kacpi_notify hogging CPU time.

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#1

Hey guys,

Recently I have noticed that the process kacpi_notify is using constantly using 10-14% of my total CPU time, I am running an i7 @ 2.66Ghz. This causes the CPU temp to rise, and eventually the fan will kick in to cool it down, at which point kacpi_notify will stop using CPU time. Then about a minute later it will kick in again and use CPU time up constantly until the fan kicks in because of it. It sounds like something is triggering the process and then it is stuck in an endless loop. I just don’t know where I can modify this so it doesn’t start up all the time.

Some tech stuff:

Kernel: 2.6.34.7
OS: Opensuse 11.3
GUI: KDE 4.4.4

Output for top:

 57 root      20   0     0    0    0 R   69  0.0   4260:10 kacpi_notify                                                                                 
   56 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   14  0.0 916:29.00 kacpid                                                                                       
 1706 Hilikus   20   0  425m  29m  15m S    1  0.3   0:04.49 konsole                                                                                      
 2049 root      20   0 2402m 2.2g  11m S    1 25.4 591:52.17 Xorg                                                                                         
15805 Hilikus   20   0 1440m 224m  54m S    1  2.5  14:13.94 amarok                                                                                       
   27 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   1:33.94 events/0                                                                                     
 1672 Hilikus   20   0  865m  98m  32m S    0  1.1  30:58.50 plasma-desktop                                                                               
 3282 Hilikus   20   0  513m  57m  32m S    0  0.6   0:24.38 kopete                                                                                       
 3453 Hilikus   20   0  737m 190m  39m S    0  2.1 336:29.57 kwin                                                                                         
27230 Hilikus   20   0  8800 1228  788 R    0  0.0   0:00.01 top                                                                                          
    1 root      20   0 12408  640  612 S    0  0.0   0:04.34 init                                                                                         
    2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.03 kthreadd                                                                                     
    3 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.12 migration/0                                                                                  
    4 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   1:16.93 ksoftirqd/0                                                                                  
    5 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/0                                                                                   
   35 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 netns                                                                                        
   36 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 async/mgr                                                                                    
   37 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 pm                                                                                           
   38 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.52 sync_supers                                                                                  
   39 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.66 bdi-default                                                                                  
   40 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kintegrityd/0                                                                                
   48 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:03.32 kblockd/0                                                                                    
   58 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kacpi_hotplug                                                                                
   59 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.12 khubd                                                                                        
   60 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kseriod                                                                                      
   69 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   2:17.80 kondemand/0                                                                                  
   77 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 khelper                                                                                      
   78 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 khungtaskd                                                                                   
   79 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:37.23 kswapd0                                                                                      
   80 root      25   5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 ksmd                                                                                         
   81 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 aio/0                                                                                        
   89 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 crypto/0                                                                                     
   98 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kpsmoused                                                                                    
   99 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 usbhid_resumer                                                                               
  127 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 ata/0                                                                                        
  135 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 ata_aux                                                                                      
  136 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.04 scsi_eh_0                                                                                    
  137 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.23 scsi_eh_1                                                                                    
  336 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.01 scsi_eh_2                                                                                    
  338 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   1:03.05 scsi_eh_3                                                                                    
  339 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 scsi_eh_4                                                                                    
  341 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 scsi_eh_5                                                                                    
  343 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 scsi_eh_6

I didn’t have this problem when running opensuse 11.2… only started with 11.3. I’m hoping it will be fixed with 11.4 which is to be released in a month or so. A temp solution would be appreciated.

#2

Hi There
A quick google of “kacpi_notify” yeilds dozens of hits very much like your problem. Are you having these problems on a laptop or a desktop?
Two of the of the things I saw suggested making sure your BIOS is up to date and disabling ACPI all together. Obviously, we would like to keep ACPI if we can, so I would check your BIOS first before doing anything else.

#3

Hey pimanac,

Yeah I did the google search before posting. I notice most are with Ubuntu and are usually dated around 2008. It appears their issues were resolved after a kernel update, but we are long past version 2.6.24.

I believe the issue starts happening when bringing the machine out of suspend. Suspend works correct, and wakes up no problem… minus this process of course.

I am running a desktop. It is an Acer M7720.