Hello, the process plasmashell, kwin_x11 and Xorg is consuming between 20% and 15% of CPU each one.
I'm using KDE NEON plasma version 5.10.5 on kernel 4.10.0-35
Any help are welcome!

I'm also experiencing high CPU usage for kwin_x11 and plasmashell.

The reason may or not be the same as yours.
For instance right now:

Code: Select all

Tasks: 248 total,   1 running, 247 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 15.3 us,  5.4 sy,  0.0 ni, 71.9 id,  7.1 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.2 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem : 16172064 total,  1661924 free,  5758964 used,  8751176 buff/cache
KiB Swap: 17790796 total, 17790796 free,        0 used.  9068408 avail Mem

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND     
 1836 joshua    20   0 3247172 121944  67536 S  30.0  0.8  54:55.88 kwin_x11   
17046 joshua    20   0 1094668 138272  76816 S  17.8  0.9   5:03.76 systemsett+
 1057 root      20   0  353472  95180  62296 S  14.9  0.6  35:13.62 Xorg       
 1840 joshua    20   0  0.254t 344604 185172 S  11.9  2.1   9:35.03 plasmashell


I can consistently reproduce the issue by disconnecting the external hdmi monitor, running without it, and reconnecting the external monitor.

I'm wondering if there is something I can monitor (maybe dbus?) to gain insight into why the cpu usage goes way up, never comes back down, and eventually starts becoming unbearably slow to interact with.

joshuaclayton wrote:I'm also experiencing high CPU usage for kwin_x11 and plasmashell.

The reason may or not be the same as yours.
For instance right now:

Code: Select all

Tasks: 248 total,   1 running, 247 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 15.3 us,  5.4 sy,  0.0 ni, 71.9 id,  7.1 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.2 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem : 16172064 total,  1661924 free,  5758964 used,  8751176 buff/cache
KiB Swap: 17790796 total, 17790796 free,        0 used.  9068408 avail Mem

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND     
 1836 joshua    20   0 3247172 121944  67536 S  30.0  0.8  54:55.88 kwin_x11   
17046 joshua    20   0 1094668 138272  76816 S  17.8  0.9   5:03.76 systemsett+
 1057 root      20   0  353472  95180  62296 S  14.9  0.6  35:13.62 Xorg       
 1840 joshua    20   0  0.254t 344604 185172 S  11.9  2.1   9:35.03 plasmashell


I can consistently reproduce the issue by disconnecting the external hdmi monitor, running without it, and reconnecting the external monitor.

I'm wondering if there is something I can monitor (maybe dbus?) to gain insight into why the cpu usage goes way up, never comes back down, and eventually starts becoming unbearably slow to interact with.

I also use 2 monitors and in effect low processor consumption when I disconnect the external monitor.
Also my laptop has 2 video card, intel and ATI, but I have not installed any video driver.

For me, most of the time it doesn't use much to any CPU.

do you have any modifications to the Plasma Shell?

This is a known issue discussed in the Plasma5 forum:

viewtopic.php?f=289&t=121533

Haven't found a cure yet...but I'm not affected by the bug unless I open Boinc Manager. I run 2 monitors with 7 widgets and 2 apps running on the second monitor so it's not the widgets...it seems to be certain combinations cause the issue. Once I close Boinc Manager CPU usage drops back to normal...weird...

It will be fixed in later updates
For the while, just deal with it

orlandos wrote:It will be fixed in later updates
For the while, just deal with it

Nice response from someone who is not experiencing the issue.

For those with the high CPU usage, it causes the system to be come sluggish and eventually almost unresponsive forcing regular reboots to clear it...not much fun having to reboot all the time.

And waiting for it to be fixed? Are you serious...this issue has been around for years. It should have been fixed long ago...

Compatico, You might try renaming a couple files in the ~/.config directory:
* plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc
* plasmashellrc

Then run killall plasmashell && plasmashell &

Clearing the above files fixed my persistent plasma crashing issue and thus may help you if your files have extra lines left over from multiple upgrades.

Note: You might need to re-setup some of your desktop customizations.

darinmiller wrote:Compatico, You might try renaming a couple files in the ~/.config directory:
* plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc
* plasmashellrc
Then run killall plasmashell && plasmashell &
Clearing the above files fixed my persistent plasma crashing issue and thus may help you if your files have extra lines left over from multiple upgrades.
Note: You might need to re-setup some of your desktop customizations.

First off I've never had a Plasma crash but I've tried similar tricks. This is a runaway leak that appears immediately after a clean install, so it doesn't appear to be related to configuration changes. I did a clean install of Kubuntu 16.04.3 LTS on a new SSD and clean installed all my programs recently. No CPU usage issues. I open Boinc Manager and my CPU usage starts climbing. And as long as I don't leave Boinc Manager open, the high CPU usage issue does not occur...my system will run indefinitely without the CPU usage climbing like it should. It's a weird program combination that triggers the issue and so far I can only duplicate the issue with Boinc. Others have had similar issues with other programs, so it's not Boinc specific. Oddly some users seem to have the issue with almost nothing running.

compatico wrote:

orlandos wrote:It will be fixed in later updates
For the while, just deal with it

Nice response from someone who is not experiencing the issue.

For those with the high CPU usage, it causes the system to be come sluggish and eventually almost unresponsive forcing regular reboots to clear it...not much fun having to reboot all the time.

And waiting for it to be fixed? Are you serious...this issue has been around for years. It should have been fixed long ago...

Well your saying about Bonic Manager or something like that, if it's software then well it isn't the operating system's fault.
Sometimes if you reinstall the drivers it can run better, as some of the drivers are generic and aren't designed for the hardware.
The only time my laptop has been remotely slow on KDE Neon, is when I'm rendering Full HD videos or playing games (And well I use a 2007 laptop with 2gb ram, what should you expect).

although if it's a real issue, use a different KDE distro.

I have found a temporary solution, in my case it is the kwin rules that produce the highest CPU consumption, removing all the rules that had CPU usage low enough even though it still uses more than normal.

orlandos wrote:although if it's a real issue, use a different KDE distro.

The problem is all distributions with KDE seem to experience the issue in Plasma.

As for a different distro...no thanks, I've tried several and Kubuntu continues to be my go-to favourite. This CPU hogging issue is my only real concern...

compatico wrote:

orlandos wrote:although if it's a real issue, use a different KDE distro.

The problem is all distributions with KDE seem to experience the issue in Plasma.

As for a different distro...no thanks, I've tried several and Kubuntu continues to be my go-to favourite. This CPU hogging issue is my only real concern...

It seem's on one of my computers, KDE Neon is only using one core, which I managed to fix by doing a command.

My solution (or better, a workaround) with KDE Neon User edition (now KDE plasmashell 5.11.1) was to connect second monitor to hdmi after pc start up and login.
Now are 3 times in a row that kwin_x11 does not use too much cpu..
Gianluca

I have exact same issue joshuaclayton described above.
A workaround in my case is :
setting "Primary display" to "Laptop Screen".

then external monitor connect/disconnect doesnot cause any trouble.
I am guessing the issue is related to setting "Primary display" to an external monitor. When external monitor is the primary display then panels have to move with the monitor connect/disconnect.