rob86 2 Report post Posted November 18, 2009 Lately, I've been experiencing an annoying problem with Ubuntu. For seemingly no reason, something become unruly and start using up all my CPU. It doesn't even seem to be just certain programs, and I'm not doing anything that should be cpu intensive (no compiling or installing packages or anything). Sometimes it happens doing routine things that normally take seconds, like opening a file, or saving a file. Sometimes, it's just an obvious thing like gam-server being annoying, or the ntfs thing doing it's job. At least there's a logical explanation there. Other times, I can never seem to determine what's causing the problems. It starts when I notice my computer becoming very unresponsive (taking sometimes a minute or more to focus a window or switch to another tty) and my panel monitors show full cpu usage. After thinking "Argh, Not again!", I immediately open up some kind of process managing tool, and I have a few. Xfce Task Man, Gnome sys mon, Top, Htop. The weird thing is, none of these tools ever help me figure out what's using my CPU? The overall CPU usage will be a steady 100%, but when I sort processes by CPU usage, there aren't any processes using a lot of CPU. The top 5 will be like, 7%,5%,2%,1%%1% or something, and in does not even come close to being 100% even when you put them all together.Sometimes, I can take a lucky guess and kill a process (the one I was last using) and the computer goes back to normal, but other times... I'm not so lucky.I really don't understand it. It's annoying enough when my computer becomes uncooperative when I'm in the middle of doing something, and I have to wait forever just to click on something, but it makes it worse when I can't figure out what's the problem and I have to restart the X server, which in itself takes a few minutes! Any idea what's going on? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jlhaslip 4 Report post Posted November 18, 2009 Keep track of the things which are running and see if the is a common thread to the times when the cpu is bogging down.Do you allow daily unattended updates? I have found that the Updating will sometimes bog the rig a little bit.Also, heavy javascript/ajax pages in the Browser will bung up the system. Google wave, theweathernetwork and several others come to mind, but I don't know if that is a Browser issue only? not sure if the same lack of response happens without the Browser running is what I mean. I rarely am without an open Browser. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rob86 2 Report post Posted November 18, 2009 No updates are not automatic. I don't think it's a browser issue either. I haven't been paying much attention to what's running when it happens. I usually have a lot of stuff going. I have noticed that Ubuntu seems to be going a little slower in general lately too. Maybe I worked Jaunty too hard..installed too many things.. :oIt's hard to test what's going on when it happens because everything goes slow.. I feel them minutes of my life wasting away every time I try to close a window and stare at the screen for two minutes or more waiting impatiently for it to close.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jlhaslip 4 Report post Posted November 18, 2009 I have had better luck since moving up to 9.10. I didn't install a bunch of things and also configured it to not load a bunch of stuff on start-up. For example, my XAMPP server and email is not set to start right away. I manually start them when I need them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mm22 0 Report post Posted November 20, 2009 Sometimes, it's just an obvious thing like gam-server being annoying, or the ntfs thing doing it's job. At least there's a logical explanation there. Other times, I can never seem to determine what's causing the problems. It starts when I notice my computer becoming very unresponsive (taking sometimes a minute or more to focus a window or switch to another tty) and my panel monitors show full cpu usage. After thinking "Argh, Not again!", I immediately open up some kind of process managing tool, and I have a few. Xfce Task Man, Gnome sys mon, Top, Htop. The weird thing is, none of these tools ever help me figure out what's using my CPU? The overall CPU usage will be a steady 100%, but when I sort processes by CPU usage, there aren't any processes using a lot of CPU. The top 5 will be like, 7%,5%,2%,1%%1% or something, and in does not even come close to being 100% even when you put them all together.You say there aren't processes using a lot of CPU, are you actually looking at ALL processes or just those belonging to your username? If a process belongs to root you will not see it if you are only looking at the processes started by your user. You change this in View menu in Gnome System Monitor (change from My Processes to All Processes). Apologies if this sounds obvious and you have already done it In my experience with Ubuntu 9.04 what sometimes hangs the CPU with no apparent reason is 'wineserver', that is when I run an application through WINE (e.g. IE 6) and I close it the 'wineserver' process will still be there, often eating a good percentage of CPU (but not close to 100% anyway). I have to kill it manually. Other things that normally clog my CPU on Ubuntu are browser plugins as someone suggested, mainly the Adobe flash player, which I need for full compatibility for some of the website, but I normally switch to one of the Linux alternatives for flash players, which work fine for most websites. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
