Plasma eating CPU like a starved fat kid at a cake factory

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1

Yes, I felt like a more fun post title…

I’m running 11.0 on an AMD64 laptop (Athlon 64 Mobile 3400+, 1GB RAM).
Lately, I’ve been leaving my laptop on for a while. Most of the time I
just have Firefox3, Thunderbird, Pidgin, and a console window or two
open. I have effects turned off, and a blank screensaver.

I have no problems when using the laptop normally. However, when I
leave the laptop alone for, say, 10 hours and then come back, it takes
(literally) 2-3 minutes for the screensaver unlock window to pop up.
SSHing in, I run top and see that plasma is taking up ~75-85% CPU and
45% of my 1GB RAM. It’ll take about 10 minutes to get it to respond
enough to close my applications.

Anyone else having problems with plasma taking up way too much CPU and
memory? Any solutions?

–
J. Antman
Dedicated SuSE user since October, 2001 (7.3)
http://www.jasonantman.com
http://blog.jasonantman.com

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2

jantman wrote:

>
> Yes, I felt like a more fun post title…
>
> I’m running 11.0 on an AMD64 laptop (Athlon 64 Mobile 3400+, 1GB RAM).
> Lately, I’ve been leaving my laptop on for a while. Most of the time I
> just have Firefox3, Thunderbird, Pidgin, and a console window or two
> open. I have effects turned off, and a blank screensaver.
>
> I have no problems when using the laptop normally. However, when I
> leave the laptop alone for, say, 10 hours and then come back, it takes
> (literally) 2-3 minutes for the screensaver unlock window to pop up.
> SSHing in, I run top and see that plasma is taking up ~75-85% CPU and
> 45% of my 1GB RAM. It’ll take about 10 minutes to get it to respond
> enough to close my applications.
>
> Anyone else having problems with plasma taking up way too much CPU and
> memory? Any solutions?
>
>
what widgets do you have installed? what happens if you deinstall all monitor widgets?

Suse 11.0 x64, Kde 4.2beta (unstable repo), Opera 9.x weekly

3

If a fat kid were really starved wouldn’t s/he be a skinny kid at a cake
factory? :wink:

–
ken_yap

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4

i had this cpu running at 46% when idle kde-4 running a konsole and
firefox 3 windows.in ubuntu-8.04
but after upgrading all packages and next kernel it dropped to 9 %
usage of cpu.
disable desktop effects and see if there is change in cpu use.
if it helps change opengl display to xrender in desktop effects
advanced menu.
it may help.
be aware the desktop can collapse.
in that case delete .kde4 in home and start fresh kde.
i really dont know which package makes it use 50% cpu on idling
computer.
i have felt kde4 is for higher advanced hardware and 2 cpu
:(machines.:slight_smile:

–
ramaswamyps

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5

ken_yap;1904049 Wrote:
> If a fat kid were really starved wouldn’t s/he be a skinny kid at a cake
> factory? :wink:

I considered that for quite a while, but having a number of overweight
friends, I’ve learned that “starving” is a relative term…

I don’t have any desktop effects running. Widgets??? :\ I had the
analog clock and the battery monitor, but just got rid of them. Overall,
I have KDE3.5 on all of my other machines, and don’t care much for the
flash of KDE4 (though I don’t really feel like uninstalling it). It
seems like a waste of processor power when I’m trying to parse 220,000
lines of log files…

Also, I was having some overheating problems a while ago, so I setup a
script to log temperatures against load average. Here’s the last 24
hours, with load average in red:
[image:
http://www.jasonantman.com/indexed/antmanLaptop1day_all_2008_12_04.png]

interesting…

(oh, it seems that the drops in temperature during that period are from
those temp probes (external Dallas 1-wire probes) losing sync on the bus
due to timing issues caused by the load.)

–
J. Antman
Dedicated SuSE user since October, 2001 (7.3)
http://www.jasonantman.com
http://blog.jasonantman.com

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6

Disable all screensavers, just use blank. You can still use powersave.

This has been a resolution for others

–
Box: Linux 2.6.25.18-0.2 x86_64 | OS 11.0 | (KDE4.1.81) “1.1” | M2N4-SLI
| AMD 64 X2 5200+ | nVidia 8500GT | 2GB RAM
Lap: OS 11.0 | Celeron 550 | (KDE 4.1.81 “release 1.1” | Intel 965 GM |
Lenovo R61e | 1GB RAM

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7

as stated…

jantman;1904034 Wrote:
> I have effects turned off, and a blank screensaver.

–
J. Antman
Dedicated SuSE user since October, 2001 (7.3)
http://www.jasonantman.com
http://blog.jasonantman.com

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8

Sorry. Of course.

Did you say what ver. of kde4

–
Box: Linux 2.6.25.18-0.2 x86_64 | OS 11.0 | (KDE4.1.81) “1.1” | M2N4-SLI
| AMD 64 X2 5200+ | nVidia 8500GT | 2GB RAM
Lap: OS 11.0 | Celeron 550 | (KDE 4.1.81 “release 1.1” | Intel 965 GM |
Lenovo R61e | 1GB RAM

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9

Plasma not responsible for high cpu usage?
Plasma looks to be eating cpu. After having installed the firmware and
starting the wlan I shut down the radio with the button on the front.
After that the desktop eats cpu, 30-90 % momentarily and fan goes up.
The log below shows what - it is some process in the kernel that is
checking it continously. When I put on the radion with the physical
button at the front this logging disappears and the cpu is back to 3% or
so.
When running top I see plasma and hald as the culprits but the cause is
probably this kernel process.
I would like to have the radio off, by button. This does not look
possible anymore.

ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

Dec 27 16:24:13 linux-box kernel: b43-phy0: Radio hardware status
changed to DISABLED

Dec 27 16:24:14 linux-box kernel: b43-phy0: Radio turned on by software

Dec 27 16:24:14 linux-box kernel: b43-phy0: The hardware RF-kill button
still turns the radio physically off. Press the button to turn it on.
Dec 27 16:24:25 linux-box kernel: input: b43-phy0 as
/devices/virtual/input/input2448

Dec 27 16:24:26 linux-box kernel: b43-phy0: Loading firmware version
410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)

Dec 27 16:24:26 linux-box kernel: Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx

Dec 27 16:24:26 linux-box kernel: Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx

Dec 27 16:24:26 linux-box kernel: Registered led device:
b43-phy0::radio

Dec 27 16:24:26 linux-box kernel: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is
not ready
Dec 27 16:24:26 linux-box kernel: b43-phy0: Radio hardware status
changed to DISABLED

Dec 27 16:24:38 linux-box kernel: input: b43-phy0 as
/devices/virtual/input/input2449

Dec 27 16:24:38 linux-box kernel: b43-phy0: Loading firmware version
410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)

Dec 27 16:24:39 linux-box kernel: Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx

Dec 27 16:24:39 linux-box kernel: Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx

Dec 27 16:24:39 linux-box kernel: Registered led device:
b43-phy0::radio

Dec 27 16:24:39 linux-box kernel: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is
not ready
Dec 27 16:24:39 linux-box kernel: b43-phy0: Radio hardware status
changed to DISABLED

Dec 27 16:24:39 linux-box kernel: b43-phy0: Radio turned on by software

Dec 27 16:24:39 linux-box kernel: b43-phy0: The hardware RF-kill button
still turns the radio physically off. Press the button to turn it on.

–
ruddamm10

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