high cpu for process events/1

shalom938 · January 1, 2011, 8:11pm

Hi
in the past two days my opensuse 11.3 is on high cpu consumed by process events/1 and everything is slow, I have no idea whats going on.

this is the output from top:

Tasks: 209 total,   4 running, 205 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  8.1%us, 31.2%sy,  0.0%ni, 59.8%id,  0.6%wa,  0.1%hi,  0.2%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   3983740k total,  2964716k used,  1019024k free,    55732k buffers
Swap:  4842492k total,     1076k used,  4841416k free,  1837828k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND                                                         
    9 root      20   0     0    0    0 R   60  0.0 104:14.45 events/0                                                        
 9945 shalom    20   0  931m 220m  30m S   14  5.7   9:25.40 firefox                                                         
 1643 root      20   0  187m  51m  21m S    2  1.3   7:58.36 Xorg                                                            
15084 shalom    20   0 81952  17m  12m S    1  0.5   0:04.25 npviewer.bin                                                    
15185 shalom    20   0  136m  33m 3392 S    1  0.8   0:00.83 offlineimap                                                     
13869 shalom    20   0 57712  13m 9008 S    1  0.3   0:12.06 npviewer.bin                                                    
15063 shalom    20   0  524m  37m  31m S    0  1.0   0:00.85 chromium                                                        
   68 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:03.20 ata/0                                                           
   82 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:08.62 scsi_eh_3                                                       
 2548 shalom    20   0  162m  11m 9780 S    0  0.3   0:06.16 tracker-status-                                                 
 3477 shalom    20   0  276m  17m  11m S    0  0.4   0:09.18 gnome-terminal                                                  
 7597 shalom    20   0 1106m  66m  24m S    0  1.7   0:41.33 chromium                                                        
 9710 shalom    20   0  8668 1156  788 R    0  0.0   0:21.38 top                                                             
14713 shalom    20   0  8772 1184  788 R    0  0.0   0:02.09 top                                                             
    1 root      20   0 12408  644  600 S    0  0.0   0:00.56 init

knurpht · January 1, 2011, 8:50pm

I’ve seen this when my wireless mouse was breaking down ( it stopped working a couple of days after the start of what you describe )

jdmcdaniel3 · January 1, 2011, 9:40pm

I’ve seen this when my wireless mouse was breaking down ( it stopped working a couple of days after the start of what you describe )
Might also be time for a new battery.

Thank You,

shalom938 · January 1, 2011, 9:53pm

I’m not using a wireless mouse

lwfinger · January 1, 2011, 9:37pm

That CPU is processing lots of interrupts. As mentioned earlier, some piece of
hardware is likely on the way to the scrap heap.

To see what is causing it, enter the command ‘cat /proc/interrupts’. If it is
not obvious which one is at fault, wait 1 minute and repeat the command. A
comparison should show which device is at fault, or a set of devices if an
interrupt is shared.

shalom938 · January 1, 2011, 10:33pm

I’m not sure how to see which device is at fault, I’v watched the command for several minutes and there was only a change in the cpu columns,


           CPU0       CPU1       
  0:     258057     308529   IO-APIC-edge      timer
  1:       1213       1704   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
  8:         13         14   IO-APIC-edge      rtc0
  9:       3420        342   IO-APIC-fasteoi   acpi
 12:      34797      37669   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
 14:      32580        511   IO-APIC-edge      ata_piix
 15:          0          0   IO-APIC-edge      ata_piix
 16:      40288         40   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb5, yenta
 17:         19         13   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb6
 18:          0          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb7
 19:        125        150   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ehci_hcd:usb2
 20:         79         79   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb3
 21:          0          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb4
 22:          3          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ehci_hcd:usb1
 40:          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      PCIe PME
 41:          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      PCIe PME
 42:          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      PCIe PME
 43:          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      PCIe PME
 44:          0          0   PCI-MSI-edge      PCIe PME
 45:      99915      96319   PCI-MSI-edge      ahci
 46:     115633        443   PCI-MSI-edge      i915
 47:        524         13   PCI-MSI-edge      eth0
 48:      43550      51506   PCI-MSI-edge      iwlagn
 49:        794        365   PCI-MSI-edge      hda_intel
NMI:        245        832   Non-maskable interrupts
LOC:     486062    1286760   Local timer interrupts
SPU:          0          0   Spurious interrupts
PMI:        245        832   Performance monitoring interrupts
PND:          0          0   Performance pending work
RES:      14814      20468   Rescheduling interrupts
CAL:       1077        699   Function call interrupts
TLB:       2699       4331   TLB shootdowns
TRM:          0          0   Thermal event interrupts
THR:          0          0   Threshold APIC interrupts
MCE:          0          0   Machine check exceptions
MCP:          8          8   Machine check polls
ERR:          1
MIS:          0

shalom938 · January 1, 2011, 10:35pm

BTW , I switched to kernel 2.5.36 to see if things get better and its the same only now its a process called kworker,
I’m running gnome .

top:


Tasks: 205 total,   2 running, 203 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  4.0%us, 34.7%sy,  0.0%ni, 61.3%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   3983336k total,  3823788k used,   159548k free,   100636k buffers
Swap:  4842492k total,        0k used,  4842492k free,  2783600k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND                                                         
 1304 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   66  0.0  20:20.35 kworker/1:2                                                     
 4216 shalom    20   0  830m 193m  32m S    7  5.0   1:13.43 firefox                                                         
 1597 root      20   0  172m  45m  19m S    2  1.2   1:26.25 Xorg                                                            
 2524 shalom    20   0  385m  36m  25m S    1  0.9   0:22.21 psi                                                             
 4475 shalom    20   0 77612  23m  13m R    1  0.6   0:09.26 npviewer.bin                                                    
 4834 root      20   0  8768 1180  788 S    1  0.0   0:01.36 top                                                             
 4908 root      20   0  8668 1176  788 R    1  0.0   0:00.02 top                                                             
 2335 shalom    20   0  193m  12m  10m S    0  0.3   0:03.54 multiload-apple                                                 
 3408 shalom    20   0  193m  27m 5076 S    0  0.7   0:14.40 compiz                                                          
 4292 shalom    20   0 1116m  67m  25m S    0  1.7   0:04.63 chromium                                                        
    1 root      20   0 12408  772  628 S    0  0.0   0:00.62 init                                                            
    2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd                                                        
    3 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.25 ksoftirqd/0                                                     
    6 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/0                                                     
    7 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/0                                                      
    8 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.01 migration/1

jdmcdaniel3 · January 1, 2011, 11:39pm

What is your Video chipset and have you loaded any video drivers not included in the standard release? For instance, I use nVidia and I have loaded the nVidia Proprietary video driver. Have you considered trying the very latest Kernel version 2.6.37-rc8 by chance? As far as I can tell, kworker is the new name for the same old task and there is no significance in its name change for this issue.

Thank You,

shalom938 · January 1, 2011, 11:49pm

I just disables the ethernet card in the bios and the problem disappeared, now I’m left only with the wireless card which I don’t mind so much because this is what I’m using usually.
does this mean that I need a new ethernet card?
is there something else I should do to completely disable it?

jdmcdaniel3 · January 2, 2011, 12:19am

I just disables the ethernet card in the bios and the problem disappeared, now I’m left only with the wireless card which I don’t mind so much because this is what I’m using usually.
does this mean that I need a new ethernet card?
is there something else I should do to completely disable it?
I am not sure, but it must be bad to cause this issue. What network card/chipset are we talking about here? For any one built-in, you must keep it disabled and add another, or just replace it when it is already an add-in card. Network cards on Desktops are really cheap these days and easy to replace. A built-in hardwire network interface on a Laptop would be a real problem to fix.

Thank You,

shalom938 · January 2, 2011, 12:45am

Its Lenovo T61

lwfinger · January 2, 2011, 2:40am

On 01/01/2011 03:36 PM, shalom938 wrote:
>
> BTW , I switched to kernel 2.5.36 to see if things get better and its
> the same only now its a process called kworker,
> I’m running gnome .
>
> top:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
>
> Tasks: 205 total, 2 running, 203 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
> Cpu(s): 4.0%us, 34.7%sy, 0.0%ni, 61.3%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
> Mem: 3983336k total, 3823788k used, 159548k free, 100636k buffers
> Swap: 4842492k total, 0k used, 4842492k free, 2783600k cached
>
> PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
> 1304 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 66 0.0 20:20.35 kworker/1:2
> 4216 shalom 20 0 830m 193m 32m S 7 5.0 1:13.43 firefox
> 1597 root 20 0 172m 45m 19m S 2 1.2 1:26.25 Xorg
> 2524 shalom 20 0 385m 36m 25m S 1 0.9 0:22.21 psi
> 4475 shalom 20 0 77612 23m 13m R 1 0.6 0:09.26 npviewer.bin
> 4834 root 20 0 8768 1180 788 S 1 0.0 0:01.36 top
> 4908 root 20 0 8668 1176 788 R 1 0.0 0:00.02 top
> 2335 shalom 20 0 193m 12m 10m S 0 0.3 0:03.54 multiload-apple
> 3408 shalom 20 0 193m 27m 5076 S 0 0.7 0:14.40 compiz
> 4292 shalom 20 0 1116m 67m 25m S 0 1.7 0:04.63 chromium
> 1 root 20 0 12408 772 628 S 0 0.0 0:00.62 init
> 2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd
> 3 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.25 ksoftirqd/0
> 6 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0
> 7 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0
> 8 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.01 migration/1

In the /proc/interrupts list, only the numbers would change. None of them are
large enough to be causing a problem.

The kworker process is the workqueue that is used by many parts of the kernel.
I’m not sure how to tell what part is causing this.