Kubuntu 15.04 very slow despite very high CPU usage for every task
It seems that every task that is run on my system uses an excessive amount of CPU power. Monitoring CPU use via conky or top, opening a page in Firefox or searching for something in google suddenly spikes my CPU use to 100%.
Same for editing files in vim, or opening a pdf. Opening a document in Okular causes Xorg, kwin_x11, plasmashell, preload, and okular to spike to 20 to 30% CPU use.
I would think little of this, but my computer is unbearably slow. I cannot edit text files, navigate the web, or open documents without a huge CPU spike. Even writing this post in firefox is causing 30-50% CPU use via firefox, and 10 to 30% CPU use via Xorg
Any help and ideas are much appreciated.
EDIT
$ sudo modprobe msr
$ sudo rdmsr -a 0x19a
0
0
0
0
Suspend
$ sudo rdmsr -a 0x19a
0
0
0
0
CPU still at 500MHz. Should I do something about this?
$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor
powersave
powersave
powersave
powersave
Lastly,
$ cd /sys/class/thermal
$ grep -r . *
cooling_device0/type:Processor
cooling_device0/power/control:auto
cooling_device0/power/async:disabled
cooling_device0/power/runtime_enabled:disabled
cooling_device0/power/runtime_active_kids:0
cooling_device0/power/runtime_active_time:0
grep: cooling_device0/power/autosuspend_delay_ms: Input/output error
cooling_device0/power/runtime_status:unsupported
cooling_device0/power/runtime_usage:0
cooling_device0/power/runtime_suspended_time:0
cooling_device0/cur_state:0
cooling_device0/max_state:3
cooling_device1/type:Processor
cooling_device1/power/control:auto
cooling_device1/power/async:disabled
cooling_device1/power/runtime_enabled:disabled
cooling_device1/power/runtime_active_kids:0
cooling_device1/power/runtime_active_time:0
grep: cooling_device1/power/autosuspend_delay_ms: Input/output error
cooling_device1/power/runtime_status:unsupported
cooling_device1/power/runtime_usage:0
cooling_device1/power/runtime_suspended_time:0
cooling_device1/cur_state:0
cooling_device1/max_state:3
cooling_device2/type:Processor
cooling_device2/power/control:auto
cooling_device2/power/async:disabled
cooling_device2/power/runtime_enabled:disabled
cooling_device2/power/runtime_active_kids:0
cooling_device2/power/runtime_active_time:0
grep: cooling_device2/power/autosuspend_delay_ms: Input/output error
cooling_device2/power/runtime_status:unsupported
cooling_device2/power/runtime_usage:0
cooling_device2/power/runtime_suspended_time:0
cooling_device2/cur_state:0
cooling_device2/max_state:3
cooling_device3/type:Processor
cooling_device3/power/control:auto
cooling_device3/power/async:disabled
cooling_device3/power/runtime_enabled:disabled
cooling_device3/power/runtime_active_kids:0
cooling_device3/power/runtime_active_time:0
grep: cooling_device3/power/autosuspend_delay_ms: Input/output error
cooling_device3/power/runtime_status:unsupported
cooling_device3/power/runtime_usage:0
cooling_device3/power/runtime_suspended_time:0
cooling_device3/cur_state:0
cooling_device3/max_state:3
cooling_device4/type:intel_powerclamp
cooling_device4/power/control:auto
cooling_device4/power/async:disabled
cooling_device4/power/runtime_enabled:disabled
cooling_device4/power/runtime_active_kids:0
cooling_device4/power/runtime_active_time:0
grep: cooling_device4/power/autosuspend_delay_ms: Input/output error
cooling_device4/power/runtime_status:unsupported
cooling_device4/power/runtime_usage:0
cooling_device4/power/runtime_suspended_time:0
cooling_device4/cur_state:-1
cooling_device4/max_state:50
thermal_zone0/mode:enabled
thermal_zone0/temp:27800
thermal_zone0/type:acpitz
thermal_zone0/power/control:auto
thermal_zone0/power/async:disabled
thermal_zone0/power/runtime_enabled:disabled
thermal_zone0/power/runtime_active_kids:0
thermal_zone0/power/runtime_active_time:0
grep: thermal_zone0/power/autosuspend_delay_ms: Input/output error
thermal_zone0/power/runtime_status:unsupported
thermal_zone0/power/runtime_usage:0
thermal_zone0/power/runtime_suspended_time:0
grep: thermal_zone0/emul_temp: Permission denied
thermal_zone0/trip_point_0_temp:105000
thermal_zone0/trip_point_0_type:critical
thermal_zone0/policy:step_wise
thermal_zone0/passive:0
thermal_zone1/mode:enabled
thermal_zone1/temp:29800
thermal_zone1/type:acpitz
thermal_zone1/cdev2_trip_point:1
thermal_zone1/power/control:auto
thermal_zone1/power/async:disabled
thermal_zone1/power/runtime_enabled:disabled
thermal_zone1/power/runtime_active_kids:0
thermal_zone1/power/runtime_active_time:0
grep: thermal_zone1/power/autosuspend_delay_ms: Input/output error
thermal_zone1/power/runtime_status:unsupported
thermal_zone1/power/runtime_usage:0
thermal_zone1/power/runtime_suspended_time:0
thermal_zone1/cdev3_trip_point:1
grep: thermal_zone1/emul_temp: Permission denied
thermal_zone1/trip_point_0_temp:105000
thermal_zone1/trip_point_0_type:critical
thermal_zone1/trip_point_1_temp:95000
thermal_zone1/trip_point_1_type:passive
thermal_zone1/policy:step_wise
thermal_zone1/cdev0_trip_point:1
thermal_zone1/cdev1_trip_point:1
thermal_zone2/mode:disabled
thermal_zone2/temp:20000
thermal_zone2/type:INT3400 Thermal
thermal_zone2/power/control:auto
thermal_zone2/power/async:disabled
thermal_zone2/power/runtime_enabled:disabled
thermal_zone2/power/runtime_active_kids:0
thermal_zone2/power/runtime_active_time:0
grep: thermal_zone2/power/autosuspend_delay_ms: Input/output error
thermal_zone2/power/runtime_status:unsupported
thermal_zone2/power/runtime_usage:0
thermal_zone2/power/runtime_suspended_time:0
grep: thermal_zone2/emul_temp: Permission denied
thermal_zone2/policy:user_space
thermal_zone2/passive:0
thermal_zone3/temp:26800
thermal_zone3/type:TMEM
thermal_zone3/power/control:auto
thermal_zone3/power/async:disabled
thermal_zone3/power/runtime_enabled:disabled
thermal_zone3/power/runtime_active_kids:0
thermal_zone3/power/runtime_active_time:0
grep: thermal_zone3/power/autosuspend_delay_ms: Input/output error
thermal_zone3/power/runtime_status:unsupported
thermal_zone3/power/runtime_usage:0
thermal_zone3/power/runtime_suspended_time:0
grep: thermal_zone3/emul_temp: Permission denied
thermal_zone3/trip_point_0_temp:53000
thermal_zone3/trip_point_0_type:passive
thermal_zone3/trip_point_1_temp:0
thermal_zone3/trip_point_1_type:passive
thermal_zone3/trip_point_2_temp:103000
thermal_zone3/trip_point_2_type:critical
thermal_zone3/trip_point_3_temp:100000
thermal_zone3/trip_point_3_type:hot
thermal_zone3/trip_point_4_temp:71000
thermal_zone3/trip_point_4_type:passive
thermal_zone3/trip_point_5_temp:63000
thermal_zone3/trip_point_5_type:active
thermal_zone3/trip_point_6_temp:58000
thermal_zone3/trip_point_6_type:active
thermal_zone3/policy:user_space
thermal_zone4/temp:44000
thermal_zone4/type:x86_pkg_temp
thermal_zone4/power/control:auto
thermal_zone4/power/async:disabled
thermal_zone4/power/runtime_enabled:disabled
thermal_zone4/power/runtime_active_kids:0
thermal_zone4/power/runtime_active_time:0
grep: thermal_zone4/power/autosuspend_delay_ms: Input/output error
thermal_zone4/power/runtime_status:unsupported
thermal_zone4/power/runtime_usage:0
thermal_zone4/power/runtime_suspended_time:0
grep: thermal_zone4/emul_temp: Permission denied
thermal_zone4/trip_point_0_temp:0
thermal_zone4/trip_point_0_type:passive
thermal_zone4/trip_point_1_temp:0
thermal_zone4/trip_point_1_type:passive
thermal_zone4/policy:user_space
CPUFREQ EDIT
Seems to fix my life. Sort of. Governor is ondemand and my computer is no longer lethargic. The modprobe and rdmsr commands gave identical output, only that my CPU seemed fine before and after suspend. However, applications still appear to use an oddly high percentage of CPU use.
Thanks a lot for the help. I'd be happy to keep debugging.
Your computer (typically Dell LapTops on battery after resume from suspend) might be suffering from a situation whereby sometimes Clock Modulation becomes enabled. In its current form the intel_pstate driver is incompatible with Clock Modulation and it will drive the target pstate to minimum, regardless of load.
For your computer the minimum pstate is 6 and I think your processor has the extra Clock Modulation percentage bit, for a minimum modulation percentage of 83.3%, so the expected CPU frequency would be about 525MHz.
I believe the magnitude of this issue is not understood, and I am attempting to acquire supporting evidence (and I have a little now).
I also believe that the issue occurs when using the acpi-cpufreq CPU scaling driver, but its response is completely different. So much so that the typical user would probably not even notice. (and I have no evidence to support that claim other than having the tested the response curve of the driver to various Modulation percentages.)
Would you be willing do do the tests described in this answer? And also when using the acpi-cpufreq driver instead of the intel_pstate driver.
If you prefer to just get a fix and move on, then I would suggest disabling the intel_pstate driver, and your system will default to using the acpi-cpufreq driver.
To disable the intel_pstate driver edit, as sudo, /etc/default/grub and add intel_pstate=disable to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line. Example, with other stuff that I use:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="ipv6.disable=1 intel_pstate=disable net.ifnames=1 biosdevname=0 crashkernel=384M-:128M"
You will need to run sudo update-grub afterwards.