gnome-panel dapper 100% cpu
 

Hi--

I have two desktop Ubuntu Dapper 6.06 boxes and one of them has developed this problem recently:

gnome-panel forces cpu usage to 100%. Running top gnome-panel's usage runs between about 80% and 95%. If I sudo kill -9 pid, it clears up the problem--for a little while. Then it comes back again.

The sequence seems to be: start Firefox, start OOo, jump to 100% cpu.

ctrl-alt f1 will sometimes give me a terminal from which I can kill the process. ctrl-alt-backspace always seems to work to give a new panel.

Often at this 100% usage, the panel flickers or wavers.

I have seen some old stuff from 2006 or so about similar problems, but no reported solution that works for me. I just used update manager to update firefox a couple days ago, then reinstalled it last night, that did not resolve the problem. Also reinstalled gnome-panel and gnome-panel-data with no effect. Running gnome-session-remove gnome-panel did work; but then I had no panels for the rest of the session.

This is a production machine so I would really like for it to play nice!

On the other 6.06 box the problem does not happen as often.

I have found that if I start firefox from the command line instead of from the panel, the problem does not occur, or at least as much.

Any ideas?

Why are you running Dapper still ???. Because of LTS ???
If you want the LTS why are you updating products (especially F/F) out of stream ???.

Seems counter-productive to me.

syg00--

Yes, as you guess, because it is LTS. This is a production environment, so I cannot be spending time re-installing, upgrading and tweaking every few months. Besides, I did not feel particularly like being edgy, feisty, or gutsy! ;)

Nope, not updating out of stream, if I guess correctly what that term means. I only update what is offered in the update manager for each machine. So for instance, it is still running OOo 2.0, while a 7.10 box I have comes with OOo 2.3. Thus it appears to me that 6.06 offers updates relating solely to updating 6.06 (such as security upgrades), and 7.10 only updates things applicable to it.

Not sure if that is saying it very clearly. Another for instance: the other day my 7.10 box offered me a kernel-image update; the 6.06 update managers did not.

I have forced no versions on these boxes.

This panel-flickering and lockup has been something of an issue since first installed on both machines. We have come up with our own work arounds: for instance, starting OOo from the menu rather than from a desktop launcher cuts down on the panel lock-ups.

Thanks syg00!

Sorry I missed you were doing the update via update manager - my bad.
I'll check our LTS box next week - we've never had any issue with that at all. Then again, we may not have done all the updates either.

And yes the "releases" are isolated - have a look in /etc/apt/sources.list
Once a new "release" is released you'll typically only get things like security updates for the old(er) versions. This also applies for the non-LTS. You want the "bright and shiny" new kernel, you upgrade - simple as that.

As it turns out, you may be in luck - looks like the next LTS will be 8.04 (Hardy). Being LTS, you should be able to upgrade directly from Dapper.

syg00--

Not a problem. I might not have said how I updated.

Yes, I plan to update when the 8.04 is out and solid. But this issue makes it difficult to work as it is.

The workaround--launching ff from terminal--means I have to explain to a couple of people how to use the terminal. Lucky me, it does not have to be sudo....

So I was hoping someone had a solution.

Then today 6.06 came out with a kernel upgrade, but alas, that did not solve the issue.

I have the same issue with Ubuntu 8.04. Only way to solve it is to kill gnome-panel from terminal so far.

anydoby--

Interesting...and depressing. Did you have this problem before 8.04?

I am not having the problem with 7.10. For some reason on the 6.06 box it went away until today I updated the update manager-offered updates, which related to ff, and the problem reappeared. I had to ctrl-alt-backspace a couple of times, start ff in terminal (watching top while this was going on), and then eventually, after having killed gnome-panel once or twice it seemed to settle down and the last couple of tries it started ok from panel and behaved itself.

Have you tried any of these tricks (running ff from terminal, killing gnome-panel)?

:- Doug.

Actually I don't remember having any significant problems with 7.x except for Suspend to RAM. As for 8.04 I like almost everything - it detected all my hardware - even the Broadcom's wireless adapter. Suspend to RAM finally works. But this gnome-panel spoils everything up :( I really cannot reproduce it. I do not use Firefox, so this is not related to me using this browser. I noticed when I start gnome-ppp the gnome-panel goes crazy. Sometimes when I close an application it also goes nuts. So I cannot firmly reproduce it and file a bug. The system logs are also silent. Very weird.

Oh btw, another funny glitch - I also had it in Zenwalk 5 a couple months ago, so I think this might be something in kernel - when login screen is shown and I enter login/password the letters appear too big to fit in the input field. Had anyone seen this?

My config: laptop HP nx7400 RH67ES#ACB

anydoby--

I don't know the programs you are speaking about, but does killing gnome-panel do anything for you?

Yes. Helps for a while. I even wrote a simple script which I click on to make gnome-panel die - it restarts automatically anyway.

anydoby--

Great idea!

Are most folks having this problem with 8.04?

I've found the "solution" to my problem. Perhaps this is not what you are experiencing: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source...nel/+bug/43066

I have a wide screen that's why I placed menu and taskbar at the screen sides and made them a little bigger. After placing menu and taskbar where they were originally and reducing size to 28 pixels the problem ceased. I'm happy now.

anydoby--

Ahh! Well, that makes me feel better about Hardy.

No, on my Dapper box the two panels are at top and bottom respectively. Guess I'll have to see about resizing them for the effect....

Thanks for reporting back on your solution. Let us know if it continues to work well after you live with it for a week or so!

Well a couple of days passed since then an everything seems to work fine.

I had another problem though - the video playback was incorrect - videos appeared to be stretched vertically and shrunk horizontally - looks like a vertical line :) This I fixed by turning off visual effects - this has something to do with my integrated video card I guess.