Linux Mint Forums

by **Chuck_N** on Sun Jan 13, 2013 11:30 pm

I have an old Dell latitude. 680K RAM. Windows had grown terribly weary so I took a Linux Mint disk and installed it on the whole drive. Interesting getting into this environment; all new to me.
I've noticed recently that response time is bad. I just returned after being away from the machine 1/2 hour to find the HDD light on solid. I called up Task Manager and it showed 100% CPU even though the tasks listed only totaled about 20%.
(I have the list sorted by task % so I can easily see the total, and the names of tasks running.)
Why would my CPU be totally busy? I thought only Windows computers did this. :lol:

.
Also, I periodically get an Unresponsive Script warning.
Really sounds like SPYware going to work on me. I've been told not to worry about viruses or spyware in Linux, though.

by **Orbmiser** on Sun Jan 13, 2013 11:48 pm

Nope not spyware more likely don't have the proper video driver for it. Causing 3d rendering to be emulated in software and maxing out the CPU in the process. Also 680K RAM is not sufficient for Linux Mint 14. Which you didn't specify version used.

Due also low ram causes the OS to write and read a lot more from the swap file on the hardrive.

So give more specs of machine CPU,Video chipset used and ram shows that a lighter distro may be needed. Like Mint xfce version or others that members here may suggest.

by **zerozero** on Sun Jan 13, 2013 11:49 pm

Chuck
welcome to the forum

can you please share the following terminal output

Code: Select all: inxi -F

in the meantime you can check more accurately your system either with

Code: Select all: top

just type that on the terminal

or with

Code: Select all: htop

(has a more friendly presentation than the first one but you have to install it first)

Code: Select all: apt install htop

by **Chuck_N** on Sun Jan 13, 2013 11:59 pm

zerozero wrote:Chuck
welcome to the forum
can you please share the following terminal output
Code: Select all
inxi -F

in the meantime you can check more accurately your system either with
Code: Select all
top
just type that on the terminal

or with
Code: Select all
htop
(has a more friendly presentation than the first one but you have to install it first)
Code: Select all
apt install htop

okay, here is the inxi:

Code: Select all: chuck@chuck-Latitude-C640 ~ $ inxi -F System: Host chuck-Latitude-C640 Kernel 3.0.0-12-generic i686 (32 bit) Desktop LXDE (Openbox 3.5.0) Distro Linux Mint 12 LXDE Machine: System Dell (portable) product Latitude C640 Mobo Dell model N/A Bios Dell version A10 date 01/12/2004 CPU: Single core Mobile Intel Pentium 4 - M CPU (-UP-) cache 512 KB flags (sse sse2) clocked at 1200.00 MHz Graphics: Card: ATI Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500] X.Org 1.10.4 drivers ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,vesa Resolution 1400x1050@60.2hz GLX Renderer Mesa DRI R100 (RV200 4C57) x86/MMX/SSE2 TCL DRI2 GLX Version 1.3 Mesa 7.11 Audio: Card Intel 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Audio Controller driver Intel ICH Sound: ALSA v: 1.0.24 Network: Card 3Com 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] driver 3c59x IF: eth0 state: unknown speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:0b:db:a4:c9:8a Drives: HDD Total Size: 30.0GB (9.5% used) 1: /dev/sda IC25N030ATMR04 30.0GB Partition: ID:/ size: 27G used: 2.7G (11%) fs: ext4 ID:swap-1 size: 0.67GB used: 0.17GB (25%) fs: swap Sensors: Error: You do not have the sensors app installed. Info: Processes 120 Uptime 5:14 Memory 464.4/622.5MB Client Shell inxi 1.7.7

by **Chuck_N** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:35 am

I got this from htop:

Code: Select all: top - 22:48:03 up 6:02, 0 users, load average: 1.58, 1.20, 1.01 Tasks: 117 total, 3 running, 113 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie Cpu(s): 46.3%us, 11.4%sy, 0.0%ni, 18.8%id, 22.8%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.7%si, 0.0%st Mem: 637420k total, 585664k used, 51756k free, 524k buffers Swap: 653308k total, 235048k used, 418260k free, 33672k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 1158 root 20 0 77452 28m 1960 S 24.3 4.6 25:58.97 Xorg 1775 chuck 20 0 1100m 419m 10m S 18.2 67.3 65:31.45 firefox 2147 chuck 20 0 108m 4088 2812 R 6.3 0.6 21:26.64 lxtask 2428 chuck 20 0 118m 5684 3496 S 4.6 0.9 0:05.45 x-terminal-emul 1848 chuck 20 0 220m 11m 3736 R 4.4 1.8 9:05.64 plugin-containe 20 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 1.2 0.0 0:30.49 kswapd0 1516 chuck 20 0 8884 884 640 S 0.2 0.1 0:06.04 gconfd-2 3254 chuck 20 0 2820 936 652 R 0.2 0.1 0:00.41 top 1 root 20 0 3320 312 312 S 0.0 0.0 0:01.20 init 2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd 3 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:02.28 ksoftirqd/0 5 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.60 kworker/u:0 6 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0 7 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 cpuset 8 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 khelper 9 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 netns 10 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.09 sync_supers 11 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 bdi-default 12 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd 13 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kblockd 14 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ata_sff 15 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 khubd 16 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 md 19 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 khungtaskd 21 root 25 5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ksmd 22 root 39 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 khugepaged 23 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 fsnotify_mark 24 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ecryptfs-kthrea 25 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 crypto 33 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kthrotld 34 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kworker/u:2 37 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 scsi_eh_0 38 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:03.24 scsi_eh_1 233 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.82 jbd2/sda1-8 234 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ext4-dio-unwrit 289 root 20 0 2648 196 196 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.25 upstart-udev-br 294 root 20 0 3092 200 200 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.19 udevd 439 syslog 20 0 27908 148 148 S 0.0 0.0 0:03.85 rsyslogd 455 messageb 20 0 4176 964 588 S 0.0 0.2 0:01.63 dbus-daemon 479 root 20 0 6864 564 564 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.25 modem-manager 482 avahi 20 0 3316 264 200 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.08 avahi-daemon 483 avahi 20 0 3316 48 48 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 avahi-daemon 585 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kpsmoused 619 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 pccardd 626 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ttm_swap 660 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 pccardd 706 root 20 0 3088 164 164 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 udevd 714 root 20 0 3088 156 156 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 udevd 718 root 20 0 26728 1040 744 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.37 NetworkManager 722 root 20 0 23440 632 632 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.35 polkitd 754 root 20 0 18192 476 356 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.26 smbd

by **Chuck_N** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:39 am

Orbmiser wrote:Nope not spyware more likely don't have the proper video driver for it. Causing 3d rendering to be emulated in software and maxing out the CPU in the process. Also 680K RAM is not sufficient for Linux Mint 14. Which you didn't specify version used.

Due also low ram causes the OS to write and read a lot more from the swap file on the hardrive.

So give more specs of machine CPU,Video chipset used and ram shows that a lighter distro may be needed. Like Mint xfce version or others that members here may suggest.

Using Linux Mint 12 LXDE

by **TheDynamicHamza21** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:45 am

use the top command in terminal to see what's eating up your cpu.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfQnjtyXTX4#t=00m10s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAxgDncrUlo

by **Chuck_N** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 1:23 am

seems to me the problem with using TOP or Task Manager for viewing what's happening when the processor is being hogged down 100%
is that you can't get to them, or run them, when the processor is being hogged down 100%.

CATCH-22, if you recall that movie.......

by **bjornmu** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 2:19 am

No, top should also get some CPU time even if other processes already use 100%. Looks like your firefox is very busy, and also making the X server (Xorg) busy. It's also grown rather huge. It's already used a few days of CPU, my first instinct would be to restart it.

by **Chuck_N** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:06 pm

your first instinct would be to "restart it". Restart what?

Here's my observation: if I click on a link, usually it will take about 10 minutes of solid HDD time, in which time I can do nothing.
Then the light will sputter a bit, and quit.
Then I usually get a Script error message, or two.
This morning I got these two, after such delays:
Stop Script or Continue?
https//fbstatic.a-akamaihd.net/rsrc.php/vz/y2/r/v5ststrDzxK.js:29
and chrome/browser/content URLbarbindings.xml:181
I'm not even USING Chrome, just FFox

just had the identical problem right in the middle of typing this message; first the long pause, then both of the script error messages.

by **Chuck_N** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 4:18 pm

okay it looks like those scripts are the culprits. They come up each time I get this extended HDD action.

I now rebooted from the original Linux Mint disk. I've gone repeatedly from Facebook to Yahoo mail to GOOGLE search and I have NO TROUBLE. Except of course it's a bit slow compared to a good installation.

So, what are these two Scripts about? Are they like malware, that I shouldn't have them? Or are they necessities that are somehow corrupted?

I could reinstall from CD since I have not done much since installation.

But how do I avoid , or fix this in the future?

by **bjornmu** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 4:41 pm

When I said "restart it" I meant firefox. It had grown to above the size of your memory so parts of the memory was being swapped to disk, and when it needs that memory for something it would start swapping. With my previous desktop this could happen if I opened a page with too many or too large images; the disk would start churning like mad and everything would freeze for several minutes

. It's a good idea to restart firefox if you're running low on free memory, it tends to keep growing.

As for those scripts, not to worry. When your system starts thrashing (as it's called), thinks take too long and firefox thinks it's hanging.

by **Chuck_N** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 5:16 pm

bjornmu wrote:When I said "restart it" I meant firefox. It had grown to above the size of your memory so parts of the memory was being swapped to disk, and when it needs that memory for something it would start swapping. With my previous desktop this could happen if I opened a page with too many or too large images; the disk would start churning like mad and everything would freeze for several minutes . It's a good idea to restart firefox if you're running low on free memory, it tends to keep growing.
As for those scripts, not to worry. When your system starts thrashing (as it's called), thinks take too long and firefox thinks it's hanging.

I tend to disagree here, mainly because I start up fresh in the morning and get into Ymail and, like this morning, immediately get these problems. No way to be less overloaded by restarting again...... But yes, I am now running from CD and have a Youtube video playing without fault, a Ymail tab, a Facebook tab, a GOOGLE tab, and sometimes many more windows open, and everything is going fine; I think Firefox is doing an incredible job.

I do sometimes notice that it's time to close a few tabs when they're just sitting there wasting memory, but that's no big deal. The super-long pauses and diskthrashing and Script Messages, those are a big deal.

by **bjornmu** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 5:37 pm

Well, your top output says firefox had grown to 1100 megs virtual memory size, I don't know how that's even possible since it's more than physical memory + used swap, but anyway it's quite significant. It's also using 67% of your available physical memory so I'd say it looks pretty guilty.

by **Chuck_N** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 5:52 pm

bjornmu wrote:Well, your top output says firefox had grown to 1100 megs virtual memory size, I don't know how that's even possible since it's more than physical memory + used swap, but anyway it's quite significant. It's also using 67% of your available physical memory so I'd say it looks pretty guilty.

As I said, FFox is incredible. I'll reboot into my installed Mint start FFOX , open only Ymail, and do another TOP. That should confirm the "small" size of FFox.

But my main problem still exists: disk thrashing and error script messages.

by **bjornmu** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 6:00 pm

I'd still say firefox was the likely culprit, never mind I said it had used days of CPU, I misread minutes as hours. You should run top after you've seen the problem.

by **Chuck_N** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 6:41 pm

TOP from fresh boot and startup FFOX with one tab for Ymail

top - 16:43:39 up 40 min, 0 users, load average: 0.05, 0.06, 0.09
Tasks: 109 total, 1 running, 107 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 4.0%us, 4.6%sy, 0.0%ni, 91.4%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 637420k total, 573380k used, 64040k free, 15760k buffers
Swap: 653308k total, 2000k used, 651308k free, 277188k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
1134 root 20 0 51336 30m 7484 S 6.0 4.9 0:59.93 Xorg
1678 chuck 20 0 118m 12m 9660 S 5.6 2.0 0:11.89 x-terminal-emul
1625 chuck 20 0 472m 153m 29m S 3.0 24.7 4:21.30 firefox
1670 chuck 20 0 115m 29m 16m S 2.3 4.7 1:00.61 plugin-containe
1732 chuck 20 0 2812 1124 856 R 0.7 0.2 0:10.80 top
1 root 20 0 3328 1820 1232 S 0.0 0.3 0:01.18 init
2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd
3 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.13 ksoftirqd/0
5 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.60 kworker/u:0
6 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0
7 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 cpuset
8 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 khelper
9 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 netns
10 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 sync_supers
11 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 bdi-default
12 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd
13 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kblockd
14 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ata_sff
15 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.04 khubd
16 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 md
19 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 khungtaskd

by **bjornmu** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 6:52 pm

Already 472m virtual memory and 4 minutes of CPU does look a bit excessive, could it be something on Ymail which causes it to run out of control? You may want to keep and eye and see if it just keeps growing and growing.

by **Chuck_N** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:00 pm

bjornmu wrote:I'd still say firefox was the likely culprit, never mind I said it had used days of CPU, I misread minutes as hours. You should run top after you've seen the problem.

okay, I'll run TOP after I've seen the problem; that shouldn't take long

WRONG. I opened Fbook, Ymail, Youtube video, and a couple more tabs and no thrashing yet.

Thanks for fixing it !!!! Just kidding.

I have duties to do. I'll TOP next time I get back to this and get some thrashing going on.

by **zerozero** on Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:45 pm

if FF in live-session was ok and is misbehaving in the installed system there's something wrong either on the profile or with some(s) addons
start FF in safe mode (first quit all instances of FF) then in the terminal

Code: Select all: firefox -safe-mode

if in safe-mode FF is not trashing you'll have to go tho all your installed addons and see which is the problematic.

if this doesn't solve it try creating a new profile
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

Linux Mint Forums

100% CPU usage

100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Re: 100% CPU usage

Who is online