xorg memory leak when scrolling

[countjoe]

I'm having an odd issue after upgrading to 9.10... Certain apps will cause my system memory usage to grow when I scroll in a window.

To reproduce, I open gnome-terminal, do something to that generates enough output to scroll the window, move the scroll bar up and down repeatedly, memory grows, then it appears to fill physical memory and then gnome-terminal crashes and then memory is recovered. Under normal use, it happens in gnome-terminal or Eclipse after a few hours of working(I'm a Java developer), and is EXTREMELY frustrating. Top reports memory belonging to Xorg.

Here is some data about my system:


4GB of memory, only 10% in use after boot and launching normally used apps
Kernel is linux-image-generic-pae
Using Gnome desktop, and problem exists with or without compositing enabled
All software is up-to-date as of the time of posting
NVidia GeForce 7300 LE, running dual monitors via TwinView
Scrolling issue confirmed present in:
* gnome-terminal
* eclipse galileo
* gedit
Scrolling issue confirmed NOT present in:
* firefox
* gvim
* open office

[akashiraffee]

Just to let you know, I installed ubuntu last week, am also a developer, and use a lot of terminals.

I don't have any memory problems at all, it stays pretty consistent. Right now I've had it on all day, six workspaces in gnome, 2 or more terminals with multiple tabs at all times, mem is about 40% of 2G.

[CodZoY]

Exact same problem here.
I've been having this for 2 days, and just realized it was caused by scrolling. Google took me here immediately :P.

My system: Ubuntu Karmic 9.10 amd64, Gnome with Compiz, 4GB RAM, ATI HD4850 (I'm using experimental xorg for 3D acceleration, at first I though this was the problem, but you have a GeForce, so I'm not really sure now).


Xorg at boot: 60MB Ram.
Opening gnome-system-monitor and doing some fast scrolls: less than 4 minutes to fill all my RAM.

[anpufeng]

it's really odd,

[countjoe]

I use practically the same software on my laptop, but don't have the problem there. And my laptop is NVidia as well, although I don't use dual-monitors or use the PAE kernel.

[countjoe]

I tried switching to generic (non-pae) kernel, problem persists.

[CodZoY]

I've tried purging the PPA repository for Xorg and reinstalling the Ubuntu official packages, but the problem is still there (plus, with no compositing/Compiz, as I can't have any without those PPA packages).


I haven't seen this filled as a bug anywhere U_U.

[Usufruct]

I've never been so frustrated by not being able to reproduce an issue before :) I have Karmic on 4 different hardware setups and I have not been able to reproduce it.

[countjoe]

I think I may have narrowed the search ...

There is a bug that people are experiencing with Eclipse where dialog windows aren't functioning properly. The workaround until eclipse is fixed is to set the environment var GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1, which disables a new GTK+ 2.18 feature called client side windows. details (http://blog.export.be/2009/10/fixing-eclipse-for-ubuntu-karmic-koala-9-10/)

If I run eclipse with GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1, as the workaround states, then scrolling does NOT grow memory. I'm going to test other apps with this env var.

[countjoe]

Setting GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1 fixes the problem for all apps that were broken.

Now we know the issue is with GTK+ 2.18 client side windows.

[CodZoY]

Thanks for the info countjoe!, that solved the problem :D.

[Usufruct]

Thanks countjoe - I can finally reproduce the issue!

[countjoe]

Bug Report (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+bug/494189)

[Elcid247]

hey guys i tried to set GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1 globally but it doesn't work.

i added it to ~/.bashrc, /etc/bash.bashrc, /etc/profile and /etc/environment

nothing! works,

weird thing is it works from inside the terminal, i mean if i open eclipse or whatever from a terminal, it works and


$ echo $GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS
1


y doesn't this work with outside applications? i have to run everything from terminal? :S

i've never understood the global variable system in linux really, can some1 tell me where to put this?

thnx

[legatek]

I'm running Jaunty with an ATI card, and the scrolling issue happens for me in Google Chrome browser.

[ert45]

Hello,

I could not reproduce the scroll bug so maybe the fix I used for the memory leak works.

The solution proposed in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/186354 worked for me: disable xinerama.

On ubuntu 9.04 (using an Intel GMA chipset), I added this at the bottom of my /etc/X11/xorg.conf and then had no more problem after restarting the X server:

Section "Serverflags"
Option "Xinerama" "false"
Endsection