Fedora 21, plasma-desktop with high CPU usage

[Michael Krauth]

Hi,

On 2 computers i'm running Fedora 21, upgraded from 20 with fedup.
Since the upgrade from time to time plasma-desktop is hanging and top
shows nearly 100% CPU usage for it.

My systems: Fedora 21, KDE 4.14.3, NVidia hardware (Quadro 1000M/GeForce
GTX 560 Ti), NVidia binary drivers, version 343.36. xorg-x11-server-Xorg:
1.16.2.901

When it hangs, all programs are running without any problem, I can klick
the windows and use the programs, just the desktop is "dead": taskbar,
widgets, ... doesn't respond.

I found some older problem descriptions but the only resolution was to
restart plasma-desktop.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Michael

[J.O. Aho]

There been a number of plasma-desktop issues, but should be working okay
nowadays. You can look in your ~/.xsession-errors to see if there is a
plugin/addon which causes the problem.

If you don't see anything in the logs for causing the problem, then
restart the plasma-desktop, which ain't difficult, just annoying, I used
to have a screen session for the plasma-desktop, which makes it quite
simple to restart it next time.

Also confirm that the Quadro card is still properly supported by the
nvidia 343.36 driver.


For me the 4.14.3 has been working quite well without any plasma hangups
(two users logged in at the same time too), but just one graphics card,
GTX 660.

--

//Aho

[Michael Krauth]

On Sun, 28 Dec 2014 17:56:43 +0100, J.O. Aho wrote:

Thanks for your answer.

> There been a number of plasma-desktop issues, but should be working okay
> nowadays. You can look in your ~/.xsession-errors to see if there is a
> plugin/addon which causes the problem.

In .xsession-errors I didn't found anything helpful.

> If you don't see anything in the logs for causing the problem, then
> restart the plasma-desktop, which ain't difficult, just annoying, I used
> to have a screen session for the plasma-desktop, which makes it quite
> simple to restart it next time.

Restarting is what I do at the moment. It's not a tragedy but annoying,
as you say :)

I decided to make a clean install on one of my computers and check, if
this works.

> Also confirm that the Quadro card is still properly supported by the
> nvidia 343.36 driver.

It is supported, so this should be no problem.

Cheers,
Michael

[Michael Krauth]

Michael Krauth wrote:

> In .xsession-errors I didn't found anything helpful.

Update: I ignored a message, because it was really unspecific:

"plasma-desktop(3344)/libplasma Plasma::isPluginVersionCompatible:
unversioned plugin detected, may result in instability"

But no hint, which plugin is meant.

With a new KDE profile (.kde)/a new user profile after a clean install, the
problem exists.
It looks like it appear, when owncloud (mirall from update repo) is running.

Cheers,
Michael

[J.O. Aho]

On 30/12/14 15:19, Michael Krauth wrote:
> Michael Krauth wrote:
>
>> In .xsession-errors I didn't found anything helpful.
>
> Update: I ignored a message, because it was really unspecific:
>
> "plasma-desktop(3344)/libplasma Plasma::isPluginVersionCompatible:
> unversioned plugin detected, may result in instability"
>
> But no hint, which plugin is meant.

Yeah, that is one of the draw backs with the .session-errors, don't
really say much but there are tons of rows, this ain't specific for KDE
but all the DE I have tried.

And the plasma desktop has made KDE more prone to freeze, I think there
should be made some checks on plugins which do not response and
unload/terminate them, to give a better user experience.

> With a new KDE profile (.kde)/a new user profile after a clean install, the
> problem exists.
> It looks like it appear, when owncloud (mirall from update repo) is running.

Have you tried owncloud-client, not sure if that one is in the repos, if
not, you find a download link at

https://software.opensuse.org/download/package?project=isv:ownCloud:desktop&package=owncloud-client

it hasn't caused my system to hang, but don't really like a network
which goes down (I recommend to exit and then start a new instance
instead of trying with unsign/signin).

--

//Aho

[Aragorn]

On Wednesday 31 December 2014 09:49, J.O. Aho conveyed the following to
comp.windows.x.kde...

> And the plasma desktop has made KDE more prone to freeze, [...]

I must say that I have only ever seen KDE 4 hang while using a buggy
proprietary nVidia driver in combination with the resizing of
translucent windows. nVidia acknowledged the problem and released an
updated driver shortly afterwards.

So far, I have found Plasma to be quite reliable and stable. And I'm
still using an older version, even ─ 4.6.5 at the moment.

--
= Aragorn =

http://www.linuxcounter.net - registrant #223157

[J.O. Aho]

On 31/12/14 10:29, Aragorn wrote:
> On Wednesday 31 December 2014 09:49, J.O. Aho conveyed the following to
> comp.windows.x.kde...
>
>> And the plasma desktop has made KDE more prone to freeze, [...]
>
> I must say that I have only ever seen KDE 4 hang while using a buggy
> proprietary nVidia driver in combination with the resizing of
> translucent windows. nVidia acknowledged the problem and released an
> updated driver shortly afterwards.

yes, but the nVidia related issues has been solved, one by one and
nowadays it works okey. I remember those early days when flash didn't
work properly, you got some white "echo" of the flash outside the
browser, I think we could keep on for a long time to go trough those.

> So far, I have found Plasma to be quite reliable and stable. And I'm
> still using an older version, even ─ 4.6.5 at the moment.

I'm been quite up to date, I think the 4.9 or 4.10 was bad experience
and there been some issues which only affected mutli user systems with
more than one KDE instance running at the same time, I do sometimes miss
the KDE 3 and I have had to adjust to the shortcomings of KDE 4, as I
don't use it like the rest of people, one user, one x server.


--

//Aho

[Aragorn]

On Wednesday 31 December 2014 10:39, J.O. Aho conveyed the following to

comp.windows.x.kde...

> On 31/12/14 10:29, Aragorn wrote:
>> On Wednesday 31 December 2014 09:49, J.O. Aho conveyed the following
>> to comp.windows.x.kde...
>>
>>> And the plasma desktop has made KDE more prone to freeze, [...]
>>
>> I must say that I have only ever seen KDE 4 hang while using a buggy
>> proprietary nVidia driver in combination with the resizing of
>> translucent windows. nVidia acknowledged the problem and released an
>> updated driver shortly afterwards.
>
> yes, but the nVidia related issues has been solved, one by one and
> nowadays it works okey. I remember those early days when flash didn't
> work properly, you got some white "echo" of the flash outside the
> browser, I think we could keep on for a long time to go trough those.

Oh yeah, and then there were the smurfs in Flash videos ─ Flash
rendering the skin color of people as blue on systems running an nVidia
graphics driver. :-)

>> So far, I have found Plasma to be quite reliable and stable. And I'm
>> still using an older version, even ─ 4.6.5 at the moment.
>
> I'm been quite up to date, I think the 4.9 or 4.10 was bad experience
> and there been some issues which only affected mutli user systems with
> more than one KDE instance running at the same time, I do sometimes
> miss the KDE 3 and I have had to adjust to the shortcomings of KDE 4,
> as I don't use it like the rest of people, one user, one x server.

I also always treat my systems as multiuser machines. Although I don't
have the resources at the moment, I would like to set up an LTSP system
one day, with multiple KDE sessions running on thin clients. :-)

[Michael Krauth]

On Wed, 31 Dec 2014 10:29:17 +0100, Aragorn wrote:

> I must say that I have only ever seen KDE 4 hang while using a buggy

It's not hanging, at least not really :)
Just the plasma-desktop has a really high cpu and the related stuff
(taskbar/systray/icons on desktop) is not responding or responds really
slow (a few minutes after a click).
But a running program keeps running fine and is completely usable.

Cheers,
Michael