like that this task takes a lot of cpu power and its not digikam itself, rather xorg takes the load.
Is this right? I just wonder.

As far as I know yester64, it would never be normal for Xorg to be using 97% of your CPU time. That is just crazy, but we need to know more about what you are doing. I see that digikam is a very distant second at 3%. I would ask a lot more about your computer hardware and software setup to be able to say more. What openSUSE version, 32/64 bit, KDE version, computer brand/model, memory total/free, hard disk size/free, video, sound and anything else that might be important. You know the drill cause you have seen it enough around here. Do you have this happen with anything else or is digikam the only cause?

Thank You,

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Not only cpu power, but your 4GB of memory is almost all in use. That doesn't look good. Less than half of my 3GB is now being used with digikam, firefox, xorg loaded.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

The weird thing is, that in the beginning it runs smooth but after 15 or 17% it gets sluggish. I did not do a whole scan, just a for the missing thumbnails.

Here it goes.

Code:

linux-sf0t:/home/joerg # hwinfo --short cpu: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU E8500 @ 3.16GHz, 3166 MHz Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU E8500 @ 3.16GHz, 3166 MHz keyboard: /dev/input/event0 Saitek PLC Saitek Eclipse II Keyboard mouse: /dev/input/mice Logitech USB Receiver printer: /dev/usb/lp0 Brother HL-2040 series monitor: Generic Monitor graphics card: nVidia GeForce 8800 GT sound: Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller storage: Intel 82801IB (ICH9) 2 port SATA IDE Controller Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) 2 port SATA IDE Controller JMicron JMB368 IDE controller network: eth0 Realtek RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller network interface: lo Loopback network interface eth0 Ethernet network interface pan0 Ethernet network interface disk: /dev/sdc WDC WD1600AAJS-0 /dev/sdb WDC WD5000AAKS-0 /dev/sda WDC WD3200KS-00P /dev/sdd Generic USB SD Reader /dev/sde Generic USB CF Reader /dev/sdf Generic USB SM Reader /dev/sdg Generic USB MS Reader partition: /dev/sdc1 Partition /dev/sdb1 Partition /dev/sda1 Partition /dev/sda2 Partition /dev/sda3 Partition /dev/sda4 Partition cdrom: /dev/sr0 ASUS DRW-24B1ST usb controller: Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 bios: BIOS bridge: Intel 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express DRAM Controller Intel 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express PCI Express Root Port Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4 Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 Intel 82801 PCI Bridge Intel 82801IB (ICH9) LPC Interface Controller hub: Linux 2.6.34.7-0.4-desktop ehci_hcd EHCI Host Controller Linux 2.6.34.7-0.4-desktop ehci_hcd EHCI Host Controller Linux 2.6.34.7-0.4-desktop uhci_hcd UHCI Host Controller Linux 2.6.34.7-0.4-desktop uhci_hcd UHCI Host Controller Linux 2.6.34.7-0.4-desktop uhci_hcd UHCI Host Controller Linux 2.6.34.7-0.4-desktop uhci_hcd UHCI Host Controller Linux 2.6.34.7-0.4-desktop uhci_hcd UHCI Host Controller Linux 2.6.34.7-0.4-desktop uhci_hcd UHCI Host Controller memory: Main Memory bluetooth: Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) unknown: FPU DMA controller PIC Timer Keyboard controller /dev/lp0 Parallel controller PS/2 Controller Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller /dev/ttyS0 16550A /dev/input/event1 Saitek PLC Saitek Eclipse II Keyboard Logitech USB Receiver

Code:

linux-sf0t:/home/joerg # hwinfo --gfxcard 28: PCI 100.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA) [Created at pci.318] Unique ID: VCu0.fvBA7Bx+oT8 Parent ID: vSkL.aGagsEhnrb7 SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0 SysFS BusID: 0000:01:00.0 Hardware Class: graphics card Model: "nVidia GeForce 8800 GT" Vendor: pci 0x10de "nVidia Corporation" Device: pci 0x0611 "GeForce 8800 GT" SubVendor: pci 0x3842 "eVga.com. Corp." SubDevice: pci 0xc809 Revision: 0xa2 Driver: "nvidia" Driver Modules: "nvidia" Memory Range: 0xf6000000-0xf6ffffff (rw,non-prefetchable) Memory Range: 0xe0000000-0xefffffff (ro,non-prefetchable) Memory Range: 0xf4000000-0xf5ffffff (rw,non-prefetchable) I/O Ports: 0xb000-0xbfff (rw) Memory Range: 0xf7000000-0xf701ffff (ro,non-prefetchable,disabled) IRQ: 16 (1544013 events) I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw) Module Alias: "pci:v000010DEd00000611sv00003842sd0000C809bc03sc00i00" Driver Info #0: XFree86 v4 Server Module: nvidia Driver Info #1: XFree86 v4 Server Module: nvidia 3D Support: yes Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown Attached to: #10 (PCI bridge)

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Can it be that i have a bottleneck somewhere? If i check with KDE's info it showed xorg with around 50%. It looked like that there was something filling up (database?) and then it went slow to slow... very strange.
Now i know that i have a lot of images that are scanned, but should that matter?

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

So you did not post any details about your software setup there yester64, but after further review of your original post, it looks like you are running out of memory.

Code:

Mem: 4055392k total, 4008052k used, 47340k free, 255244k buffers Swap: 4193276k total, 1276k used, 4192000k free, 2311168k cached

So, before you even run Digikam do you know if you might have loaded Tracker (Seach for tracker using YaST / Software Management) OR if you are using KDE's Nepomuk by chance? Either program can potentially use up all of your memory, depending on how they are configured.

So, if you are running low on memory, then add one more disk intensive action like scanning for pictures and perhaps the wheels fall off of openSUSE & KDE?

Thank You,

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdmcdaniel3

So you did not post any details about your software setup there yester64, but after further review of your original post, it looks like you are running out of memory.

Code:

Mem: 4055392k total, 4008052k used, 47340k free, 255244k buffers Swap: 4193276k total, 1276k used, 4192000k free, 2311168k cached

So, before you even run Digikam do you know if you might have loaded Tracker (Seach for tracker using YaST / Software Management) OR if you are using KDE's Nepomuk by chance? Either program can potentially use up all of your memory, depending on how they are configured.

So, if you are running low on memory, then add one more disk intensive action like scanning for pictures and perhaps the wheels fall off of openSUSE & KDE?

Thank You,

Not installed. Looks like its for database.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdmcdaniel3

So you did not post any details about your software setup there yester64, but after further review of your original post, it looks like you are running out of memory.

Did you not read my post? Of course he is running out of memory. No need for "further review". That's just repitition!

It could be a memory leak. Hence the buildup: "The weird thing is, that in the beginning it runs smooth but after 15 or 17% it gets sluggish."

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

@yester64

Clue: What happens to memory before you start digikam, and what happens to it before you start your thumbnail rebuild?

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Its getting late for me, but i will post tomorrow the stats to before and during digikam. Maybe that will give a clue then.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Thanks. Indeed it is, and it was far too late here, :Z Take your time.

Following a look at your memory stats, some basic s/w details may yet be useful as James requested.

@jdmcdaniel3: James, my apologies to you. In the light of day, my comment was too blunt and "That's just repetition!" was unnecessary.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

OK, i have a hanger. Was there a shell command for listing installed programs and version of linux?

I am running OpenSuse 11.3 64bit. KDE desktop 4.4.4

This is before starting digikam.

Code:

top - 14:16:35 up 2:03, 3 users, load average: 0.06, 0.03, 0.01 Tasks: 151 total, 1 running, 150 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 5.6%us, 2.1%sy, 0.0%ni, 91.7%id, 0.5%wa, 0.2%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 4055392k total, 3183184k used, 872208k free, 162040k buffers Swap: 4193276k total, 0k used, 4193276k free, 2471032k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 4938 joerg 20 0 152m 43m 12m S 9 1.1 9:21.44 npviewer.bin 4689 joerg 20 0 579m 67m 38m S 2 1.7 3:14.53 kwin 1604 root 20 0 159m 65m 17m S 1 1.7 7:59.47 Xorg 4745 joerg 20 0 91328 34m 13m S 1 0.9 1:04.24 skype 6710 joerg 20 0 443m 39m 22m S 1 1.0 0:01.38 konsole 1852 root 20 0 24392 1160 972 S 0 0.0 0:00.05 hald-addon-inpu 4695 joerg 20 0 676m 56m 28m S 0 1.4 0:12.24 plasma-desktop 4711 joerg 20 0 462m 36m 26m S 0 0.9 0:09.05 kopete 4847 joerg 20 0 507m 104m 31m S 0 2.6 2:41.41 firefox 6724 joerg 20 0 8668 1108 788 R 0 0.0 0:00.14 top 1 root 20 0 12408 776 628 S 0 0.0 0:00.33 init 2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd 3 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0 4 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.54 ksoftirqd/0 5 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0 6 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1 7 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.14 ksoftirqd/1 8 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/1 9 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.12 events/0 10 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.22 events/1 11 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 netns 12 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 async/mgr 13 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 pm 14 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 sync_supers 15 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 bdi-default 16 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/0 17 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/1 18 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.12 kblockd/0 19 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.18 kblockd/1 20 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpid 21 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpi_notify

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

This is starting digikam.

Code:

top - 15:15:43 up 3:02, 4 users, load average: 0.49, 0.31, 0.16 Tasks: 169 total, 1 running, 168 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 7.7%us, 2.6%sy, 0.0%ni, 84.6%id, 5.1%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 4055392k total, 3351000k used, 704392k free, 180740k buffers Swap: 4193276k total, 0k used, 4193276k free, 2397920k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 4938 joerg 20 0 155m 46m 12m S 9 1.2 15:37.20 npviewer.bin 4847 joerg 20 0 507m 111m 31m S 5 2.8 3:15.33 firefox 1604 root 20 0 195m 101m 17m S 2 2.6 12:05.50 Xorg 4689 joerg 20 0 579m 69m 38m S 2 1.7 4:53.64 kwin 6710 joerg 20 0 446m 42m 23m S 2 1.1 0:06.12 konsole 4745 joerg 20 0 91328 34m 13m S 1 0.9 1:35.93 skype 7868 joerg 20 0 1127m 180m 58m S 1 4.6 0:12.39 digikam 18 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.13 kblockd/0 4585 joerg 20 0 20864 6536 660 S 0 0.2 0:07.92 dbus-daemon 4695 joerg 20 0 676m 57m 29m S 0 1.4 0:16.18 plasma-desktop 1 root 20 0 12408 776 628 S 0 0.0 0:00.34 init 2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd 3 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0 4 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.79 ksoftirqd/0 5 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0 6 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1 7 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.22 ksoftirqd/1 8 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/1 9 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.21 events/0 10 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.52 events/1 11 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 netns 12 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 async/mgr 13 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 pm 14 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 sync_supers 15 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 bdi-default 16 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/0 17 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/1 19 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.19 kblockd/1 20 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpid 21 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpi_notify 22 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpi_hotplug

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

This is at starting the thumbnail rebuild (only missing thumbnails).

Code:

top - 15:16:46 up 3:03, 4 users, load average: 0.48, 0.32, 0.17 Tasks: 169 total, 1 running, 168 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 8.7%us, 7.7%sy, 0.0%ni, 40.3%id, 42.5%wa, 0.3%hi, 0.3%si, 0.0%st Mem: 4055392k total, 3503224k used, 552168k free, 181304k buffers Swap: 4193276k total, 0k used, 4193276k free, 2511988k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 4938 joerg 20 0 158m 48m 12m S 14 1.2 15:44.48 npviewer.bin 7868 joerg 20 0 1165m 218m 58m D 13 5.5 0:15.23 digikam 1604 root 20 0 195m 101m 17m S 2 2.6 12:07.80 Xorg 4689 joerg 20 0 579m 69m 38m S 1 1.8 4:54.79 kwin 4745 joerg 20 0 91328 34m 13m S 1 0.9 1:36.48 skype 4847 joerg 20 0 507m 107m 31m S 1 2.7 3:15.97 firefox 6710 joerg 20 0 446m 42m 23m S 1 1.1 0:06.76 konsole 18 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.14 kblockd/0 1 root 20 0 12408 776 628 S 0 0.0 0:00.34 init 2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd 3 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0 4 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.79 ksoftirqd/0 5 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0 6 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1 7 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.22 ksoftirqd/1 8 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/1 9 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.21 events/0 10 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.52 events/1 11 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 netns 12 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 async/mgr 13 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 pm 14 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 sync_supers 15 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 bdi-default 16 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/0 17 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/1 19 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.20 kblockd/1 20 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpid 21 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpi_notify 22 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpi_hotplug 23 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 khubd 24 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kseriod

And now its getting sluggish at 33% of the scan.

Code:

top - 15:32:40 up 3:19, 4 users, load average: 0.86, 0.59, 0.39 Tasks: 161 total, 2 running, 159 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 57.7%us, 4.3%sy, 0.0%ni, 37.5%id, 0.0%wa, 0.3%hi, 0.2%si, 0.0%st Mem: 4055392k total, 3978084k used, 77308k free, 147184k buffers Swap: 4193276k total, 0k used, 4193276k free, 2932564k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 1604 root 20 0 241m 147m 17m R 86 3.7 21:50.02 Xorg 4938 joerg 20 0 147m 37m 12m S 15 0.9 17:49.75 npviewer.bin 7868 joerg 20 0 1201m 274m 58m S 15 6.9 7:00.02 digikam 4689 joerg 20 0 579m 69m 38m S 6 1.8 5:56.45 kwin 6710 joerg 20 0 447m 43m 23m S 2 1.1 0:08.50 konsole 4745 joerg 20 0 91328 34m 13m S 1 0.9 1:44.12 skype 4847 joerg 20 0 509m 111m 32m S 1 2.8 3:27.29 firefox 4708 joerg 20 0 599m 33m 20m S 0 0.8 0:02.53 krunner 6724 joerg 20 0 8928 1420 856 R 0 0.0 0:05.99 top 1 root 20 0 12408 776 628 S 0 0.0 0:00.34 init 2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd 3 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0 4 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.88 ksoftirqd/0 5 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0 6 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1 7 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.25 ksoftirqd/1 8 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/1 9 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.23 events/0 10 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.56 events/1 11 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 netns 12 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 async/mgr 13 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 pm 14 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 sync_supers 15 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.01 bdi-default 16 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/0 17 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/1 18 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.21 kblockd/0 19 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.28 kblockd/1 20 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpid 21 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpi_notify 22 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpi_hotplu

What i am surprised is that my memory is taken almost completely. Is there a reason for that? That seems to be even without digikam. Very strange.
Xorg pings between 90% and also down to 40% during the process.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Code:

Linux 2.6.34.7-0.4-desktop (linux-sf0t) 25.10.2010 _x86_64_ (2 CPU) avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 20,13 0,14 3,60 2,71 0,00 73,42 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 25,36 379,57 350,91 6133958 5670816 sdb 0,01 0,14 0,00 2318 16 sdc 1,54 40,97 73,12 662126 1181640 scd0 0,00 0,00 0,00 48 0

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Thanks. Memory is taken, and your cached (disk) looks high with the stats initially at 2.5GB rising to 2.9GB. That is 63% rising to 73% of total memory (4GB). Whereas mine is at 23% of total memory (3GB). Thats on a fully updated default desktop install of 11.3 64bit with KDE 4.4.4. Can I assume you are fully updated from official update repo?

Can you report the stats immediately after a clean reboot, i.e. before starting apps like kopete etc? You can then start firefox and skype to see if there is any difference for overall memory and cached, and report if significant.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Sure thing.
But i have to admit that it confuses me somewhat. I don't remember that i changed the system in any way. If i have digikam working and the workload gets full, the system is getting really slow. Can not even browse anymore. And that with 4GB of ram.
Anyhow, at the next reboot i post the mem with pos again. I will also post my repos.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Ok, but I was mainly interested to know if now you have applied all the updates particularly recent kernel updates?

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

So let me talk about what I have seen on my machine before. I discovered that running any program that scans your disk will increase the cache size and reduce free memory, but cache memory can be reassigned and is not used in the normal sense and speeds up finds and loads on new programs.

Of course any loaded and running program uses real memory and when real memory gets low, swap memory is sued. Once swap memory used, your system can start to grind to super slow speed because disk memory is way slower than real memory. When I was using Nepomuk on purpose and after I found Tracker loaded, by I don't know who, my cache memory started going up until I had no free memory. The moment I loaded anything serious, swap would start to turn on and I have 8 GB of main memory, twice what you have loaded. Now here is what I have free right now and how much is being used:

Code:

james@LinuxUser:~/Downloads> free total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 8194192 2488736 5705456 0 363548 1523604 -/+ buffers/cache: 601584 7592608 Swap: 2104476 0 2104476

I have more free memory than you have total memory and my system has been running for over 24 hours since my last reboot. You say that these program are not loaded or running, but something seems to be using disk caches before you start up Digikam. Just what it might be I do not know, but heavy disk reads to start to fill up your cache memory, but which suggests what else is running? You can see what is running in the System Monitor, but nothing is jumping out at me in the list.

Thank You,

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Here is my pos after systemstart.

Code:

top - 18:06:34 up 1 min, 3 users, load average: 1.13, 0.48, 0.17 Tasks: 161 total, 1 running, 160 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 11.5%us, 3.7%sy, 0.0%ni, 81.6%id, 2.8%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.5%si, 0.0%st Mem: 4055392k total, 904624k used, 3150768k free, 14052k buffers Swap: 4193276k total, 0k used, 4193276k free, 571692k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 3984 joerg 20 0 434m 38m 22m S 11 1.0 0:00.61 konsole 3640 root 20 0 136m 42m 14m S 10 1.1 0:02.19 Xorg 3882 joerg 20 0 529m 57m 39m S 5 1.4 0:01.42 kwin 4004 joerg 20 0 281m 21m 11m S 2 0.5 0:00.05 kio_thumbnail 3936 joerg 20 0 90780 34m 13m S 1 0.9 0:01.12 skype 1351 messageb 20 0 23832 1356 744 S 0 0.0 0:00.15 dbus-daemon 3790 joerg 20 0 15424 1176 644 S 0 0.0 0:00.17 dbus-daemon 3920 joerg 20 0 494m 29m 16m S 0 0.7 0:00.20 kmix 3998 joerg 20 0 8668 1124 788 R 0 0.0 0:00.02 top 4001 joerg 20 0 254m 16m 7556 S 0 0.4 0:00.01 kio_trash 4002 joerg 20 0 252m 14m 6684 S 0 0.4 0:00.01 kio_file 4003 joerg 20 0 252m 14m 6680 S 0 0.4 0:00.01 kio_file 1 root 20 0 12408 768 628 S 0 0.0 0:00.30 init 2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd 3 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0 4 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.08 ksoftirqd/0 5 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0 6 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1 7 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.01 ksoftirqd/1 8 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/1 9 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.01 events/0 10 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.02 events/1 11 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 netns 12 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 async/mgr 13 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 pm 14 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 sync_supers 15 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 bdi-default 16 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/0 17 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/1 18 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.01 kblockd/0 19 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kblockd/1

And here the repos

Code:

joerg@linux-sf0t:~> zypper repos # | Alias | Name | Aktiviert | Aktualisieren ---+-------------------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------+-------------- 1 | KDE:UpdatedApps | KDE:UpdatedApps | Ja | Ja 2 | Libdvdcss repository | Libdvdcss repository | Ja | Ja 3 | Packman_Repository | Packman Repository | Ja | Ja 4 | Updates for openSUSE 11.3 11.3-1.82 | Updates for openSUSE 11.3 11.3-1.82 | Ja | Ja 5 | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/11.3/standard | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/11.3/standard | Ja | Ja 6 | mozilla:Factory | mozilla:Factory | Ja | Ja 7 | nvidia | nvidia | Ja | Ja 8 | openSUSE-11.3 11.3-1.82 | openSUSE-11.3 11.3-1.82 | Ja | Nein 9 | repo-debug | openSUSE-11.3-Debug | Nein | Ja 10 | repo-non-oss | openSUSE-11.3-Non-Oss | Ja | Ja 11 | repo-oss | openSUSE-11.3-Oss | Ja | Ja 12 | repo-source | openSUSE-11.3-Source

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Actually i think it is a memory leak in digikam. I started it after i posted the last stats and once i work with it and quit it i still have 2903824k used. This time i have something left, but not good enough. For some reason the mem does not get released after i quit the program.
I have to try to install the newer version in hope it will work. I think it did not last time with 11.3.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

But the 2.9 GB (total?) is mainly disk cache is it not? I don't know whether that disk cache would be reduced unless the memory is required by running more processes. So you could find out by firing up some more applications (though not digikam) and see if the cached stat decreases and the total memory stat either increases or stays roughly the same. You should be able to see if the cache mem is being released.

Once again is your system fully updated? What kernel and release are you running? You will find the information in My Computer (sysinfo). Cannot tell that from your repo list. Also you didn't mention what release of digikam you have been running.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

I just updated the system with digikam.

Digikam version is now 1.5, was 1.2 before.
The leak, not sure.. its still eating the mem. With what program can i determain where the ram goes? And whats in the buffer?

KDE is 4.5.2 now. Used to run 4.4.4 before.

But now, even with the high load, its smoother and not sluggish at all. At least one good thing.

Code:

top - 19:55:33 up 21 min, 3 users, load average: 1.01, 0.48, 0.31 Tasks: 147 total, 1 running, 146 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 5.0%us, 1.2%sy, 0.0%ni, 53.2%id, 40.5%wa, 0.2%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 4055392k total, 3495752k used, 559640k free, 94860k buffers Swap: 4193276k total, 0k used, 4193276k free, 2771452k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 5043 joerg 20 0 1189m 234m 60m S 9 5.9 6:20.98 digikam 1489 root 20 0 143m 47m 15m S 1 1.2 2:10.02 Xorg 4815 joerg 20 0 91816 34m 13m S 1 0.9 0:10.49 skype 4638 joerg 20 0 533m 71m 47m S 0 1.8 0:17.28 kwin 1 root 20 0 12408 768 628 S 0 0.0 0:00.30 init 2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd 3 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0 4 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.06 ksoftirqd/0 5 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0 6 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1 7 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.06 ksoftirqd/1 8 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/1 9 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.05 events/0 10 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.05 events/1 11 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 netns 12 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 async/mgr 13 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 pm 14 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 sync_supers 15 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 bdi-default 16 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/0 17 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/1 18 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.14 kblockd/0 19 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.14 kblockd/1 20 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpid 21 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpi_notify 22 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpi_hotplug 23 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 khubd 24 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kseriod 27 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kondemand/0 28 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kondemand/1 29 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 khelper

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Actually see what happens. Digikam is still working, but my mem is shrinking by the seconds.
The cpu load is at a normal level, which is a big difference from before.
In some sense, i don't understand it really and i am really puzzled.

Code:

top - 20:04:07 up 29 min, 3 users, load average: 1.93, 1.67, 0.99 Tasks: 150 total, 1 running, 149 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 9.2%us, 2.6%sy, 0.0%ni, 49.5%id, 38.5%wa, 0.2%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 4055392k total, 4024480k used, 30912k free, 154192k buffers Swap: 4193276k total, 0k used, 4193276k free, 3169148k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 5043 joerg 20 0 1189m 234m 60m S 9 5.9 7:03.84 digikam 1489 root 20 0 150m 56m 19m S 5 1.4 2:28.18 Xorg 5048 joerg 20 0 475m 38m 21m S 3 1.0 0:02.57 konsole 4638 joerg 20 0 543m 78m 51m S 2 2.0 0:25.11 kwin 4815 joerg 20 0 91816 34m 13m S 1 0.9 0:15.10 skype 5170 joerg 20 0 486m 87m 32m S 1 2.2 0:07.48 firefox 4764 joerg 20 0 483m 37m 27m S 0 1.0 0:02.18 kopete 1 root 20 0 12408 768 628 S 0 0.0 0:00.30 init 2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd 3 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0 4 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.09 ksoftirqd/0 5 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0 6 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1 7 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.09 ksoftirqd/1 8 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/1 9 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.07 events/0 10 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.08 events/1 11 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 netns 12 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 async/mgr 13 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 pm 14 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 sync_supers 15 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 bdi-default 16 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/0 17 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/1 18 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.33 kblockd/0 19 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.34 kblockd/1 20 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpid 21 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpi_notify 22 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpi_hotplug 23 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 khubd 24 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kseriod

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

and here the kernel version. sorry, forgot it.

Code:

Linux 2.6.34.7-0.4-desktop (linux-sf0t) 25.10.2010 _x86_64_ (2 CPU) avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 16,09 0,11 2,53 24,93 0,00 56,35 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 160,97 2257,18 942,55 5640310 2355280 sdb 0,07 0,90 0,01 2254 16 sdc 21,97 1529,87 2,71 3822880 6784 scd0 0,00 0,02 0,00 48 0

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Thanks for the software info. Although I now have no confidence in knowing what you were running for the earlier tests. I'm not surprised that upgrading KDE has improved your operation as it feels better on my test system.

How are you getting on with that test I suggested?

Quote:

But the 2.9 GB (total?) is mainly disk cache is it not? I don't know whether that disk cache would be reduced unless the memory is required by running more processes. So you could find out by firing up some more applications (though not digikam) and see if the cached stat decreases and the used memory stat either increases or stays roughly the same. You should be able to see if the cache mem is being released.

Load your system with more applications (not digikam - close it) step by step, and observe the changes to "used" and "cached" at each step as here (in blue), using top :

Code:

Mem: 4055392k total, 4024480k used, 30912k free, 154192k buffers Swap: 4193276k total, 0k used, 4193276k free, 3169148k cached

You don't need to paste the results, just tell us what you observed. ;)

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Is there a way to log these stats? Also can you specifically see what program x does with the ram?
I am not really that great with commands but i am getting better. :)

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

A quick scan of the man page for top command suggests it can be output to file, but I haven't tried that. Take a look with Konqueror: enter man:top

Top shows you the memory being used with each task, but that's all I can think of right now. I wasn't looking for great precision here, just to see if the disk cache is lowered to release memory to the new apps that are loaded, after running digikam to take up the memory and having closed it.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Quote:

Originally Posted by consused

Thanks for the software info. Although I now have no confidence in knowing what you were running for the earlier tests. I'm not surprised that upgrading KDE has improved your operation as it feels better on my test system.

How are you getting on with that test I suggested?

Load your system with more applications (not digikam - close it) step by step, and observe the changes to "used" and "cached" at each step as here (in blue), using top :

Code:

Mem: 4055392k total, 4024480k used, 30912k free, 154192k buffers Swap: 4193276k total, 0k used, 4193276k free, 3169148k cached

You don't need to paste the results, just tell us what you observed. ;)

Well, there is a funny story to it.
The digikam version i ran was 1.2. So i looked around on the digikam website and searched for leaks and yes, past versions had memory leaks.
I suspect that the older version had it, since it seemed to fill up over time and got slower in the process.
With the new version 1.5 its smooth and it runs through without slowing down. So a big improvement.
But, to the install of 1.5 i choose one click install. Big mistake.
Why? Because it installed also (not sure why) also KDE 4.5 with it. Of course i said yes, but what i did not know was, that it only upgrade some libs and not all. So i ended up with a broken KDE.
I had to fix that, install it again and, well now i am on KDE again.
With that i updated the whole system via zypper. So the system should be up to date now.

The one thing i don't get still is the memory management in linux. It seem, and i never paid attention to this before, that it fills the cache to a certain point and from there it only swaps information in and out.
Since this is a standard install, i will assume that anyone has the same config and ergo the same datas.
Have to read on the memory a little more.

I will track a little more the behavior on my memory and will pos my findings here.
Overall the problem seems to be solved. I am very certain it was digikam/memoryleak.

I'll be back:)

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

It looks like 1.5 depends on certain KDE 4.5 libraries, although I haven't checked. You must be up to 4.5.2 now. I have that on my test partition, and it appears to run well. I noted your kernel is up to date for the standard release.

I new that digikam had previous form on memory leaks, from googling earlier, but didn't want to over prejudice our conclusions. Well done, you made a lot of progress and I'm glad to hear of the improved performance. Looking forward to reading your findings on the memory.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Well, i did not have really time to do a testing, but i will do it tomorrow with some starting, closing and full load.
I have to get more into the commands and the broader knowledge of how the memory is utilized under linux. Just from seeing the numbers in top you can think of how the memory shrinks, but i think it is not.
What i did is to limit the caching somewhat to increase the swappiness to 100.
In a way, i am amazed what you can do with linux which would be more difficult under windows. Just by the commands you have. Very, very useful. The only thing i really miss, i think i mentioned it once, is a tool that can show what a program is actually doing. I remember i had a tool as i had an Amiga. It was called snoopdog. With that it showed the process of a program and processes overall. So you were able to pinpoint if a program make crab or died. Pretty sure there is something like that in Linux. Just haven't found it yet.

I'll highly appreciate any tips and helps.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

BTW, you can use the command "free" to display your system's memory, including cached memory and buffers used by kernel. But note the shared memory column is obsolete. For example:

Code:

free -m

displays it in megabytes (easier than "top", to read quickly):

Code:

total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 2883 1011 1871 0 41 615 -/+ buffers/cache: 354 2528 Swap: 2047 0 2047

See the man page for a few more options. Although not mentioned, "free -g" will display in gigabytes, but you get zeros if less than one GB.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

I checked my memory of a period of time and came to the conclusion that the ram is used the same way, regardless what program i use.
In the end, my cache is always around 2,5 GB and my free Ram about 300K where the total ram used is about 3,7GB. It uses about 300K in Swap.
Do you really need swap anyway?
After start there is of course more ram left, normally about 3GB free.
I assume that this is a normal pattern and if not, why is behaving like this on my computer. I really only have a standard computer (self build). Next year i will build perhaps a newer computer and upgrade the motherboard and ram.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Just one more question. I usually have the following programs loaded automatically. Akregator, Kopete, Skype. Also i run firefox & thunderbird. Occasionally i use Amarok & Digikam. The reason why i am listing these programs, is that after a long time my system uses swap so i assume i need more ram to run all these programs without using swap.
First, am i right? And secondly is this normal for a system having 4GB of ram.

Thanks

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

I don't have 4GB of ram, only 3GB and I would expect to run all those apps (I don't run all of them now). On an older system (1.8GHz single ccpu) I only have 1.5GB, that runs KDE 4 on 11.2 and 11.3 better, and I use integrated graphics chipsets which take up memory. However when firefox is streaming a larger-sized, windowed Flash video stream, on the older system, most of the cpu resources are used up, full-screen is impossible, and I wouldn't be doing much else.

In your case I think it will depend on what you are running in firefox and digikam concurrently with the other apps, and whether digikam is leaking memory or releasing it. The more concurrent apps you open, the more memory will be taken up, and less will be available for those apps that dynamically require additional memory to complete intensive tasks. If it becomes a problem, you can either control peak usage by observing the memory each task is allocated (using top) and closing those apps temporarily that are not needed, or by adding more ram. It's your choice to make.

IIRC, I read elsewhere that if a swap partition is configured, at some point linux will use it for efficiency, even if it hasn't used up all of the ram. Swapping is only a problem when it produces a significant overhead/bottleneck for the cpu(s) and/or disk. In that case it's easier and probably cheaper to mitigate the disk situation, buying extra disk and moving the swap partition.

On balance, no I don't think you are right with your assumptions in that last question. However, if cost isn't an issue, you must have everything running with high performance with no swapping ever, and you don't mind running inefficient applications, buy more ram. :)

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Quote:

Originally Posted by yester64

I checked my memory of a period of time and came to the conclusion that the ram is used the same way, regardless what program i use.
In the end, my cache is always around 2,5 GB and my free Ram about 300K where the total ram used is about 3,7GB. It uses about 300K in Swap.
Do you really need swap anyway?
After start there is of course more ram left, normally about 3GB free.
I assume that this is a normal pattern and if not, why is behaving like this on my computer. I really only have a standard computer (self build). Next year i will build perhaps a newer computer and upgrade the motherboard and ram.

Sorry, i've answered your last couple of posts in the wrong order. Saying "regardless what program i use", doesn't tell me whether you significantly increased the number of concurrent apps/tasks to stress the system and change the normal patten.

Yes it probably is a normal pattern for your configuration (including disks). My impression with cache (disk) is that once it decides how much of free ram to initially allocate, it never falls below that level unless it's needed by additional tasks.

With small 300K margin remaining, your ram is effectively, and efficiently, fully utilized. Also 300K in Swap is just noise level and not worth worrying about. What do you think will happen to your running system if your real memory runs out without the ability to swap? Think about it. ;)

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

At least i know that it is a normal behavior and so i don't need to worry.
No, i am not worried really about swap, just thought that 4GB is a lot of memory. But yes, digikam takes a lot of memory by itself when used.
I was planning to buy or build a new pc (smaller) and get rid of my GT8800. If i do this, i will put more ram in since i do video and more ram can never hurt.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

4GB seems a lot of swap memory when you are hardly swapping. I decided to only use 2GB for my 3GB of real memory, and that still works for now, even bearing in mind that Hibernate (to disk) uses Swap for persistent storage.

Good luck. I am sure your present system has quite a bit of useful life left in it. :)

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

Since my psu burned up during hibernation under windows vista, i do not use this feature anymore. Bad experience i suppose.

Its not that i think my cpu is to slow, i just want to build a smaller pc for myself and by doing that upgrade everything. This time i probably will use AMD instead of Intel and, like i said, use 8GB. The other cpu will be used by my wife then.

Re: Digikam & xorg heavy cpu load

I found a good read in regards to Linux memory management. If someone mind, i post it. It helped me to understand it a little more.

Low On Memory - linux-mm.org Wiki