GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 711220
Nautilus high CPU utilization when attempts to load pic thumbnails (and fails to load those previews)
Last modified: 2021-06-18 15:29:13 UTC
Created attachment 258669 [details] Apport uploaded procmaps When I go to a folder with pictures (or music w/pics embedded) the thumbnails fail to load and CPU utilization jumps! top reports, when in a folder without preview-able items, nautilus's utilization is between 0.0 and 1.0%. If I go into a folder with a single preview-able item, it raises to 15-20% util, and when I go into my pictures folder (40 preview-able items) it goes to 105-120% (multi-core) utilization, and I hear my fan kick up shortly after going into it (it does not multi-thread the process very well as top reports majority of utilization on single thread of i7 processor, so it temps rise 20 deg C on a single core in < 5 mins). 64 bit ubuntu 13.10 (public release version), Hp elitebook 8460w running fglrx 13.11 beta1 (via amd installer and created ubu saucy package) : only other deviance from average install was use of LTM and did not format /home partition. But same issue when I nav to /usr/share/backgrounds (105-115% util for only 19 preview-able items), and that partition ( / also ltm) was reformatted when did my fresh-install of 13.10. Let me know if I can provide further info. Filed Apport bug with Ubuntu (auto-generated info follows, and attaching all files apport uploaded), https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1246780 : ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10 Package: nautilus 1:3.8.2-0ubuntu2 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-12.19-generic 3.11.3 Uname: Linux 3.11.0-12-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx ApportVersion: 2.12.5-0ubuntu2.1 Architecture: amd64 Date: Thu Oct 31 09:26:42 2013 ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/nautilus GsettingsChanges: b'org.gnome.nautilus.window-state' b'geometry' b"'838x546+1080+24'" InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-18 (13 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Release amd64 (20131016.1) MarkForUpload: True SourcePackage: nautilus UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
Created attachment 258670 [details] apport uploaded dep
Created attachment 258671 [details] apport uploaded
Created attachment 258672 [details] apport uploaded procstat
Created attachment 258673 [details] apport uploaded usr_lib
Created attachment 258674 [details] SS of top and nautilus Shows that previews are failing to load and what top is reporting for util of that process...
Oh and a correction I forgot to make to my original comment... I mean LVM not LTM (sorry I support F5's "LTM" so had it on the brain, I guess).
So to add to this, the failure to load the thumbnail previews appears to be a permissions issue. If you launch nautilus with sudo, they work fine. I tried resolving by changing permissions (up to 777) of the 2x files in ~/.cache/thumbnails, but that did not resolve. I find Nemo (2.04 via webupd8 Unity patched PPA, and fork of nautilus 3.4ish I think) has the same preview issue (works when launched via sudo); however, its handling of the issue is much better, as instead of continuing to attempt to open the preview (and eating cpu for the try), Nemo will just load a generic filetype icon and be done with it. So this may be 2x diff bugs: 1) The permissions issue itself (but as this is unconfirmed, a package installed after my initial install, tho there wasn't many and I will post installed packages upon request, could be causing this one) 2) And this is the biggie which this bug report should focus, is on the handling of permission exceptions should be more like Nemo, IE there should be a timeout that nautilus will just give up trying to resolve the thumbnails and display a generic icon instead (saving on major CPU utilization for a minor cosmetic issue).
Correction, my chmod method might have been wrong (it refused to add w when using +w) so I was able to resolve issue 1) by 'sudo chmod -R 777 /home/x/.cache/thumbnails/'. I tried various combinations of permissions (766, 774, 776) but only 777 on the files would resolve! I foresee having to run this at startup to ensure no new thumbnails are created with the wrong permissions. Is this permissions bug a GNOME or a Ubuntu bug? I guess you need someone to actually confirm it first huh? :) Of course issue 2) is on how nautilus handles the exception so that stays here...
GNOME is going to shut down bugzilla.gnome.org in favor of gitlab.gnome.org. As part of that, we are mass-closing older open tickets in bugzilla.gnome.org which have not seen updates for a longer time (resources are unfortunately quite limited so not every ticket can get handled). If you can still reproduce the situation described in this ticket in a recent and supported software version of Files (nautilus), then please follow https://wiki.gnome.org/GettingInTouch/BugReportingGuidelines and create a new ticket at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/nautilus/-/issues/ Thank you for your understanding and your help.