[asymptote]

Running Eden on Arch Linux i686 using an old Athlon XP chip. Since updating from Dharma, idle CPU usage is 25-30 %. I tried using the dirty regions modification and after reloading xbmc, I see no change in htop CPU usage. Suggestions are welcome.

Code:

$ cat advancedsettings.xml
<advancedsettings>
    <loglevel>0</loglevel>
    <gui>    
        <algorithmdirtyregions>1</algorithmdirtyregions>
        <nofliptimeout>1000</nofliptimeout>
    </gui>
</advancedsettings>

I should note that as a test case, I moved my "old" ~/.xbmc to ~/.xbmc-old and allowed xbmc to create one fresh. After disabling RSS feeds, I found exactly the same CPU usage while idle.

[Chris!]

What CPU level wouldn't be excessive?

I'm assuming XBMC is working well for you otherwise

[graysky]

This is effecting my system too (C2D @ 3.33 GHz) so it's not just lower powered CPUs. With the GUI running idle is 6-8 % on BOTH cores. If I exit xbmc, the CPU usage drops down to 0-1 %. I can also confirm this problem on a low powered Atom-330 based system at a friend's house. There the idle is 23-25 % on one core while idle. I also applied the dirty regions settings but found no change.

[asymptote]

What CPU level wouldn't be excessive?

I'm assuming XBMC is working well for you otherwise

If I downgrade the package to Dharma, I get 1-2 % while xbmc is idle so something is definitively different in Eden. It is working well for me otherwise. I opened a bug report: http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/12909 but am still willing to try suggestions and thank you!

[wiz561]

Thanks for doing that bug report. I had the same problem on my atom, where it was averaging about 30% at idle. When playing videos, it went to 1 to 2%, if that.

I added the dirtyregion thing and it helped out, but I somehow feel iffy about it because when playback of videos, there's some pixelation. I don't know why this is happening, as the dirty region should only affect the gui. It could very well be another issue; it's too early to tell.

[Aenima99x]

Having similar issue here too. I'll open another thread if the issue isn't the same as OP.

Ubuntu 12.04
Linux htpc 3.2.0-22-generic-pae #35-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 3 20:37:36 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
Intel® Core™ i3 CPU 550 @ 3.20GHz
Nvidia GT520 (295.33 drivers)

When XBMC is not running - CPU usage is less than 5%
When XBMC is open, fullscreen and idle at menu - CPU usage averages 90% for Xorg and 10% for xbmc.bin
When XBMC is open, windowed and idle at menu - CPU usage averages 65% for Xorg and 10% for xbmc.bin
When XBMC is open, fullscreen and video playing - CPU usage averages 10% for Xorg and 10% for xbmc.bin

Removing the modelines from xorg.conf fixes the high cpu in Xorg, but is not a viable solution due to EDID info not reporting properly for my plasma.
Have tried changing various settings in the Nvidia config, but none make a noticeable difference.
Have tired enabling dirty regions in advancedsettings.xml, but only a small improvement.

Changing the "Vertical blank sync" in System/Settings in XBMC to "Disabled" or "Enabled during video playback" immediately drops the high cpu in xorg. Setting it back to "Always enabled" or "Let driver choose" makes xorg cpu usage jump right back up

Any ideas on what can be done? I can post a log if needed.

[cowfodder]

Changing the "Vertical blank sync" in System/Settings in XBMC to "Disabled" or "Enabled during video playback" immediately drops the high cpu in xorg. Setting it back to "Always enabled" or "Let driver choose" makes xorg cpu usage jump right back up

Any ideas on what can be done? I can post a log if needed.

Any reason you can't set "Vertical blank sync" to "Enabled during video playback"? If I remember correctly, XBMC doesn't use hardware acceleration to render the menus, which explains the CPU usage stats you posted.

[Aenima99x]

Changing the "Vertical blank sync" in System/Settings in XBMC to "Disabled" or "Enabled during video playback" immediately drops the high cpu in xorg. Setting it back to "Always enabled" or "Let driver choose" makes xorg cpu usage jump right back up

Any ideas on what can be done? I can post a log if needed.

Any reason you can't set "Vertical blank sync" to "Enabled during video playback"? If I remember correctly, XBMC doesn't use hardware acceleration to render the menus, which explains the CPU usage stats you posted.

That's what I have it at right now. Just wondering why the high cpu in Xorg with it set to always enabled when that setting was always fine before Eden.

[FernetMenta]

Don't use any window manager with composite extension when running XBMC. Have you tried e.g. Fluxbox? Make sure you have enabled "sync to vblank" in 3D settings of driver. On NVIdia systems you should run nvidia-settings -l in startup of window manager.

[prae5]

I've noticed this too, I haven't had a chance to look much at it yet but there is a significant jump in cpu use on my system.

My usage is somewhat nonstandard, which is part of the reason I've not posted until I've looked into it more.

On my Dharma virtual machine running, it idles at between 200MHz cpu usage and sits there quite happily running library updates. My recently deployed Eden virtual machine based of xbmcbuntu idles a about 2000-2300MHz cpu usage.

As I mentioned, my usage is far from standard so may or may not be relevant - but certainly it seems to be eating cpu resources where previous release didn't.

[FernetMenta]

That's XBMC in main menu on a Zotac ID80. RSS feed disabled.

Code:

PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
1750 xbmc      20   0  548m  99m  40m S    3  2.6   0:22.14 xbmc.bin
  952 root      20   0  158m  39m  18m S    0  1.0   0:04.13 Xorg
1848 xbmc      20   0 21468 1340  988 R    0  0.0   0:00.36 top
    1 root      20   0 24192 2264 1324 S    0  0.1   0:01.47 init
    2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd

With RSS feed enabled xbmc uses approx. 14%. I have algorithmdirtyregions set to 3.
That means the entire gui gets rendered because of RSS feed.

[prae5]

Eden - xbmcbuntu installation - idle

Code:

top - 17:04:15 up 2 days, 17:10,  1 user,  load average: 1.12, 1.07, 1.06
Tasks: 140 total,   2 running, 138 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s): 97.7%us,  2.3%sy,  0.0%ni,  0.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   2056772k total,  1338668k used,   718104k free,   169836k buffers
Swap:  2095100k total,        0k used,  2095100k free,   614548k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND                                                                                                                                            
12071 prae      20   0  798m 144m  23m R 95.9  7.2   2290:51 xbmc.bin                                                                                                                                            
  953 root      20   0  293m  51m 8580 S  3.0  2.6  94:40.41 Xorg                                                                                                                                                
1288 root      20   0 87472 4140 3176 S  0.3  0.2   1:40.45 vmtoolsd                                                                                                                                            
1597 prae      20   0  197m  12m 9900 S  0.3  0.6  14:31.13 metacity                                                                                                                                            
1753 prae       9 -11  280m 4952 3268 S  0.3  0.2  10:49.46 pulseaudio                                                                                                                                          
20895 prae      20   0 91948 1708  836 S  0.3  0.1   0:00.01 sshd

Dharma Install (whilst doing library update)

Code:

top - 17:06:35 up 1 day,  6:17,  1 user,  load average: 0.18, 0.06, 0.06
Tasks: 135 total,   2 running, 133 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s): 49.2%us,  8.7%sy,  0.0%ni, 39.8%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  2.3%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   2062328k total,   868508k used,  1193820k free,   100292k buffers
Swap:  2095100k total,        0k used,  2095100k free,   492688k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND                                                                                                                                            
3502 xbmc      20   0  379m  63m  19m R 57.1  3.1   0:11.25 xbmc.bin                                                                                                                                            
3516 xbmc      20   0 18336 3404 2548 S  2.7  0.2   0:00.23 smbd                                                                                                                                                
1632 xbmc       9 -11  149m 4316 3092 S  0.7  0.2   0:00.09 pulseaudio                                                                                                                                          
1442 root      20   0 33860 3644 2932 S  0.3  0.2   0:55.75 vmtoolsd                                                                                                                                            
3381 prae      20   0  9860 1540  852 S  0.3  0.1   0:00.02 sshd                                                                                                                                                
    1 root      20   0  3316 1832 1260 S  0.0  0.1   0:01.51 init                                                                                                                                                
    2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd

Dharma - idling

Code:

top - 17:11:46 up 1 day,  6:22,  1 user,  load average: 0.06, 0.19, 0.13
Tasks: 135 total,   1 running, 134 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s): 45.2%us,  8.3%sy,  0.0%ni, 43.5%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  3.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   2062328k total,   880472k used,  1181856k free,   100500k buffers
Swap:  2095100k total,        0k used,  2095100k free,   495724k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND                                                                                                                                            
3502 xbmc      20   0  341m  57m  19m S 51.8  2.9   3:18.33 xbmc.bin                                                                                                                                            
3516 xbmc      20   0 18336 3404 2548 S  6.3  0.2   0:12.82 smbd                                                                                                                                                
1442 root      20   0 33860 3644 2932 S  0.3  0.2   0:55.91 vmtoolsd                                                                                                                                            
1632 xbmc       9 -11  149m 4316 3092 S  0.3  0.2   0:01.20 pulseaudio                                                                                                                                          
1658 xbmc      20   0 41652  12m  10m S  0.3  0.6   2:12.01 vmtoolsd

[prae5]

Just spent a little time looking at this and it may not be Dharma to Eden related.

I just started up a Eden BETA2 virtual machine and it runs and idles similar to the Dharma machine. I wonder if it is something specific to the xbmcbuntu install or the eden final release that is causing it.

I'll do an update on the beta2 machine to final and see if it jumps in cpu usage.

[graysky]

Guys - please keep this thread on topic: if your problem does not related to high CPU usage on idle then don't post here. Start your own thread.

[prae5]

Guys - please keep this thread on topic: if your problem does not related to high CPU usage on idle then don't post here. Start your own thread.

Everyone is talking about idle issues.....