Bug 201762 - KDE environment freeze at each action after a period of time
Summary: KDE environment freeze at each action after a period of time
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: kde
Classification: I don't know
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: Ubuntu Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Unassigned bugs mailing-list
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2009-07-28 13:06 UTC by Quentin RAYNAUD
Modified: 2009-08-06 16:20 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description Quentin RAYNAUD 2009-07-28 13:06:22 UTC
Version:            (using KDE 4.2.98)
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages

I don't know if this has been reported yet, it is hard to search for those type of bugs since they are unclean and hard to reproduce.

I was using RC2 and upgraded at RC3 nearly after its release time. Everythiong was working fine before the update but now it's another matter. Just after the session opens, everything works finer and it's a pleasure to use. The problem is that after, let's say 40 minutes to 1 hour and a half of use, the environment start to freeze at each action I ask him to do. Meaning that applications works fine (I can use any application without a problem) but if I'm trying to ask something to KDE, like giving the focus to a new window, opening the KDE menu, closing or opening a new window, it takes a lot of time. After a time, even videos start to slow down (with horrible FPS which are making the video impposible to look at).

What makes me say that it is indeed a KDE bug is that if I close my session, return to kdm and open a new one, everythoing starts to work well again for a new period of time before everything returns to freeze for a few seconds before responding as intended.

I hope you can do something about it even if I know, being a developer myself, that my comments are not really helping. The thing is that it occured to me that if I'm not the only one experimenting this issue, that bug is a good enough reason to postpone the release a little more...
Comment 1 Quentin RAYNAUD 2009-07-28 13:47:14 UTC
I just noticed that changing the theme from Oxygen to Air or vice versa also seems to stop de freezes.

I have to add that I'm using a Core2Quad and that before switching theme the CPU usage was at 25% which means one core completely used and after change it fell at less than 10%. I suspect you have something that is near an infinite loop somewhere. Since the RAM usage is stable, there is no memory usage issue along with it...
Comment 2 Dario Andres 2009-07-28 15:05:55 UTC
Try to use the command line application "top" to check which applications are consuming the CPU, also check the memory and swap levels. Thanks
Comment 3 Quentin RAYNAUD 2009-07-28 15:44:47 UTC
I just did that. Xorg is being reported as using between 92 to 98% of the CPU. When I switch the theme (going from Air to Oxygen or vice versa), the XOrg usage returns to normal, meaning an 7 to 8% of CPU usage. kwin and other KDE apps are noted as using something between 2 to 20% CPU usage during those and kwin seems to use more that it should when an action occurs after it started to freeze but it says acceptable. Meaning that the process that uses too much is Xorg but since it was not doing that with RC2 I still suppose it's KDE related.

Hope it helps a little.
Comment 4 Dario Andres 2009-07-28 15:51:54 UTC
- Do you use Desktop Compositing (effects) ?
- Do you use some special plasmoid on your Desktop (a non-default or non-official one). 
- How many applications do you launch on start ?
Comment 5 Quentin RAYNAUD 2009-07-28 16:12:05 UTC
- Do you use Desktop Compositing (effects) ?
> Yes, I use pretty much the default KUbuntu configuration
- Do you use some special plasmoid on your Desktop (a non-default or
non-official one). 
> No, nothing that is not provided by default, on top of that I didn't activated much more that what was already.
- How many applications do you launch on start ?
> Let's see... 3 I think. That makes Firefox 3, Amarok 2 and Konsole. It can freeze with only those 3 started along with Instantbird. I obviously have with that the normal KDE applets and some services that runs but I didn't change anything about that between RC2 which was working fine and RC3 which is not...
Comment 6 Quentin RAYNAUD 2009-07-28 16:13:36 UTC
Whoops, sorry. Choosing the '>' character to mark my answers was definitely a bad idea...
Comment 7 Dario Andres 2009-07-28 16:59:16 UTC
What happen if you disable compositing at the start ? Do you get to the same freeze/cpu-consuming situation ? Thanks
Comment 8 Quentin RAYNAUD 2009-07-28 17:02:38 UTC
I'll have to test that later. I'll let you know the results as soon as I have them.
Comment 9 Quentin RAYNAUD 2009-07-30 11:35:33 UTC
OK, I just tried to disable compositing, logout and login anew and then went to bed. When I returned this morning Xorg was another time taking a whole CPU and the UI was completely unresponsive. It was at least as bad as with compositing enabled.
Comment 10 Quentin RAYNAUD 2009-08-06 16:20:42 UTC
Ok. Bug fixed on the 4.3 official release as far as I can say. That's better. I would have hated to downgrade to 4.2.