Gnome-shell-system-monitor-applet: Regular "micro-freezes" when extension is enabled in gnome-shell 3.6.3

[adlorenz]

Just upgraded Fedora to release 18 which comes with gnome-shell 3.6.3 and noticed annoying issue when system-monitor extension is enabled. The desktop suffers from "micro-freezes" which take just split-second yet are utterly annoying (ie. mouse or typing cursor chokes, often leaving unwanted effect).

I've managed to nail the problem down to system-monitor, as these freezes stop happening when extension is disabled. Also, the freezes seem to occur in regular intervals, approx. every 4-5 seconds. I've tried to adjust extension settings and remove lesser used sensors, leaving just CPU and MEM sensors active, yet the problem didn't stop occurring.

[adlorenz]

Just noticed that extension also hampers music played in the background, again in very regular intervals.

Issue seems to be very similar (duplicate?) to #187 although I haven't had that issue with previous Fedora release and gnome-shell earlier than 3.6.

[adlorenz]

Update: this issue doesn't seem to occur in Ubuntu 12.10 and gnome-shell 3.6.2.

[hadim]

I still have random micro freeze because of this extension. I use gnome-shell 3.8.2 running on Ubuntu-Gnome 13.10 beta 1.

[ousia]

@adlorenz, @hadim adlor: are you still experiencing the issue?

[hadim]

I have switched to Linux Mint and Cinnamon for few months now. Sorry and good luck with your applet !

[adlorenz]

A followup to the bug 5 months later... well done there.

No, I don't experience this issue. Quite surprisingly, I've moved on and using gnome-shell 3.10 now.

[ousia]

A followup to the bug 5 months later... well done there.

Sorry, but I’m only a user that suffers the same bug described by you.

No, I don't experience this issue. Quite surprisingly, I've moved on and using gnome-shell 3.10 now.

Do you use Fedora 20? Or other distribution?

@fastcat, which is your distribution? Which version of gnome-shell do you use? (I guess it may make sense to have all info in one issue.)

[adlorenz]

@ousia oops, apologies for being sarcastic, I thought it was the author who followed it up that late. As I mentioned in one of the earlier comments, I switched to Ubuntu now, using gnome-shell 3.10 and don't experience this issue anymore.

[fastcat]

I'm using Debian testing, so gnome 3.8.

To merge my info from the other bug into here:

My freezes are anything but micro. They tend to happen every minute or few minutes, but can last for as long as 20 seconds.

I thought they might be related to swapping due to the memory leak issue, but I verified that they occur even when gnome shell is freshly launched and hasn't had time to accumulate significant leakage.

I found another place where it reliably freezes for me in a predictable fashion: selecting the Suspend item from the power menu seems to trigger one of these mini-freezes every time. Disabling the extension makes that freeze go away too.

[fxthomas]

On my Arch laptop (Gnome 3.14), the Shell always freezes when I copy files from a remote GVFS mount, either using Nautilus or gvfs-copy. Disabling the applet restores proper behavior.

If I use a large value (say 30 seconds) as the Disk refresh time, freezes happen predictably every 30 seconds for a couple of seconds.

EDIT: Just noticed #207, going to add more info there!

[spasche]

I'm using Fedora 21 (Gnome 3.14) with version 30. When I have a VMware image running in which the guest is using 100% of the CPU, my system is extremely sluggish and sometime freezes for a few seconds (not sure if that the exact same issue as the OP reported, but it looks quite similar).

[allgood]

I was experiencing micro freezes every 2 seconds when I connect to a remote filesystem through gvfs. Looks like the extension is polling disk usage for network mounts.

[allgood]

Problem occurs when I am connected to sftp and webdav mounts... looks like those connections isn't treated correctly as network mounts.

[rzippert]

I am experiencing this screen freeze issue but it's not related to any network or disk mounts. In my case it's related to reading the fan speeds with i8k and its been happening since I was using Fedora 19 (I'm now on 21). The freezes occur exactly in the time I set the fan readings to update. I've already removed i8k, however its option doesn't disappear from the fan drop down menu and, also, didn't stop the freezes. I'm using a Dell Vostro 2450 laptop with Fedora 21, so I'm not sure if i8k was supposed to work with it, but still, this is what causes the problem here. I'm now looking for some way to disable these fan readings definitely...

PS: Other readings from i8k (like temperature ones) do not trigger the freeze here.

[aspexi]

Hi guys

I had this issue for a long time and I couldn't figure out what causes this.

Happily I have found this topic.

Currently I have:

Ubuntu 14.10
Gnome Shell 3.14.3
the latest gnome-shell-system-monitor-applet according to extensions.gnome.org

The issue occures.

Anyway, I've just downloaded the latest master codebase and compared it to my latest codebase. These files are different! (I have not modified them)

I've replaced all files with master and now the issue is gone.

The question is why extensions.gnome.org shows that I have the latest version of the plugin when I have not!?

[rzippert]

As an update from the last message (1 january), tested again and no more freezes. No idea what has changed...

[laurentbriet]

I'm experiencing micro freeze on a frequency around a second or two after updating to ubuntu 17.10 from 17.04. Disabling the extension and the freezes are gone.

[xchern]

Micro freezes happen in every several seconds, with archlinux and gnome 3.26.2 in my laptop. Disabling this extension solves the problem.

[EvgeniiFrolov]

Also experience micro-freezes on Fedora 27 with the extension installed via gnome-software.
Easy to reproduce in Evolution by opening a menu in the top or right-clicking in a message window for pop-up menu.

[RouHim]

Same here on Ubuntu 17.10. Took me a while to figure it out that this extensions was it.

[tim-janik]

Same here on Ubuntu 17.10. Enabling the extension (from todays git master) causes annoying interruptions with lag during X11 screen rendering around every 1-1.5 seconds. Noticeable when scrolling in firefox, or when pressing 'w' in gnome-terminal with repeat, etc.

My current workaround is to use: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1043/gnomestatspro/
It's displaying CPU use without micro-freezing gnome-shell.

[daptordarattler]

So I have had this issue on and off in my last few ubuntu installations for 4 years now. I never figured what the problems was until, i saw this thread now.

So I dig some digging. I have had the gnome-system-monitor extension since Ubuntu 17.04, and update to 17.10 and i didnt have the problem until a few days ago. So afer following this thread, i realise that although the gnome-system-monitor is what reacts to the freezing its not the main culprit. Apparently I had some network/online file system shared in my gvfs and i had no idea where it came from. Also saw it in nautilus.

After messing around and disabling it(halfly) the micro freezes stopped. Disabling gnome-system-monitor will also stop it, but the underlying issue will be there. And since i really like that extension i decided to share my experience to help others find those hidden gvfs mounts that are actually causing the problem.

Also: My gvfs mount was related to my inline google account. I still cant figure out how it got there.

Hope this helps.

[MartinEmrich]

I also have this issue (on Debian Testing). If I disable monitoring of the CPU frequency, the issue goes away. (CPU: Ryzen 2700X)

[JochemKuijpers]

Same problem here (Ryzen R7 1700X), disabling CPU frequency in both the top bar and the drop-down menu entirely seems to fix it.

I wouldn't mind helping debug this, but I have no idea where to start. Whoever needs more information, mention me if you need me.

[Kagetsuki]

Just in case somebody assumes this is a Ryzen issue from the above two posts I have an Intel i7 8700k and I have the same issue. Currently just have the extension completely disabled because of this.

[HetorusNL]

I don't know whether this helps someone, but in my case enabling seconds in the top bar in the tweak tool caused 'micro-freezes':

Tweak tool => Top Bar => Clock => Seconds: Enabled

These freezes occur every second (literally) in multiple applications, including python (pygame).
When the second increments, a slight freeze happens.

[return42]

@adlorenz

leaving just CPU and MEM sensors active, yet the problem didn't stop occurring.

This issue is fixed in master since PR #497 is merged. Can you please test current master and close this issue? / Thanks!

[Kagetsuki]

Already closed but just let me confirm the issue seems to be resolved and the extension is now working fine for me.