Xorg Memory Hog / Trouble with Caffeine [SOLVED]

[h3kt0r]

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System:    Kernel: 6.7.12-1-liquorix-amd64 [6.7-18~mx21ahs] x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: audit=0 intel_pstate=disable rcupdate.rcu_expedited=1 ro root=UUID=<filter> 
           quiet splash zswap.enabled=1 zswap.compressor=lz4 zswap.max_pool_percent=40 
           zswap.zpool=z3fold i915.enable_psr=0 initrd=\boot\initrd.img-6.7.12-1-liquorix-amd64 
           Desktop: Blackbox 0.77 info: lxpanel, wbar vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
           Distro: MX-21.3_x64 Wildflower October 20  2021 base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Panasonic product: CFMX4-1 v: 001 serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 10 v: 001 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Panasonic model: CFMX4-1 v: 1 serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends 
           v: 1.00L16 date: 07/08/2019 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT1 charge: 18.5 Wh (80.1%) condition: 23.1/32.8 Wh (70.4%) volts: 7.8 min: 7.2 
           model: Panasonic CF-VZSU92 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Not charging 
           ID-2: BAT2 charge: 11.7 Wh (100.0%) condition: 11.7/15.2 Wh (76.7%) volts: 8.4 min: 7.6 
           model: Panasonic 2-644553-B01 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Not charging 
CPU:       Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-5300U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Broadwell 
           family: 6 model-id: 3D (61) stepping: 4 microcode: 2F cache: L2: 3 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 18356 
           Speed: 798 MHz min/max: 500/2301 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 798 
           3: 798 4: 798 
           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 
           Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
           Type: tsx_async_abort mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 vendor: Matsushita driver: i915 v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:1616 class-ID: 0300 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: compton v: 1 driver: loaded: i915 
           note: n/a (using device driver) alternate: intel display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2") 
           s-diag: 582mm (22.9") 
           Monitor-1: eDP-1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 176 size: 277x156mm (10.9x6.1") 
           diag: 318mm (12.5") 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 5500 (BDW GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.5 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio vendor: Matsushita driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:160c class-ID: 0403 
           Device-2: Intel Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio vendor: Matsushita 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:9ca0 class-ID: 0403 
           Device-3: Creative Sound BlasterX G1 type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid 
           bus-ID: 2-2.1:37 chip-ID: 041e:3249 class-ID: 0300 serial: <filter> 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.7.12-1-liquorix-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
           Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.19 running: no 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Ethernet I218-LM vendor: Matsushita driver: e1000e v: kernel port: f080 
           bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:15a2 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel Wireless 7265 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: f040 bus-ID: 02:00.0 
           chip-ID: 8086:095a class-ID: 0280 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Bluetooth: Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 
           bus-ID: 2-4:5 chip-ID: 8087:0a2a class-ID: e001 
           Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.2 
           sub-v: 1000 hci-v: 4.2 rev: 1000 
           Info: acl-mtu: 1021:5 sco-mtu: 96:6 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff 
           link-mode: slave accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 4.89 TiB used: 3.15 TiB (64.4%) 
           ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 maj-min: 179:0 type: Removable model: SDU1 size: 232.96 GiB 
           block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> scheme: MBR 
           SMART Message: Unknown smartctl error. Unable to generate data. 
           ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital model: WDS100T2B0B-00YS70 
           size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD 
           serial: <filter> rev: 00WD scheme: GPT 
           SMART Message: Unknown smartctl error. Unable to generate data. 
           ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB vendor: Seagate model: Expansion HDD 
           size: 3.64 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> 
           rev: 1801 scheme: GPT 
           SMART Message: A mandatory SMART command failed. Various possible causes. 
           ID-4: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 type: USB model: USB DISK 3.0 size: 115.63 GiB block-size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: PMAP scheme: MBR 
           SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure? 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 29.3 GiB size: 28.67 GiB (97.86%) used: 14.23 GiB (49.7%) fs: ext4 
           block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3 
           ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 260 MiB size: 256 MiB (98.46%) used: 28.7 MiB (11.2%) 
           fs: vfat block-size: 512 B dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 
           ID-3: /home raw-size: 244.14 GiB size: 239.25 GiB (98.00%) used: 183.82 GiB (76.8%) 
           fs: ext4 block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sda9 maj-min: 8:9 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 25 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 3.91 GiB used: 1.95 GiB (49.8%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/sda7 maj-min: 8:7 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 65.4 C mobo: 65.4 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     Packages: note: see --pkg apt: 3298 lib: 1598 flatpak: 0 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list 
           1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bullseye non-free contrib main
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bullseye-security non-free contrib main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb https://mirrors.aliyun.com/mxlinux/mx/repo/ bullseye non-free main
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera-stable.list 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/steam-beta.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/steam-stable.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64,i386 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/steam.gpg] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ stable steam
           2: deb-src [arch=amd64,i386 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/steam.gpg] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ stable steam
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/syncthing.list 
           1: deb https://apt.syncthing.net/ syncthing stable
Info:      Processes: 337 Uptime: 27d 20h 46m wakeups: 2 Memory: 3.73 GiB used: 3.04 GiB (81.5%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 
           alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: UEFI

Long story shortened : "caffeine" is broken on my system so i went to launch "xfce4-power-manager"
to activate "presentation mode" to be able to watch full videos wthout the display turning off.
Went through a memory leak that affected "xorg" that ate up to 31% of available RAM.
Killed "xfce4-power-manager" and a few moments later, "xorg" was using 11% of available RAM.
5 minutes later, "xorg" was using 7% of available RAM.

Conclusion : "xfce4-power-manager" has most probably a very nasty bug in its code ...

Is there an alternative to the "caffeine" package ? I looked everywhere and couldn't find one...

[Eadwine Rose]

To note: your posts are a bit easier to read if you don't use bolding that much.

[Charlie Brown]

What about turning off the "Display Power Management" (in "Display" tab in Power Manager) ?

(... Or set all items to "never" in both sub-tabs: When on battery / When Plugged in )

[h3kt0r]

@Eadwine Rose : sorry for the inconvenience !
@Charlie Brown : I still need DPM to turn off the screen when the laptop is iddling...

ATM, Xorg is using 1.83% of the total RAM.

I uninstalled, reinstalled, purged "Caffeine", no matter what i try, it does not work anymore.
Just throwing this at the CLI :

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File "/usr/bin/caffeine-indicator", line 34, in <module> from Xlib import display

[DukeComposed]

Just throwing this at the CLI :

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File "/usr/bin/caffeine-indicator", line 34, in <module> from Xlib import display

caffeine-indicator is a Python script, so you probably just need to add a dependency. I suspect a web search of the error message will provide a stackoverlow page outlining which Python package is needed. python3-xlib stands out as a possible culprit.

I turned on top, htop, xfce4-power-manager, and presentation mode and left a video playing on loop. After leaving it for two hours my laptop's CPU went up to 91C, but Xorg DRAM usage stayed about the same and actually dropped a little. Of course, I'm running Xfce on 16 GB of DRAM and not Blackbox on 4 GB, so that may be a factor.

[h3kt0r]

Uninstalled "python3-xlib" then re-installed "caffeine" package with recommended dependencies.
This is the CLI output trying to run "Caffeine-indicator" :

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Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/caffeine-indicator", line 34, in <module>
    from Xlib import display
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/Xlib/display.py", line 26, in <module>
    from six import create_unbound_method
ImportError: cannot import name 'create_unbound_method' from 'six' (/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/six.py)

And this is the CLI output after trying to run "caffeine" :

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Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/caffeine", line 29, in <module>
    from ewmh import EWMH
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ewmh/__init__.py", line 3, in <module>
    from .ewmh import EWMH
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ewmh/ewmh.py", line 10, in <module>
    from Xlib import display, X, protocol
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/Xlib/display.py", line 26, in <module>
    from six import create_unbound_method
ImportError: cannot import name 'create_unbound_method' from 'six' (/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/six.py)

So, i've searched a little bit and found that : "The Python ImportError: cannot import name error occurs when an imported class is not accessible or is in a circular dependency."
Good to know. But i don't write Python code, so it won't help much in that case.

So, i've fired up "featherpad" and opened "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/six.py" to search for this string : "create_unbound_method".
I can confirm that it's nowhere to be found. There's no "create_unbound_method" in this file...

Going ahead to solve this exotic python mys(t)ery, i've found that :

Get defining class of unbound method object in Python 3
The concept of "unbound methods" has been removed from the language.
This was written in 2010. Almost 15 years ago.

The removal of unbound methods is documented here: http://docs.python.org/py3k/whatsnew/3.0.html#operators-and-special-methods

I need caffeine.

Perhaps even something stronger : "caffeine-ng"

Caffeing-ng (since 2014) started as a fork of [Caffeine 2.4], since the original version dropped support for the systray icon in favour of only automatic detection of fullscreen apps only, which turned to be a rather controversial decision.

The intention of this fork is to also evolve on its own, not only fixing issues, but also implemented missing features, when relevant.

Caffeine-ng was shortly know as Taurine, a play on its successor's name, since taurine is a known stimulant, commonly found in energy drinks. However, this name did not last, since the artwork would not match adequately, and changing it was undesirable.

Riiiight ! Let's install it :

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sudo apt install meson \
    python-gi-dev \
    python-dbus-dev \
    libgtk-3-dev \
    libnotify-dev \
    libappindicator3-dev \
    python3-click \
    python3-ewmh \
    python3-setproctitle \
    python3-pulsectl \
    git \
    scdoc

Nope :

E: Unable to locate package python3-pulsectl

Damn it ! Let's remove "python3-pulsectl" from the packages list and try again :

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libappindicator3-dev : Depends: libappindicator3-1 (= 0.4.92-8~mx21+1)
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Pffffff... No fun at all !

[h3kt0r]

Okay, so, i've found that this line :

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# Stop X from blanking
xset dpms 0 0 0 && xset s noblank && xset s off && xset -dpms &

inside my startup script was conflicting with "xfce-power-manager" and causing "Xorg" to eat up so much RAM.
Now, to fix caffeine failure to run on my system, i've found that this script does the job efficiently. Workaround.