[ubuntu-uk] Xorg high CPU usage

Wed Mar 7 11:46:59 UTC 2012

On Mar 7, 2012 10:50 AM, "Grant Phillips-Sewell" <dcglug at cornwall-it.co.uk>
wrote:
>
> On Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:45:23 +0000
> Pete Smout wrote:
>
> > On 06/03/12 18:15, Grant Phillips-Sewell wrote:
> > > On Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:07:08 +0000
> > > Pete Smout wrote:
> > >
> > >> On 05/03/12 21:10, Pete Smout wrote:
> > >>> Hi,
> > >>>
> > >>> For about a week now my laptop (ubuntu 10.04 LTS fully updated)
> > >>> has been freezing up for approx 30 secs, with gkrellm and top
> > >>> showing xorg using 100% cpu usage?
> > >>> There seems to be no pattern to what programs I am using,
> > >>> everything from open office to clementine to smplayer or
> > >>> thunderbird, not at any certain time of day or day of the week,
> > >>> or even weather using the inbuilt screen or external one.
> > >>>
> > >>> My understanding (admittedly limited) is that xorg is the bit that
> > >>> works the display (screen). Has anyone else come across this?
> > >>>
> > >>> For reference the laptop specs are:
> > >>>
> > >>> Acer Aspire 5720
> > >>> Intel T5250 Dual core processor
> > >>> Ram 2.0 gb
> > >>> Internal graphics (intel)
> > >>> Internal sound (intel)
> > >>>
> > >>> Thanks in advance for any ideas
> > >>>
> > >>> Regards
> > >>>
> > >>> Pete
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >> just for reference my xorg.conf:
> > >>
> > >> Section "Device"
> > >>    Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
> > >>    Driver          "fbdev"
> > >> EndSection
> > >
> > > Might want to look into that bit.
> > >
> > > You should have a specific Xorg "driver" for your onboard Intel
> > > graphics chip.
> > >
> > > Run the following command to find out your graphics chip:
> > >   lspci
> > >
> > > Look for the line that has VGA on it.
> > >
> > > If it does indeed say something about an Intel chip, then make sure
> > > you have the following package installed:
> > >   xserver-xorg-video-intel
> > >
> > > (That package deals with all i8xx and i9xx chips)
> > >
> > > Once that's installed, remove the xorg.conf file and restart X.
> > >
> > > You can restart X by going to a terminal (NOT a terminal window...
> > > press CTRL+ALT+F2 and log in) and then run:
> > >   sudo service lightdm restart
> > >
> > > (Or just reboot... up to you.)
> > >
> > > Grant.
> > >
> > Hi Grant,
> >
> > Thanks for your reply, the lspci command produces (relevant lines
> > only I hope)
> >
> > 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile
> > GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
> > 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960
> > Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
> >
> > Synaptic shows xserver-xorg-video-intel is installed (reinstalled for
> > good measure) moved the xorg.conf file to my documents folder and
> > rebooted, opened t-bird to reply to you and the machine 'greyed out'
> > for approx 20 secs with gkrellm showing xorg as using 100% CPU!
> > Please note that last time it happened was with clementine running,
> > when playback stopped mid song so I cannot blame t-bird!
> >
> > As an aside but possibly related?! when I open a tty shell
> > (ctrl-alt-f1) log in it tells me 'Your CPU appears to be lacking
> > expected security protections. Please check your BIOS settings, for
> > more information please run /usr/bin/check-bios-nx --verbose which
> > produces
> >
> > smouty at smouty-laptop:~$ /usr/bin/check-bios-nx --verbose
> > This CPU is family 6, model 15, and has NX capabilities but is unable
> > to use these protective features because the BIOS is configured to
> > disable the capability.  Please enable this in your BIOS.  For more
> > details, see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/CPUFeatures
> >
> > I am unable to find any related settings in BIOS, if this is
> > unrelated to my original question please ignore it and I will do
> > further research
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Pete
>
> Hi Pete,
>
> That is interesting, about your CPU security extensions, but I do not
> believe it is related to this.
>
> Your original post showed that your xorg.conf file was using "fbdev" as
> the graphics driver - this *should* work on most machines and so it is
> useful as a "fall back" if all else fails. The fbdev driver means that
> the CPU is doing all the graphics donkey-work rather than the GPU.
>
> Essentially all I suggested was that you ensure you have the correct
> xorg driver available (which you do) and you (re)move the xorg.conf
> file so that xorg regenerates it (or creates on on-the-fly) when you
> reboot... which you've done.
>
> It is still entirely possible that xorg is still using fbdev, so you
> may want to re-instate your xorg.conf file but edit the "fbdev" entry
> to say "intel" instead.
>
> Essentially, as I understand it, if there is an xorg.conf file present
> then XOrg will use it; if there is no xorg.conf file then XOrg will try
> to detect what's going on and make up a configuration on-the-fly.
>
> Since the on-the-fly thing doesn't seem to be working for you, let's
> try *making* it use the Intel driver by having an xorg.conf file that
> specifies to use the Intel driver and nothing else.
>
> I hope that makes sense.
>
> Grant.

As well as the xorg.conf file, there is also the
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ directory that should be checked to see if it
has an override for the auto generated file.

 Neil.

P.S. Sorry for the brevity, this is typed on my phone.
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