[SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

unni · 2019-02-14 07:54:00

I'm experiencing the exact same issue as described in this bug -> https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14109

When opening xfdesktop-settings from xfce4-settings-manager it freezes using 25% of CPU time until manually killed.

If I open xfdesktop-settings directly (without any options) it behaves normally. (note that opening from xfce-settings-manager it will open xfdesktop-settings with the --socket-id option).

I'm running Xfce4 on an up-to-date Arch Linux installation and the xfdesktop package version is 4.12.4

In that bug the proposed workaround was to remove the xf86-video-intel package, but I would appreciate any suggestions that would allow me to keep the xf86-video-intel package installed.

Thank you.

Last edited by unni (2019-02-15 12:44:37)

ToZ · 2019-02-14 22:51:55

Is there anything in your ~/.xsession-errors file when this happens?

Also, try running xfdesktop in debug mode:

xfdesktop -Q && xfdesktop --enable-debug

It would be helpful to see if there are error or debug messages displayed.

unni · 2019-02-15 03:30:39

ToZ wrote:

It would be helpful to see if there are error or debug messages displayed.

I've checked the ~/.xsession-errors and it doesn't produce any errors.

xfdesktop in debug mode also doesn't produce any output on this issue.

It must have something to do with the --socket-id option.

In summary:

xfdesktop-settings --socket-id=xxxxxxxx

freezes using 25% CPU

xfdesktop-settings

works normally

ToZ · 2019-02-15 05:27:04

Socket-id is something that xfsettingsd creates when managing pluggable dialogs (through the settings manager).

Do you have xfsettingsd running? What does the following return:

ps -ef | grep -i xfsettingsd

Can you also try restarting xfsettingsd:

xfsettingsd --replace

...then trying the settings manager again.

unni · 2019-02-15 10:50:20

xfsettingsd is running.

'ps -ef | grep -i xfsettingsd' returns

<user-name>   759     1  0 10:12 ?        00:00:00 xfsettingsd
<user-name>  1349  1281  0 10:17 pts/0    00:00:00 grep --color=auto -i xfsettingsd

Behaviour using 'xfsettingsd --replace' is unchanged.

P.S.: Thank you for your suggestions, ToZ. I've also tried everything after removing the 'xf86-video-intel' driver but the results are exactly the same.

ToZ · 2019-02-15 11:30:12

Is it just the Desktop settings that hangs when you go through the Settings Manager or do some of the other ones hang as well? Do you have a lot of images in the directory that is being used for your wallpaper? And finally, can you post back the results of:

xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -lv | grep last-image

Edit: And if possible, can you create a second account on the computer and check to see if it suffers from the same issue?

Last edited by ToZ (2019-02-15 11:30:54)

unni · 2019-02-15 12:44:06

It is solved!

The directory had 32 images in it. All JPEG. I tried moving a few and it now works normally.

Apparently it doesn't like having too many images?

Anyway, thank you very much for your suggestions.

EDIT: Marking thread as solved.

Last edited by unni (2019-02-15 12:45:05)

ToZ · 2019-02-16 00:11:32

Perhaps one of those images was corrupted and hanging up the thumb-nailing process.

Skaperen · 2019-02-16 02:37:58

are all 32 images still in that directory with some moved to new names, or did you move any out of the directory, reducing the number? maybe someone hard coded the size of that array. if that is the case and i was fixing it, i'd just increase it to 4096 (raise your hand if this exceeds your RAM) if i didn't feel like re-coding it to be the right way.

unni · 2019-02-16 09:05:29

I just moved some of the files to another directory.
The image files are all normal and launching xfdesktop-settings (without the --socket-id option) worked normally. The problem was only produced by launching xfdesktop-settings from xfdesktop-settings-manager.
The size of all files in that specific directory was ~14MB. After moving 2 files away the new size is ~10MB.

Skaperen · 2019-02-16 18:53:26

can you verify that all files are OK by swapping these 2 in an 2 others out and see if all work fine with these 30 files. if that works, move 1 file in and test to see if 31 files works. if so,then move the last file back in and test with all 32. i just want to know if it breaks at 31 or 32. if it were happening to me, i'd be juggling files around to see where the breakage might be in terms of total file size. one of these days i'll get into the source code and see how this stuff works ... and fails.

unni · 2019-02-18 20:48:33

OK. I've moved the files back to the same directory but now it works with no problems...

Does xfdesktop-settings create some sort of thumbnails cache that was broken, and got fixed when it was forced to update the thumbnails after modifying files in the directory?

ToZ · 2019-02-18 23:06:12

unni wrote:

Does xfdesktop-settings create some sort of thumbnails cache that was broken, and got fixed when it was forced to update the thumbnails after modifying files in the directory?

Yes. Using tumbler. Perhaps it was a faulty thumbnail image as you suggest.

mkkot · 2019-12-29 19:43:24

Similar problem: xfdesktop randomly uses 30% of cpu for no reason. I fixed the problem with removing all files from ~/.local/share/backgrounds/. I don't think they were broken, tumbler was creating their thumbnails properly in Thunar. And I actually wanted to have them there. I added now only 3 images and will be monitoring the situation.

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#1 2019-02-14 07:54:00

[SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

#2 2019-02-14 22:51:55

Re: [SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

#3 2019-02-15 03:30:39

Re: [SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

#4 2019-02-15 05:27:04

Re: [SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

#5 2019-02-15 10:50:20

Re: [SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

#6 2019-02-15 11:30:12

Re: [SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

#7 2019-02-15 12:44:06

Re: [SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

#8 2019-02-16 00:11:32

Re: [SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

#9 2019-02-16 02:37:58

Re: [SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

#10 2019-02-16 09:05:29

Re: [SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

#11 2019-02-16 18:53:26

Re: [SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

#12 2019-02-18 20:48:33

Re: [SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

#13 2019-02-18 23:06:12

Re: [SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

#14 2019-12-29 19:43:24

Re: [SOLVED] xfdesktop-settings freezes with high CPU usage

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