Public bug reported: When the screen updates, there is one or two kworker threads with high CPU. This is 30~40% of a CPU as shown in top, on my old system with two CPU cores.
This did not happen in 16.10. I recently upgraded a badly out-of-date 16.10 to 17.04 and then immediately to 17.10, so I don't know when it showed up. Examples of when it happens is when a video player like ffplay is running, even if it's just showing something very simple like the sound frequencies in a music file, or when I scroll up and down in this browser window. The size of the window is unimportant; the same kworker activity is shown whether the window is maximized or reduced to a small width and zero height. It goes away if the window is minimized. It doesn't happen in Metacity flashback, in "Ubuntu with Xorg", or with "Gnome with Xorg" from the login screen. For some reason I have duplicates of those last two options, that differ in that one of them has a blank circle for the icon. What are presumably the Wayland options don't let me login — if I try to select them, there's a white outline and the previous option stays selected with a filled background, and the selection menu stays there until I select an Xorg-based option. So I can't test those. '"Ubuntu with Xorg" and "Gnome with Xorg" did show gnome-shell with ~15% CPU usage of a core, which is probably unnecessary but completely unrelated to this bug. Metacity flashback in 17.10 showed the CPU usages I experienced in 16.10 with Compiz flashback, which is about 10% of total CPU from user and system while playing an audio file with frequency display in ffplay. This bug brings system CPU as shown in 'top' to 25%. If it helps, the active kworker thread seems to always be named 'kworker/u4:number', usually the same one or two threads. I tried enabling or disabling some compiz options related to screen drawing, but it didn't seem to do anything. I didn't disable the 'Composite' or 'OpenGL' plugins as they were required by too many others. This is filed under compiz because no other window manager leads to the problem, even though it isn't the compiz process with high CPU. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10 Package: compiz 1:0.9.13.1+17.10.20170901-0ubuntu1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-21.24-generic 4.13.13 Uname: Linux 4.13.0-21-generic x86_64 .tmp.unity_support_test.0: ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.7 Architecture: amd64 CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,imgpng,regex,gnomecompat,place,move,vpswitch,mousepoll,obs,wall,animation,shift,snap,resize,expo,session,ezoom,workarounds,staticswitcher,fade] CompositorRunning: compiz CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0' CompositorUnredirectFSW: true CurrentDesktop: GNOME-Flashback:GNOME Date: Sat Jan 20 16:04:52 2018 DistUpgraded: 2018-01-08 23:06:14,204 DEBUG Running PostInstallScript: './xorg_fix_proprietary.py' DistroCodename: artful DistroVariant: ubuntu GraphicsCard: NVIDIA Corporation G96M [GeForce 9650M GT] [10de:064c] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. G96M [GeForce 9650M GT] [1043:1912] GsettingsChanges: b'org.compiz.core' b'outputs' b"['1024x768+0+0', '1024x768+0+0']" b'org.compiz.core' b'hsize' b'2' b'org.compiz.core' b'active-plugins' b"['core', 'composite', 'opengl', 'compiztoolbox', 'showrepaint', 'imgjpeg', 'decor', 'imgpng', 'regex', 'gnomecompat', 'place', 'move', 'mousepoll', 'obs', 'ezoom', 'workarounds', 'dbus', 'text', 'wall', 'snap', 'resize', 'staticswitcher', 'session', 'fade', 'bench']" b'org.compiz.core' b'vsize' b'2' b'org.compiz.core' b'lower-window-button' b"'Disabled'" MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. N50Vn PackageArchitecture: all ProcKernelCmdLine: root=UUID=b09dc720-93ec-4fdf-a42f-7ea19a9af555 ro quiet splash SourcePackage: compiz UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to artful on 2018-01-09 (11 days ago) dmi.bios.date: 03/05/2009 dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc. dmi.bios.version: 211 dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567 dmi.board.name: N50Vn dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. dmi.board.version: 1.0 dmi.chassis.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567 dmi.chassis.type: 10 dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. dmi.chassis.version: 1.0 dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr211:bd03/05/2009:svnASUSTeKComputerInc.:pnN50Vn:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:rnN50Vn:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:ct10:cvr1.0: dmi.product.name: N50Vn dmi.product.version: 1.0 dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.13.1+17.10.20170901-0ubuntu1 version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.83-1 version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~17.10.2 version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 17.2.4-0ubuntu1~17.10.2 version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.19.5-0ubuntu2 version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.10.5-1ubuntu1 version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.10.0-1 version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20170309-0ubuntu1 version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.15-2 xserver.bootTime: Sat Jan 20 15:45:37 2018 xserver.configfile: default xserver.errors: Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0) Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0) xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log xserver.version: 2:1.19.5-0ubuntu2 xserver.video_driver: nouveau ** Affects: compiz (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags: amd64 apport-bug artful compiz-0.9 ubuntu -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1744515 Title: Compiz flashback has high-CPU kworker thread when screen updates To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/1744515/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs