high cpu usage by kworker u16:0+events_unbound  [Solved]

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josevidal
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2020 12:01 pm

high cpu usage by kworker u16:0+events_unbound

#1 Post by josevidal »

I have recently noticed that the laptop I use (borrowed from my brother) has a high cpu usage. Making a “top” I see that it corresponds almost in the totality to kworker u16:0+events_unbound.

Image

the system information is

Code: Select all

Snapshot created on: 20250317_2251
System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-37-amd64 [6.1.140-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0 clocksource: tsc
    avail: hpet,acpi_pm parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-37-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 wm: xfwm4 v: 4.20.0 with: xfce4-panel
    tools: xfce4-screensaver vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.6_x64 Libretto October 15 2023
    base: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Apple product: MacBookPro11,3 v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required> Chassis:
    type: 10 v: Mac-2BD1B31983FE1663 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Apple model: Mac-2BD1B31983FE1663 v: MacBookPro11,3 serial: <superuser required>
    uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: Apple v: 431.0.0.0.0 date: 02/22/2021
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 11.7 Wh (21.6%) condition: 54.2/95.4 Wh (56.8%) volts: 11.2 min: 11.3
    model: SMP bq20z451 type: Li-ion serial: N/A status: charging cycles: 605
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-4980HQ bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Haswell gen: core 4 level: v3
    note: check built: 2013-15 process: Intel 22nm family: 6 model-id: 0x46 (70) stepping: 1
    microcode: 0x1C
  Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 4 cores: 4 threads: 8 tpc: 2 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 256 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB L3: 6 MiB desc: 1x6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1193 min/max: 800/4000 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq governor: ondemand
    cores: 1: 1193 2: 1193 3: 1193 4: 1193 5: 1193 6: 1193 7: 1193 8: 1193 bogomips: 44697
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: indirect_target_selection status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; IBRS_FW; STIBP: conditional; RSB
    filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK107M [GeForce GT 750M Mac Edition] vendor: Apple driver: nouveau v: kernel
    non-free: series: 470.xx+ status: legacy-active (EOL~2024-09-xx) arch: Kepler-2 code: GKxxx
    process: TSMC 28nm built: 2012-2018 pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 8 link-max: gen: 3
    speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: HDMI-A-1 off: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,DP-2 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:0fe9 class-ID: 0300 temp: 48.0 C
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.20.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: nouveau gpu: nouveau display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2560x1440 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 678x382mm (26.69x15.04") s-diag: 778mm (30.64")
  Monitor-1: not-matched mapped: HDMI-1 pos: primary res: mode: 2560x1440 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1)
    dpi: 109 size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.23") diag: 685mm (26.97") modes: N/A
  Monitor-2: not-matched mapped: eDP-1 size-res: N/A modes: N/A
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia nouveau platforms: device: 0 drv: nouveau device: 1 drv: swrast
    gbm: drv: nouveau surfaceless: drv: nouveau x11: drv: nouveau inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.3 vendor: nouveau mesa v: 22.3.6 glx-v: 1.4 es-v: 3.2 direct-render: yes
    renderer: NVE7 device-ID: 10de:0fe9 memory: 1.92 GiB unified: no
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.239 layers: 3 device: 0 type: cpu name: llvmpipe (LLVM 15.0.6 256 bits)
    driver: mesa llvmpipe v: 22.3.6 (LLVM 15.0.6) device-ID: 10005:0000 surfaces: xcb,xlib
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo de: xfce4-display-settings x11: xdriinfo,
    xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:8c20 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GK107 HDMI Audio vendor: Apple driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 8 link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1
    chip-ID: 10de:0e1b class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Broadcom 720p FaceTime HD Camera driver: N/A pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1
    bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:1570 class-ID: 0480
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-37-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Apple driver: wl v: kernel
    modules: bcma pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:43a0
    class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: bridge0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-2: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Info: services: mld, NetworkManager, smbd, wpa_supplicant
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Apple Bluetooth Host Controller driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s
    lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-8.3:7 chip-ID: 05ac:8289 class-ID: fe01
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 4.0 lmp-v: 6 sub-v: 4196
    hci-v: 6 rev: 2467 class-ID: 7c010c
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:8 sco-mtu: 64:1 link-policy: rswitch sniff link-mode: peripheral accept
    service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio, telephony
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.92 GiB used: 314.75 GiB (67.6%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Apple model: SSD SM0512F size: 465.92 GiB block-size:
    physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: JA1Q
    scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 465.67 GiB size: 457.29 GiB (98.20%) used: 314.75 GiB (68.8%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 301 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 4 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 53.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 48.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 3493 libs: 1821 tools: apt, apt-get, aptitude, nala, synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://ftp.cica.es/mirrors/Linux/MX-Packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscodium.list
Info:
  Memory: total: 16 GiB available: 15.53 GiB used: 2.82 GiB (18.2%)
  Processes: 283 Power: uptime: 10m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep avail: s2idle
    wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot, suspend, test_resume image: 6.18 GiB
    services: upowerd,xfce4-power-manager Init: SysVinit v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical
    tool: systemctl
  Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.37
Boot Mode: UEFI
A few months ago I had obtained an iso image from this same computer, with an older kernel. When booting from this iso I see that the cpu usage is much less.

I have compared both files and in one case I have used an external display connected by HDMI (from HD) and in another case the computer's own display (ISO image).
When using the built-in screen from HD the usage has reduced somewhat, from 52% to 28%. Still far from the 10% (5%+5%) of the usb image viewing.

Image

The information in the system with this previous kernel is as follows:

Code: Select all

Snapshot created on: 20250317_2251
System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-32-amd64 [6.1.129-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0 clocksource: tsc
    avail: hpet,acpi_pm parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/antiX/vmlinuz ro lang=es_ES kbd=es tz=Europe/Madrid
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 wm: xfwm4 v: 4.20.0 with: xfce4-panel
    tools: xfce4-screensaver vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.5_x64 Libretto October 15 2023
    base: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Apple product: MacBookPro11,3 v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required> Chassis:
    type: 10 v: Mac-2BD1B31983FE1663 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Apple model: Mac-2BD1B31983FE1663 v: MacBookPro11,3 serial: <superuser required>
    uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: Apple v: 431.0.0.0.0 date: 02/22/2021
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 20.3 Wh (37.5%) condition: 54.2/95.4 Wh (56.8%) volts: 11.0 min: 11.3
    model: SMP bq20z451 type: Li-ion serial: N/A status: discharging cycles: 605
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-4980HQ bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Haswell gen: core 4 level: v3
    note: check built: 2013-15 process: Intel 22nm family: 6 model-id: 0x46 (70) stepping: 1
    microcode: 0x1C
  Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 4 cores: 4 threads: 8 tpc: 2 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 256 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB L3: 6 MiB desc: 1x6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/4000 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq governor: ondemand
    cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 bogomips: 44692
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; IBRS_FW; STIBP: conditional; RSB
    filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK107M [GeForce GT 750M Mac Edition] vendor: Apple driver: nouveau v: kernel
    non-free: series: 470.xx+ status: legacy-active (EOL~2024-09-xx) arch: Kepler-2 code: GKxxx
    process: TSMC 28nm built: 2012-2018 pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 8 link-max: gen: 3
    speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: HDMI-A-1,eDP-1 empty: DP-1,DP-2 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:0fe9 class-ID: 0300 temp: 45.0 C
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.20.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: nouveau gpu: nouveau display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 5440x1800 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1440x477mm (56.69x18.78")
    s-diag: 1517mm (59.72")
  Monitor-1: not-matched mapped: HDMI-1 pos: right res: mode: 2560x1440 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1)
    dpi: 109 size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.23") diag: 685mm (26.97") modes: N/A
  Monitor-2: not-matched mapped: eDP-1 pos: primary,left res: mode: 2880x1800 hz: 60
    scale: 100% (1) dpi: 221 size: 331x207mm (13.03x8.15") diag: 390mm (15.37") modes: N/A
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia nouveau platforms: device: 0 drv: nouveau device: 1 drv: swrast
    gbm: drv: nouveau surfaceless: drv: nouveau x11: drv: nouveau inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.3 vendor: nouveau mesa v: 22.3.6 glx-v: 1.4 es-v: 3.2 direct-render: yes
    renderer: NVE7 device-ID: 10de:0fe9 memory: 1.9 GiB unified: no
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.239 layers: 3 device: 0 type: cpu name: llvmpipe (LLVM 15.0.6 256 bits)
    driver: mesa llvmpipe v: 22.3.6 (LLVM 15.0.6) device-ID: 10005:0000 surfaces: xcb,xlib
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo de: xfce4-display-settings x11: xdriinfo,
    xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:8c20 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GK107 HDMI Audio vendor: Apple driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 8 link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1
    chip-ID: 10de:0e1b class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Broadcom 720p FaceTime HD Camera driver: N/A pcie: speed: Unknown lanes: 63 link-max:
    gen: 6 speed: 64 GT/s bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:1570 class-ID: 0480
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-32-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Apple driver: wl v: kernel
    modules: bcma pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:43a0
    class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: dormant mac: <filter>
  Info: services: mld, NetworkManager, smbd, wpa_supplicant
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Apple Bluetooth Host Controller driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s
    lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-8.3:8 chip-ID: 05ac:8289 class-ID: fe01
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 4.0 lmp-v: 6 sub-v: 4196
    hci-v: 6 rev: 2467 class-ID: 7c010c
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:8 sco-mtu: 64:1 link-policy: rswitch sniff link-mode: peripheral accept
    service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio, telephony
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 494.76 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Apple model: SSD SM0512F size: 465.92 GiB block-size:
    physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: JA1Q
    scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 vendor: Verbatim model: STORE N GO size: 28.84 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: USB rev: 3.1 spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1
    tech: N/A serial: <filter> fw-rev: PMAP scheme: MBR
  SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
Partition:
  Message: No partition data found.
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 49.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 45.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 3482 libs: 1804 tools: apt, apt-get, aptitude, nala, synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://ftp.cica.es/mirrors/Linux/MX-Packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscodium.list
Info:
  Memory: total: 16 GiB available: 15.53 GiB used: 1.26 GiB (8.1%)
  Processes: 263 Power: uptime: 3m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep avail: s2idle wakeups: 0
    hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot, suspend, test_resume image: 6.2 GiB
    services: upowerd,xfce4-power-manager Init: SysVinit v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical
    tool: systemctl
  Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.37
Boot Mode: UEFI
Is there anything I can do to see if everything is ok with this process? the consumption it has seems excessive to me looking at the previous iso image.
Enjoying with: MX Linux 23 xfce
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j2mcgreg
Global Moderator
Posts: 6954
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2007 12:04 pm

Re: high cpu usage by kworker u16:0+events_unbound  [Solved]

#2 Post by j2mcgreg »

From here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1990876
This is a known bug and there are lots of threads similar to this one on this issue. The most common workaround is to use a different kernel. You could do this by using Boot Options in MX Tools to roll back to a previously working kernel --or-- by using MXPI --> Popular Apps tab to install a wholly new kernel.
HP 15; ryzen 3 5300U APU; 500 Gb SSD; 8GB ram
HP 17; ryzen 3 3200; 500 GB SSD; 12 GB ram
Idea Center 3; 12 gen i5; 256 GB ssd;

In Linux, newer isn't always better. The best solution is the one that works.
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josevidal
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2020 12:01 pm

Re: high cpu usage by kworker u16:0+events_unbound

#3 Post by josevidal »

For a while, I will be using the antix kernel that I installed from the useful MXPI tool. Thanks for the tip
The debian kernels won't boot. Previous kernels don't work completely, I'm out of wifi. I believe they are not safe to use either.
Thanks.
Enjoying with: MX Linux 23 xfce
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