CPU usage suspiciously high while idle

SKeaLoT · 2009-10-06 21:51:26

I have the following problem, help is very appreciated
Right after my computer finishes booting the CPU usage raises up to approx. 55% on both cores, I'll attach a screenshot to clarify.
What can be the cause of this?
To me, Xorg seems to be using more CPU than it needs.. still it's not 55%. The performance isn't bad either, the system works very well.

The screenshot http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1811427/misc/idle.jpg

$ uname -a

Linux felipe-desktop 2.6.31-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Oct 6 00:48:55 CEST 2009 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7300 @ 2.66GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

$ top

top - 17:48:01 up 35 min,  3 users,  load average: 0.28, 0.11, 0.08
Tasks: 107 total,   4 running, 103 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s): 35.9%us, 18.5%sy,  0.0%ni, 44.9%id,  0.0%wa,  0.3%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   2057796k total,   840600k used,  1217196k free,    43768k buffers
Swap:  1020088k total,        0k used,  1020088k free,   344868k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
 1881 root      20   0  627m  42m  15m S   14  2.1   2:16.56 X                  
 6263 felipe    20   0 40232 6136 2184 S   11  0.3   1:35.33 gconfd-2           
 6253 felipe    20   0  149m 7152 5516 R    4  0.3   0:40.75 gnome-session      
14947 felipe    20   0  195m  34m  14m S    4  1.7   0:23.10 compiz             
 6259 felipe    20   0 11076 1524  820 S    3  0.1   0:34.75 dbus-daemon        
 7185 felipe    20   0  679m 121m  32m R    2  6.1   0:35.01 firefox            
 6267 felipe    20   0  215m  10m 7772 S    1  0.5   0:18.88 gnome-settings-    
 6285 felipe    20   0  399m  31m  20m S    1  1.6   0:10.30 nautilus           
 6323 felipe    20   0  162m 3044 1580 S    1  0.1   0:04.37 gnome-screensav    
 7592 felipe    20   0  197m  18m  11m S    1  0.9   0:06.89 gnome-terminal     
 6303 felipe    20   0  286m  36m  14m S    1  1.8   0:11.25 python             
 6284 felipe    20   0  229m  16m  11m S    1  0.8   0:11.05 gnome-panel        
 6273 felipe    20   0 36840 2080 1744 S    0  0.1   0:02.85 gvfsd              
 6311 felipe    20   0  145m 6792 5388 S    0  0.3   0:03.59 gdu-notificatio    
 6458 felipe    20   0  166m 8584 6368 S    0  0.4   0:04.06 notification-da    
15615 felipe    20   0  324m  41m  18m S    0  2.0   0:03.91 gnome-do           
    1 root      20   0  3796  640  540 S    0  0.0   0:00.30 init

What else would be useful about my configuration?

Thanks in advance for any help

graysky · 2009-10-06 22:08:18

Something is definitely wrong. As a test, make another user, login as it and see if the same cpu usage is reported. That will rule out something in your home dir (bad config, etc.) as the cause.

SKeaLoT · 2009-10-06 22:22:20

mmm, the test user idles at 1%, thanks, this gives me a good base to start poking around all the stuff i might have done wrong!
i'm in a hurry right now, but i'll report back the results later if i figure it out

again, thanks!

graysky · 2009-10-06 23:44:51

Glad to hear you're on the right track with this...

SKeaLoT · 2009-10-07 00:17:54

mmmm no luck yet.. i've looked thru some user configuration files (.xinitrc, .dmrc ... can't remember more) and tried activating-deactivating some (gnome-do, screenlets, compiz) startup applications. no good.
What is gconfd-2 anyway?
Any ideas?

SKeaLoT · 2009-10-07 00:42:02

Installed XFCE, idle CPU usage went back to 0-3%... While I can go on using XFCE forever, this is far from beign a solution. Anyone?

smartboyathome · 2009-10-07 01:07:20

I am having the same problem today. It was fine... until I rebooted my machine. Now, X is averaging at 55% of my CPU each core (which is a dual core 2GHz). I will see what creating a new user does.

SKeaLoT · 2009-10-07 01:09:56

Are you using GNOME? I'm actually using gnome-unstable, forgot to say

SKeaLoT · 2009-10-07 02:26:48

well well... looks like compiz WAS the problem after all... must've messed up while testing. So i 'found' a 'decent' workaround.
Deactivated compiz (set metacity as the WM) and removed compiz-icon from the startup applications, then i enabled metacity compositing (because i use both screenlets and docky)... and that's it, .. for now

smartboyathome · 2009-10-07 19:48:44

I figured out my problem as well. My installation had become corrupt somehow. A reinstall fixed it.

graysky · 2009-10-07 20:41:05

Well, a reinstall is the nuclear option. If you can figuring out which config file in your user's home directory is to blame is better, but also long as you're backed-up and have some time to kill, go for the reinstall.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-10-06 21:51:26

CPU usage suspiciously high while idle

#2 2009-10-06 22:08:18

Re: CPU usage suspiciously high while idle

#3 2009-10-06 22:22:20

Re: CPU usage suspiciously high while idle

#4 2009-10-06 23:44:51

Re: CPU usage suspiciously high while idle

#5 2009-10-07 00:17:54

Re: CPU usage suspiciously high while idle

#6 2009-10-07 00:42:02

Re: CPU usage suspiciously high while idle

#7 2009-10-07 01:07:20

Re: CPU usage suspiciously high while idle

#8 2009-10-07 01:09:56

Re: CPU usage suspiciously high while idle

#9 2009-10-07 02:26:48

Re: CPU usage suspiciously high while idle

#10 2009-10-07 19:48:44

Re: CPU usage suspiciously high while idle

#11 2009-10-07 20:41:05

Re: CPU usage suspiciously high while idle

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