[10.04 Lucid Lynx] Xorg + Flash = insane CPU usage

**Darac** · May 15th, 2010

Hi all!

I have a problem on my desktop PC that i'm trying to solve for last 10 hours.

When playing videos on Youtube for example, Xorg process uses all available CPU %. While Firefox usage goes up to 45%. That renders Firefox unresponsive and video is barely played at 10 FPS. Thing is, if i scroll down so that the video played isn't visible, Xorg CPU usage goes back to normal.

This is the configuration of the PC i'm having this problem on:

HTML Code:

:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor	: 0
vendor_id	: AuthenticAMD
cpu family	: 6
model		: 8
model name	: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1700+
stepping	: 1
cpu MHz		: 1466.801

:~$ cat /proc/meminfo 
MemTotal:        1285324 kB

:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333]
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333 AGP]
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
00:0b.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 0a)
00:0b.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 0a)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233A ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 23)
00:11.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 23)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro]
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro] (Secondary)


:~$ glxinfo 
name of display: :0.0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
GLX version: 1.2
OpenGL vendor string: DRI R300 Project
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R300 (R350 4E48) 20090101 x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE TCL DRI2
OpenGL version string: 1.5 Mesa 7.7.1

I tried using different Flash players and plugins for Mozilla, but with no improvements.

Currently i'm using:

HTML Code:

ii  adobe-flashplugin   10.0.45.2-1lucid1   Adobe Flash Player plugin version 10

I've tried disabling Icedtea plugin in Firefox just to be sure it's not causing a conflict.

Tried adding:

HTML Code:

"OverrideGPUValidation=1"

to /etc/adobe/mms.cfg but with no luck.

I know this is an old computer, but i have a laptop with similar hardware: 1.4 Celeron and ATI Radeon Xpress 200M chip which uses the same graphic driver; and Xorg never passes 7% CPU and mozilla is around 30% when watching the same video on youtube.

Also i've tried disabling desktop effects, but that didn't help either. Xorg log doesn't show anything out of order.

So after 10 hrs of screwing around with this problem i'm realy out of ideas. Any help would be appreciated.

**Darac** · May 16th, 2010

Hi all!

I have a problem on my desktop PC that i'm trying to solve for last 10 hours.

When playing videos on Youtube for example, Xorg process uses all available CPU %. While Firefox usage goes up to 45%. That renders Firefox unresponsive and video is barely played at 10 FPS. Thing is, if i scroll down so that the video played isn't visible, Xorg CPU usage goes back to normal.

This is the configuration of the PC i'm having this problem on:

HTML Code:

:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor	: 0
vendor_id	: AuthenticAMD
cpu family	: 6
model		: 8
model name	: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1700+
stepping	: 1
cpu MHz		: 1466.801

:~$ cat /proc/meminfo 
MemTotal:        1285324 kB

:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333]
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333 AGP]
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
00:0b.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 0a)
00:0b.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 0a)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233A ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 23)
00:11.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 23)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro]
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R350 [Radeon 9800 Pro] (Secondary)


:~$ glxinfo 
name of display: :0.0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
GLX version: 1.2
OpenGL vendor string: DRI R300 Project
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R300 (R350 4E48) 20090101 x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE TCL DRI2
OpenGL version string: 1.5 Mesa 7.7.1

I tried using different Flash players and plugins for Mozilla, but with no improvements.

Currently i'm using:

HTML Code:

ii  adobe-flashplugin   10.0.45.2-1lucid1   Adobe Flash Player plugin version 10

I've tried disabling Icedtea plugin in Firefox just to be sure it's not causing a conflict.

Tried adding:

HTML Code:

"OverrideGPUValidation=1"

to /etc/adobe/mms.cfg but with no luck.

I know this is an old computer, but i have a laptop with similar hardware: 1.4 Celeron and ATI Radeon Xpress 200M chip which uses the same graphic driver; and Xorg never passes 7% CPU and mozilla is around 30% when watching the same video on youtube.

Also i've tried disabling desktop effects, but that didn't help either. Xorg log doesn't show anything out of order.

So after 10 hrs of screwing around with this problem i'm realy out of ideas. Any help would be appreciated.

**dtfinch** · May 16th, 2010

I don't know if this is still the case, and I don't have an ATI card, but one of the lead developers for Flash on Linux said in 2008 that they disable hardware acceleration if "SGI" appears in the vendor string returned by glxinfo.

http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/2...s_the_gpu.html

**cariboo** · May 16th, 2010

Please don't create multiple threads on the same subject, I have merged you two threads.

**lovinglinux** · May 16th, 2010

See the Flash Optimization section of Firefox optimization and troubleshooting thread.

Originally Posted by Darac

I know this is an old computer, but i have a laptop with similar hardware: 1.4 Celeron and ATI Radeon Xpress 200M chip which uses the same graphic driver; and Xorg never passes 7% CPU and mozilla is around 30% when watching the same video on youtube.

Also i've tried disabling desktop effects, but that didn't help either. Xorg log doesn't show anything out of order.

I had a P4 3.06 GHz. Flash would use 45% too. I could make it work a little better by cleaning up the CPU fan and applying the other tweaks provided by my tutorial. But I was only able to solve the problem by upgrading to a Core2 Duo 2.93 GHz. Flash now uses 30% of the CPU. So I think your are lucky that your Celeron computer uses only 30%.

**rifter** · May 16th, 2010

Originally Posted by lovinglinux

See the Flash Optimization section of Firefox optimization and troubleshooting thread.

I had a P4 3.06 GHz. Flash would use 45% too. I could make it work a little better by cleaning up the CPU fan and applying the other tweaks provided by my tutorial. But I was only able to solve the problem by upgrading to a Core2 Duo 2.93 GHz. Flash now uses 30% of the CPU. So I think your are lucky that your Celeron computer uses only 30%.

Don't you think it's a little excessive for flash to be using that much resources, especially on your newer dual core system? 30% of a core2duo 2.93Ghz is a lot of horsepower for an applet in ONE window of a browser.

I think Adobe has gone nuts anyway, lately, because it is true that Flash uses a lot of resources. But the latest flash does not use anything like that on my systems running 9.10, even my old AthlonXP 2700+. It still uses too much, especially considering it is supposed to be a lightweight application for web browsers (something Adobe seems to have lost sight of... have you read their system requirements?), but it sounds to me like something is wrong here.

**lovinglinux** · May 16th, 2010

Originally Posted by rifter

Don't you think it's a little excessive for flash to be using that much resources, especially on your newer dual core system? 30% of a core2duo 2.93Ghz is a lot of horsepower for an applet in ONE window of a browser.

I think Adobe has gone nuts anyway, lately, because it is true that Flash uses a lot of resources. But the latest flash does not use anything like that on my systems running 9.10, even my old AthlonXP 2700+. It still uses too much, especially considering it is supposed to be a lightweight application for web browsers (something Adobe seems to have lost sight of... have you read their system requirements?), but it sounds to me like something is wrong here.

Sorry, I was actually referring to how much CPU is used overall, while playing flash videos. I did a test and the plugin-container process is using 10-14%. I'm using Firefox 3.6.5pre which has plugin isolation.

**Darac** · May 16th, 2010

Ty for your answers, but they don't rly help. I've tried before mentioned "solutions" with no luck.

I just don't understand how can Flash work on Celeron 1.4 and not on Athlon 1700+ which both give similar horsepower and with virtualy the same GPU chip using the same driver. Does anyone know if Flash uses some of CPU instruction sets that AMD doesn't have and Intel does? I rly can't give any other explanation for this behavior.

Any other ideas? Or just a tip what to look at next?