Ubuntu – Init process at 100% CPU usage

11.1064-bitcpu loadinitserver

I have a Ubuntu x64 machine on a OpenVZ VPS account on a QuadCore processor with 1GB/2GB(burst). A few days ago I've managed to successfully update it to 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. There's only one problem: my "init" process (PID = 1) is at 100% CPU usage, keeping one core 99.5% of the time at full throttle.

Is there any solution to stop the strange init's behavior? Can I trace what happens behind that init process to find out what makes it spike so high?

Best Answer

From Bellum PLC Forum - Ubuntu 11.10 init 100% cpu usage bug:

I noticed an CPU usage issue with init due to upstart, Which was eating 99% ram constantly. and i decided to find working fix. This is a bug which has been confirmed by Ubuntu but below is a simple quick fix patch which should work completely for all.

Firstly Open up SSH and add the following PPA
add-apt-repository ppa:jammy/upstart.fix-880049
Hit enter and Enter again.

If It says command not found, Issue this command first
apt-get install python-software-properties
Then
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

What are PPAs and how do I use them

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Ubuntu – 100 % CPU usage with “on demand” setting due to Xorg

Luckily for you, high X.org CPU usage doesn't mean you have a bug in X, so this problem is likely something you can solve.

X is a server, which means it responds to client requests. If a client has lost its mind and is making excessive X calls (such as if it locks itself into a graphics updating loop), it can make a lot of X calls. This shows up as a high X CPU load.

So, the thing to look for is to identify which client program is causing the load. Often it is a program you don't realize is even running - perhaps a panel indicator or background task or service. Look through your process table for user processes that look out of place, and try killing them one by one until the load goes down. Then you know what caused it.

Alternatively, log into a guest account; verify the load is normal there. Compare your processes in the guest account with those in your regular account, and go from there.

While high X cpu bugs are not at all unusual, I have not seen many reported in oneiric, so I might guess that the faulty process is some unusual program not installed by default; perhaps something you manually installed previously that got automatically upgraded to a new version that has a bug in it? Anyway, good luck in your hunt.

Ubuntu – Lubuntu 12.10 cpu usage sticks at 100%

I seem to have solved this problem. It was hardware related after all. After installing iotop and running command

<iotop -o>

the output under IO was: 99.99% mount /media/floppy.

As I had removed the floppy drive some time ago it was never going to find it. The answer was to go into bios and select "none" under floppy drives. Cpu usage is now back to normal after lubuntu loads. For some reason 12.04 didn't have a problem with the previous settings.

Thanks to jippie for pointing me in the right direction.

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – 100 % CPU usage with “on demand” setting due to Xorg

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