Gnome-shell process is spiking CPU utilization

efernandes · April 11, 2024, 1:52pm

OS env: RHEL8.8.

Even basic desktop operations like moving terminal/konsole windows, opening & editing files in vi, are spiking CPU to 100%

Is this behavior been seen by others?
If yes, what has been the resolution for this.

Thanks for your help.

skeller · April 11, 2024, 3:57pm

Are you maybe using software rendering? Not sure about the version of gnome-control-center shipped in RHEL 8, but usually that would mean that llvmpipe is listed in the system/info panel.

efernandes · April 11, 2024, 6:03pm

This ver is shipped with RHEL8:
$rpm -qa | grep -i gnome-control-center
gnome-control-center-3.28.2-37.el8.x86_64

We are not using software rendering AFAIK.

Thanks

skeller · April 11, 2024, 7:28pm

What does it say for “Graphics” in the system/info panel in gnome-control-center?

efernandes · April 11, 2024, 7:45pm

The system/info panel does not exist.
See screenshots.

skeller · April 11, 2024, 8:40pm

Apparently it was called “Details” in 3.28.

efernandes · April 11, 2024, 8:55pm

llvmpipe is listed

skeller · April 11, 2024, 11:20pm

What GPU do you have?

efernandes · April 12, 2024, 1:51pm

We do not have a GPU on the underlying hardware.
Note, we are using a VM and seeing this gnome-shell process piking on a RHEL8 VM

skeller · April 12, 2024, 2:22pm

Then only software rendering is available.

efernandes · April 12, 2024, 2:43pm

Thanks skeller.

Since only software rendering is available, how does that impact the gnome-shell process? Is there a connection, just asking the question.

ebassi · April 12, 2024, 2:53pm

GNOME uses hardware accelerated rendering for rendering the shell as well as any GTK4-based application. If there is no hardware acceleration, the fallback is to use software rendering, which will impact the CPU use.