Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

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Raife

Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by Raife »

I installed both "tlp" and "radeontop" however, I have seen no difference in the laptop's behavior. After I restart the laptop (warm-boot), the machine is absolutely awesome. It is fast, and configured exactly the way I want it. There are no problems. Also, I am still really impressed with Mint-18.2 with Cinnamon. It is my favorite distribution. However, the completely unexplained high resource (CPU) usage, when the laptop is first turned-on (from a cold-boot), is driving me crazy. I cannot even figure out what is revving the CPU and sucking-up all of my laptops computational power.

I would like to include screen-shots of "radeontop" and "System Monitor" running side-by-side, both when CPU usage is pegged, and when it is low (the OS just idling, normally)... it doesn't appear that the graphics system is running any differently in either case... but, how do I get permission, and include the .PNGs images in these posts (other than hosting them elsewhere and pointing to their location)? :?:
Raife

Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by Raife »

Here is my laptop running "Radiontop" with high CPU usage (after a cold boot):

http://uploads.im/0seOG.png

And, here is my laptop running "Radiontop" with low CPU usage (after a reboot):

http://uploads.im/EgKZn.png

Is this any help?
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Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by mr_raider »

Your graphics renderer is using minimal resources, as it should for an AMD card of that level. The only other possibility is that the compositor is running in software mode, or there is a bug in your installation somewhere.

Try this:

On cold boot, once logged in, press ctrl-alt-f1 and drop to terminal

stop the xservet completely:

Code: Select all

sudo service lightdm stop
Check CPU with top

now start the xserver again

Code: Select all

sudo service lightdm start
Check again with top
Image
Raife

Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by Raife »

Hello. Sorry for the delay. In the last two weeks I've had a Research paper due, a mid-term, as well as a new company-wide employee background and educational assessment system implementation, including the information needing to be provided.

However, back to Mint's problems with my laptop;

I tried "sudo service lightdm stop", however, the system responded, "Failed to stop lightdm.service: unit lightdm.service not loaded".

When I tried to start "lightdm" it also said, "Failed to start lightdm.service: unit lightdm.service not found"

The system is still UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME after a reboot (warm-boot). However, I am running out of options. I NEED my laptop to just work when I turn it on. I really don't think I would mind a longer boot-time, or a component/OS-element reset as part of the boot process, if that's what is needed. But, I have simply not been able to find anything that actually addresses this problem.

Does anybody have any ideas as to figuring out what the operational difference between a cold-boot, and a boot, in which, all of the devices are already up and waiting, during the OS loading section of a boot? Also, I still have not been able to actually nail-down what is actually using all of my laptop's resources after a cold-boot.
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Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by mr_raider »

Sorry. You have an 18 upgraded to 18.2

The command should be

Code: Select all

sudo service mdm stop
Image
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Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by Termy »

In the meantime, if you have enough swap space, you might want to use hibernation. Just until this problem is sorted. Only if you have enough swap space though! Should be a lil bit over your total RAM. Wish I could help you, but reading all these posts, anything I can currently think of has already been mentioned. lol Remember to try that other LiveCD as suggested earlier; good diagnostic step.
I'm also Terminalforlife on GitHub.
vicinimfantasma

Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by vicinimfantasma »

Hello people, I registered only for this issue because it's driving me crazy, I have been fighting with high CPU usage for quite a time now, and the description made by OP perfectly fits with my case: optimum performance after a reboot, high CPU usage after a cold boot. I could't figure out what process is tacking all that CPU either. The only fix is to boot and than reboot, an annoying waste of time. If someone could spread some light over this issue it would be wonderful. My distro is Linux Mint 18.1 Serena 64-bit, with Kernel Linux 4.4.0-96-generic x86_64 and MATE 1.16.2. The processor is Intel® Celeron(R) CPU 1000M @ 1.80GHz × 2. If you need more information to figure out the issue it will be a pleasure for me to provide it.
Thank you all in advance.
MV
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Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by mr_raider »

vicinimfantasma wrote:Hello people, I registered only for this issue because it's driving me crazy, I have been fighting with high CPU usage for quite a time now, and the description made by OP perfectly fits with my case: optimum performance after a reboot, high CPU usage after a cold boot. I could't figure out what process is tacking all that CPU either. The only fix is to boot and than reboot, an annoying waste of time. If someone could spread some light over this issue it would be wonderful. My distro is Linux Mint 18.1 Serena 64-bit, with Kernel Linux 4.4.0-96-generic x86_64 and MATE 1.16.2. The processor is Intel® Celeron(R) CPU 1000M @ 1.80GHz × 2. If you need more information to figure out the issue it will be a pleasure for me to provide it.
Thank you all in advance.
MV
Your hardware is very different from the OP.

can you list the highest useage processes in system monitor. Check the option to show processes from all users
Image
vicinimfantasma

Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by vicinimfantasma »

I cold booted right now, as I said i couldn't identify what process is taking all the CPU. In the system monitor the processes that are consuming CPU are: chromium-browse (three processes), Xorg and gnome-system-monitor itself. Anyway those three account only for a small portion of the consumption. I attached two screens to give an idea.
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Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by mr_raider »

Install htop


apt install htop

Then run it in a terminal:

htop
Image
vicinimfantasma

Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by vicinimfantasma »

I have installed it and I tried to look at the processes both after reboot and after cold boot, there is still an average 50% more usage of one of the CPUs after cold boot, and the differences in single processes CPU usage is non so great to account for that difference. The only slight difference I have noted is in Xorg, it appears to consume more CPU after cold boot but not so much to explain all the difference, I have made screens but they are over 200 kB each and I can't post them right now.
vicinimfantasma

Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by vicinimfantasma »

Also, I noted that hibernation does the same than cold boot.
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Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by Pjotr »

Please generate an overview of your system like this:

- Launch a terminal window (this is how to launch a terminal window);

- make the terminal window full screen, to avoid chopped lines;

- copy/paste this command into the terminal:

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz
(if you type: the letter F is a capital letter)

- Press Enter.

- Copy/paste the output in your next message.
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vicinimfantasma

Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by vicinimfantasma »

Code: Select all

System:    Host: marco-SATELLITE-C850-1G3 Kernel: 4.4.0-97-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: MATE 1.16.2 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.1 Serena
Machine:   System: TOSHIBA (portable) product: SATELLITE C850-1G3 v: PSCBWE-09100YIT
           Mobo: Intel model: PLCSF8 v: Type2 - Board Version
           Bios: Insyde v: 6.60 date: 4/03/2013
CPU:       Dual core Intel Celeron 1000M (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 7183
           clock speeds: max: 1800 MHz 1: 1642 MHz 2: 1205 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller
           bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1366x768@60.07hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Mobile
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 7 Series/C210 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-97-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter
           driver: rtl8192ce port: 3000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 2000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 320.1GB (83.7% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: TOSHIBA_MQ01ABF0 size: 320.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 290G used: 246G (90%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.17GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 179 Uptime: 3 min Memory: 749.7/3834.6MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35
Any idea?
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Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by Pjotr »

Your root partition is much too full: 90 %. This has probably caused irreversible file fragmentation on a massive scale, which might (at least partly) account for the sluggish operation. This is how to prevent file fragmentation:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... -in-Linux-
(item 4, left column)

I advise to do a clean re-installation of Mint. And then always keep at least 20 % unused on your Linux partitions.

In that clean installation, you might also benefit from these safe speed tweaks:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/3
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vicinimfantasma

Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by vicinimfantasma »

Oh, clean reinstall, precisely what I was trying to avoid. Thank you anyway. I will consider it in the near future. It's still a mystery to me why cold booting and rebooting have different outcomes though. Do you have an explanation for that?
Raife

Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by Raife »

Well... I finally gave-up, after a couple of months of searching and fiddling, and did a completely-clean, standard, install of MINT (...losing a couple of months of configurations and installations in the process... Though, I did burn all of my personal files to CD).

Afterwards, Mint would not "Shut Down", or REBOOT. So, I reset the BIOS to ALL-Defaults, and re-installed again... And, had the exact same CPU-Usage problem as before (Mint runs AWESOMELY after a warm-boot, but NOT from a cold boot). I have found others (through Google) posting similar problems... Insanely high CPU-usage from a cold boot (that renders the system practically unusable), but great performance after a RESTART (warm-boot). This seems to be occurring mostly on laptops (of different brands and configurations, so it's not specific to my hardware).

In the interim, of Mint re-installs, I tried "Fedora 26". But, I found it too buggy. An interesting note, the "Live" version of Mint does NOT have the CPU-usage problem. Also, I tried numerous BIOS changes. One of them was to disable Multi-cores in the BIOS, and had the exact same CPU-Usage problem. Except it occurred on the only available (single) CPU-core.

I have installed Mint on four different computers (two desktops, and two Toshiba laptops). Mint could not use the integrated graphics on one desktop computer, and I had to install the "Mate" version. The other desktop computer is my electronics-bench system. It is running "Cinnamon", and is fully configured for my network and set-up for my uses, and it runs awesomely. The other laptop belongs to an in-law. That installation runs with no problems.

Frankly, I would walk-away from Mint, on my laptop, if I didn't consider it to be such an unbelievably great Linux distribution. And, I am probably going to continue to use it on my laptop (until something better comes along), because "Mint"... IS... so phenomenal (after a warm-boot). It took a couple of days to re-configure the laptop for all of my network resources, and re-install (and set-up) all of my software and programming tools (I am getting faster now that I know all of the tricks, bugs, and GOTCHA's, associated with setting-up and installing what I need).

So, now... I am still investigating (somewhat dejectedly) the (cold-boot/warm-boot) problem... and I am looking into "kernel parameters" as a possible work around. Does anyone want to suggest some "delay", or "boot" parameters that might help? Also, is there a way to REBOOT the laptop during the regular cold-boot process, that would only require one pass through the login procedure, and not require user-interaction? Again, I just need the laptop to work when I turn it on.
Last edited by Raife on Sat Nov 18, 2017 5:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by Termy »

You can reboot using grub... that could be a direction to look in. Might be able to use a temp file as an on/off toggle, and have grub reboot when it's off, but continue when it's on, then once you shutdown, that gets put to off again. Something like that.

By the way, have you tried installing Ubuntu? Regular Ubuntu. If so, how did it go? Mint isn't the ONLY option out there, although it is a neat one. Since Mint is based on Ubuntu (which is based on Debian) you might have more luck there. Failing that, it would at least be interesting to see if it works, so as to possibly hint at some sort of difference.
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Raife

Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by Raife »

I did consider regular "Ubuntu" for the laptop, but I really, really, really, dislike "Unity", and I do really like Mint (w/Cinnamon). I currently have a straight "Ubuntu 16 desktop w/"Unity" running on a netbook (dual-booting with Windows-7), but due to my dislike of "Unity" (and due to Microsoft's update policy which forcefully, and retroactively, removes the ability to disable automatic-updates in "Windows-7", and "Windows-8.x"... which tends to violently and unexpectedly kill, both my Linux-dual-boot set-ups, and my carefully-created, Windows-software configurations)... I do not consider any of those to be truly viable options for my primary laptop. I also considered simply installing "Ubuntu Server 16.04 core" and then installing "Cinnamon" as the GUI. This is basically what I did for my internal-servers (except that I went with "LXDE" as the better choice of GUIs on those machines for several reasons). However, with MINT I was hoping to simply install, and use, a ready-made distribution, which I really have grown to like, rather than Frankenstein-ing my own system (in this case, I just want it to work for school, and for my personal mobile-usage, ...without having to administer it constantly).

In the meantime, I just discovered something that might be informative. If I simply reset "Cinnamon" (ALT+F2 -> r <enter>) the Cinnamon desktop resets, but still exhibits the CPU-usage which was present before the desktop was reset. In other words, if CPU-usage was high before reset, then CPU-usage is still high after a desktop reset. If the laptop had already been warm-booted, then the CPU-usage remains low after a Cinnamon reset. This leads me to suspect that the problem may not necessarily reside with the "Cinnamon" DE, but rather, at either the kernel-level, or with the underlying window-manager, itself. I think this may point to a different direction in exploring this problem.
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Re: Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

Post by Termy »

When I say Ubuntu, I just mean Ubuntu, not Ubuntu with the Unity desktop. I don't blame you -- Cinnamon is awesome. You could try Ubuntu with KDE, XFCE, Mate, Budgie, and Cinnamon is an option too, although I dunno how well it works.

I'm on Ubuntu 16.04 and I see:

Code: Select all

Package: cinnamon-desktop-environment
Section: universe/metapackages
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>
Original-Maintainer: Debian Cinnamon Team <pkg-cinnamon-team@lists.alioth.debian.org>
Version: 2.8.0
Homepage: http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/
Have you tried different kernel versions? 4.4 is getting a bit long in the tooth now. You could try 4.8, 4.10, and, if available, 4.11. Failing that, you may have to use an older one. Worth a shot. Mint has a nice tool for this: their mintupdate program offers the ability to easily install and remove different kernel versions.
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