{SOLVED} "X" process by username "root" is eating up all of my CPU %

[Cressida]

My system has been so slow recently it reminds me of an old Windows XP box that is so bogged down from registry growth and system clutter that it is just barely usable.

I have found that the "X" process by the user "root" is using between 50-90+% of my CPU resources.  And this is often when I am just doing nothing but looking at a screen.  I suspect this has something to do with why my system is painfully slow to respond to inputs.  

I am not running 3D or compiz just a rather standard PClinux KDE updated system with Firefox and plenty of memory.    I initially thought this must be something to do with updating the kernel a few weeks ago because it used to not be like this at all.
 
Can someone tell me what the "X" process is doing or what it represents - - I think it is something to do with the screen graphics ?

About a month ago I did swap out my old 17" CRT monitor to one of these 21" HD LCD widescreen units.   Could my old video card
(Video=GeForce4 MX 420 (64mb) )  not be up to driving this new widescreen monitor and that may be the cause of the high CPU use?


UPDATE:  The problem was the "Nividia" driver that was installed by running XFdrake was wrong for this video card.   Changing the driver as instructed in this thread below to "nv"  fixed this.   See thread details below for more information.

[Rudge]

My system has been so slow recently it reminds me of an old Windows XP box that is so bogged down from registry growth and system clutter that it is just barely usable.

I have found that the "X" process by the user "root" is using between 50-90+% of my CPU resources.  And this is often when I am just doing nothing but looking at a screen.  I suspect this has something to do with why my system is painfully slow to respond to inputs.  

I am not running 3D or compiz just a rather standard PClinux KDE updated system with Firefox and plenty of memory.    I initially thought this must be something to do with updating the kernel a few weeks ago because it used to not be like this at all.
 
Can someone tell me what the "X" process is doing or what it represents - - I think it is something to do with the screen graphics ?

About a month ago I did swap out my old 17" CRT monitor to one of these 21" HD LCD widescreen units.   Could my old video card
(Video=GeForce4 MX 420 (64mb) )  not be up to driving this new widescreen monitor and that may be the cause of the high CPU use?

The "X" process is basically the "gui" that interfaces with the OS.

The OS in of itself is activated and manipulated by a series of commands. "X" enables a visual representation, an interface, between what you want to do, and those commands.

Why root is causing X to demand all the resources, I cannot answer.  

How did you find out that this was the cause?

    

[muungwana]

X process is responsible for drawing all the GUI elements. You bring it down and you will be dropped to the good old terminal.

open the terminal, log in as root and then run these two commands and then restart and check if the problem is still there

rm -f /etc/X11/xorg.conf
XFdrake --auto

[Cressida]

X process is responsible for drawing all the GUI elements. You bring it down and you will be dropped to the good old terminal.

open the terminal, log in as root and then run these two commands and then restart and check if the problem is still there

rm -f /etc/X11/xorg.conf
XFdrake --auto

Rudge,   I can see the CPU usage after pressing "Ctrl" and "Exc" keys at same time.

I ran the above commands again and can tell no difference.  Still very high CPU times.

Here is what driver I am using now:

[root@localhost james]# cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf | grep iver
    Driver "nouveau"

Does anyone know if I should try another driver with the NV17 GeForce4 MX 420 video card ?

I have read where someone with a similar problem found that his "Radeon module is loading to late – it’s loading after X is started – hence it’s not used – that’s one. Second – modeset for radeon is set to 0 by default…"

How can one tell if my driver module is loading to late after X is started ?

[muungwana]

the "nouveau" driver is still very experimental

change the driver to "nv", restart your computer and see if it will make a difference.

[T6]

your card is on the limit with that monitor, probably doing 1080p but that shouldn't give you x problems like the ones described

yes, change driver to see results, also if you are using compiz or kde desktop effects it could be wise to disable them

specially if you are watching lots of youtube videos

[Cressida]

the "nouveau" driver is still very experimental

change the driver to "nv", restart your computer and see if it will make a difference.

Ok, I removed the "nouveau" driver and it looked like the "nv" one was already installed in synaptic so I left it alone.

Now my computer just boots to the "localhost login:" black screen so I cannot get it to boot up.

I have tried signing in and running "XFdrake" and "XFdrake --auto" a couple times with not luck.  I still keep booting to the "localhost login" screen and it stops there.

What next to get the Xorg or what ever it is to go graphics again ?

[muungwana]

you did not have to uninstall "nouveau" driver, you were supposed to just open "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" file and then change the first below line to the second line

Driver "nouveau"

Driver "nv"

if you uninstall "nouveau" driver but did not change the line there then X wont start because it will attempt to load a driver that isnt installed in your computer.

if you have a live cd, boot up using it, browse to the text file and make the change.

Sorry i did not make this clear earlier, you pointed to a driver that was in the config file and i though you already knew this.

[Cressida]

you did not have to uninstall "nouveau" driver, you were supposed to just open "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" file and then change the first below line to the second line

Driver "nouveau"

Driver "nv"

if you uninstall "nouveau" driver but did not change the line there then X wont start because it will attempt to load a driver that isnt installed in your computer.

if you have a live cd, boot up using it, browse to the text file and make the change.

Sorry i did not make this clear earlier, you pointed to a driver that was in the config file and i though you already knew this.

Looking like a long night again.... 

1.   I'm not sure how to open "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" file.  Would that be by using the file manager (dolphin) to find the file in the root directory (I think)?

2.  If I can make the change to the above mentioned file xorg.conf  file  should it boot up then?  If so, should I go back into synaptic to reinstall the "nouveau" driver or just leave it uninstalled ?

In the meantime I'll  see if I can boot with the live CD and make the change to the file.

thanks.

[Rudge]

you did not have to uninstall "nouveau" driver, you were supposed to just open "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" file and then change the first below line to the second line

Driver "nouveau"

Driver "nv"

if you uninstall "nouveau" driver but did not change the line there then X wont start because it will attempt to load a driver that isnt installed in your computer.

if you have a live cd, boot up using it, browse to the text file and make the change.

Sorry i did not make this clear earlier, you pointed to a driver that was in the config file and i though you already knew this.

Looking like a long night again.... 

1.   I'm not sure how to open "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" file.  Would that be by using the file manager (dolphin) to find the file in the root directory (I think)?

2.  If I can make the change to the above mentioned file xorg.conf  file  should it boot up then?  If so, should I go back into synaptic to reinstall the "nouveau" driver or just leave it uninstalled ?

In the meantime I'll  see if I can boot with the live CD and make the change to the file.

thanks.

Cressida, a quick note, you will need to be root to make a change to that file.

[muungwana]

you already have a lot of video drivers on your system, what you already have installed doesnt matter, what matters is what driver X is told to load and that line in that config file is the one that tells it to do it. You can leave "nouveau" unistalled or you can reinstall it, it wont make a different if you are not going to use it.

"/etc/X11/xorg.conf" is a text file, after you boot up using a live cd, just browse to where it is, click it and kwrite will be able to open it, make the change, save the file and boot back up using the installed system.

It should boot up with the "nv" driver, this driver is one of those "safe" driver, it always works.

[Cressida]

I found the file and was able to make the change.  Under Section "Device" it was showing driver "Nvidia" and I changed it to "nv" .    Upon reboot it stopped at the same "localhost login:"  screen so it isn't making any difference.

I am using lower case "nv"  - would "Nv" make a difference?    I don't know what happened to "nouveau" but it wasn't there.  I had ran XFdrake several times in the past couple of hours trying to get it to work so XFdrake may have found another driver.

Do you think if I ran XFdrake again it might pick up some sort of driver that would work now or am I simply facing a reinstall of PClinux from the CD now?

Can I use a different kernel or selection at the Grub menu to get in so that I could get to synaptic again to reinstall the drivers that I mistakenly removed.?

[muungwana]

when you are at the localhost login prompt, enter your username and password to log in and then type "startx" and press enter and look at the error messages. There could be a clue there why it is not starting up.

can you make sense of any error msg?

The driver's name "nv" and that is what you should have, you said you already have it installed and things your work. This is one of the safest drivers outthere.

[Cressida]

Using startX here is the error messages:

(ww) Nvidia: The server has an unsupported input driver ABI version  (have 12.2, need <12.0).

(EE) Screen found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal Screen Error:    No screens found

[muungwana]

that look like there are different X server components from different versions. Are you fully updated?

type "su" then press "enter" to be root and then type these commands to fully update your system

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

when you are done, type "exit" and then press enter to go back your account and then run "startx" again to see if it will start up