Twitch causes system to almost freeze

[cosmic303]

Hey everyone,
i recently noticed that I am sometimes hardly able to watch any streams on twitch because the cpu goes up to like 150% whenever I watch a stream on twitch.
This does not happen on any other streaming site, YouTube works perfectly fine.

It also doesn't matter, what browser I am using. I have tried Vivaldi stable, Vivaldi snapshot and Firefox.
I tried it with hardware acceleration disabled and enabled, nothing seems to help and i am running out of ideas.

Does anyone else have that issue or knows where I can check what is causing that behaviour?

I am using MX Linux 19.2 on a Toshiba Satellite C850 with an Intel i5 3230M and 8GB RAM.

Thanks in advance for any help.
If you need any further info, please let me know.

Best regards,
cosmic

[SwampRabbit]

Can you please provide your Quick System Info (QSI)?

It sounds like both those browsers are struggling to render.

You can try Chromium from the MX Package Installer > Popular Applications > Browsers.
For sure this supports hardware acceleration, its been extensively tested too.

Outside of that, your QSI will let us know if something else needs changed or updated.

[cosmic303]

Hi SwampRabbit,
thanks for the quick reply.
I just installed chromium as suggested, but the CPU still jumps up to 120% as soon as i start watching streams on twitch.

Here is my QSI:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: <filter>-mx Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.19.0-6-amd64 
           root=UUID=809dc74b-ab91-4438-8cd1-079d7c16108c ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 tk: Gtk 3.24.5 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
           Distro: MX-19.2_x64 patito feo October 21  2019 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: TOSHIBA product: SATELLITE PRO C850-1MX v: PSCBZE-00M009GR 
           serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Intel model: PLCSF8 v: Type2 - Board Version serial: <filter> 
           UEFI [Legacy]: Insyde v: 6.50 date: 03/25/2013 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 39.1 Wh condition: 39.1/48.4 Wh (81%) volts: 12.4/10.8 
           model: TKBSS NS2P3SZMC4WR type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
           Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse serial: <filter> 
           charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-3230M bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Ivy Bridge 
           family: 6 model-id: 3A (58) stepping: 9 microcode: 21 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 20752 
           Speed: 2499 MHz min/max: 1200/3200 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2994 2: 2993 3: 2993 
           4: 2993 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Split huge pages 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
           Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, 
           STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD Whistler LE [Radeon HD 6610M/7610M] 
           vendor: Toshiba America Info Systems driver: radeon v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 
           chip ID: 1002:6742 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa 
           resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD TURKS (DRM 2.50.0 / 4.19.0-6-amd64 LLVM 7.0.1) 
           v: 3.3 Mesa 18.3.6 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio 
           vendor: Toshiba America Info Systems driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
           chip ID: 8086:1e20 
           Device-2: AMD Turks HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6500/6600 / 6700M Series] 
           vendor: Toshiba America Info Systems driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 
           chip ID: 1002:aa90 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-6-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8723AE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter driver: rtl8723ae v: kernel 
           port: 3000 bus ID: 08:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8723 
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
           vendor: Toshiba America Info Systems driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 2000 
           bus ID: 09:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-3: AVM FRITZ WLAN N v2 [RT5572/rt2870.bin] type: USB driver: rt2800usb 
           bus ID: 1-1.2:6 chip ID: 057c:8501 serial: <filter> 
           IF: wlan1 state: up mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: tun0 state: unknown speed: 10 Mbps duplex: full mac: N/A 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 447.13 GiB used: 198.20 GiB (44.3%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: SanDisk model: Ultra II 480GB size: 447.13 GiB block size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 00RL scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 444.58 GiB size: 436.61 GiB (98.21%) used: 111.93 GiB (25.6%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0 
           ID-2: /boot raw size: 512.0 MiB size: 487.9 MiB (95.30%) used: 83.0 MiB (17.0%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 1.98 GiB used: 1024 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap 
           swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache pressure: 100 (default) dev: /dev/dm-1 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 89.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 76 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     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 buster-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teamviewer.list 
           1: deb http://linux.teamviewer.com/deb stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
           1: deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian buster contrib
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi-snapshot.list 
           1: deb http://repo.vivaldi.com/snapshot/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list 
           1: deb http://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:      Processes: 269 Uptime: 23h 17m Memory: 7.74 GiB used: 2.91 GiB (37.6%) Init: SysVinit 
           v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: quick-system-in 
           running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36 

[andyprough]

Hi SwampRabbit,
thanks for the quick reply.
I just installed chromium as suggested, but the CPU still jumps up to 120% as soon as i start watching streams on twitch.

I tried twitch today on firefox to see, and I also got a very high cpu usage. There are a huge number of complaints on reddit and other places about high cpu usage with twitch. One thread stated that twitch is compressing a lot more video info into their streams than a normal video service in order to serve the largest possible number of viewers. A common suggestion is to watch videos on your computer through vlc or mpv. I tried it, and got lower cpu usage of about 10% with vlc, and cpu usage of about 20% (but better video quality) with mpv.

To use vlc on a test video, I ran the following in a command line:

Code: Select all

vlc https://www.twitch.tv/tommyinnit

To use mpv, the command was

Code: Select all

mpv https://www.twitch.tv/tommyinnit

If you go this route, I would recommend using mpv, as the video is clearly superior to streaming through vlc.

[cosmic303]

Now this is really weird:

This is what "top" says, when i try as you suggested ... usually vlc doesn't eat more than like 15-20%.
With twitch, its instant 154,8%

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
27152 xxx 20 0 2308968 174852 90720 S 154,8 2,2 1:09.59 vlc

And this is mpv

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
29387 xxx 20 0 1937036 211108 70100 S 104,3 2,6 0:19.39 mpv

Doesn't make any sense, does it?

[Michael-IDA]

This won't help the cpu usage, but should keep the system from almost freezing. Add a nice to the command you watch twitch with (or the program you're using to browse with). Example(s):

Code: Select all

nice -n 1 mpv https://www.twitch.tv/tommyinnit
nice -n 3 palemoon %u  {<< edit the menu item}

If you have no other programs nice'd then 1 is fine, otherwise pick 1 above the most nice you already have.

Best,
Michael

[andyprough]

Now this is really weird:

This is what "top" says, when i try as you suggested ... usually vlc doesn't eat more than like 15-20%.
With twitch, its instant 154,8%

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
27152 xxx 20 0 2308968 174852 90720 S 154,8 2,2 1:09.59 vlc

And this is mpv

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
29387 xxx 20 0 1937036 211108 70100 S 104,3 2,6 0:19.39 mpv

Doesn't make any sense, does it?

Is your machine relatively new? I noticed you are using AMD graphics. Regular MX may not be advanced enough for you in terms of the kernel and mesa and other graphics packages - you may want to try upgrading to MX AHS - advanced hardware support. I'm thinking you may be able to just add the AHS repo and then apt update and apt upgrade but I'm not certain. I'll look for an answer.

UPDATE - according to this thread: viewtopic.php?f=104&t=59816&p=592147&hi ... hs#p592147
updating to AHS packages after adding the AHS repo should be possible. However, the first recommended actions would be:
1) upgrade to the 5.6.14 kernel from MX Package Installer, Popular Applications tab, 'Kernels' section. Try that newer kernel out and see if you get immediate improvement
2) try out MX AHS as a live usb environment with your hardware first, see how cpu usage looks with those videos there. If AHS makes it run like normal, you may want to consider re-installing with AHS or trying an upgrade to the rest of the AHS packages. Live ISO is here: https://mxlinux.org/torrent-files/

[Stevo]

The machine is older than 2013, at least...

I'm not sure how much that AMD GPU will benefit from va-api acceleration, to be honest. You can can try "vainfo" in the terminal to see what codecs it supports. Twitch may be using a newer one like vp9 that wasn't even thought of back in 2013.

Our Chromium does support va-api, but not out of the box. It takes some setup and configuration, and you would have to force the provider to give you a stream with a supported codec, such as using h264ify to make youtube provide that codec instead of their default vp9 for older machines. Va-api also does not work for DRM'd streams like you might get with Netflix, as far as I know.

You can add the CPU Graph plugin to the XFCE panel to monitor CPU use in real time. Our KDE edition already has a similar widget on the panel.

[cosmic303]

Hey everyone,
yeah the machine is not really new, not sure when I exactly bought it, but 2013 sounds about right.
I just tried installing that new kernel via the MX Installer and got the following error messages:

E: Paket linux-image-5.6.0-2-amd64-unsigned kann nicht gefunden werden.
E: Mittels des Musters »linux-image-5.6.0-2-amd64-unsigned« konnte kein Paket gefunden werden.
E: Mittels regulärem Ausdruck »linux-image-5.6.0-2-amd64-unsigned« konnte kein Paket gefunden werden.
E: Paket linux-headers-5.6.0-2-amd64 kann nicht gefunden werden.
E: Mittels des Musters »linux-headers-5.6.0-2-amd64« konnte kein Paket gefunden werden.
E: Mittels regulärem Ausdruck »linux-headers-5.6.0-2-amd64« konnte kein Paket gefunden werden.

Basically it says, that the packages could not be found.

Also here is the output of vainfo:

Code: Select all

$ vainfo
libva info: VA-API version 1.4.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/r600_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_4
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.4 (libva 2.4.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Mesa Gallium driver 18.3.6 for AMD TURKS (DRM 2.50.0 / 4.19.0-6-amd64, LLVM 7.0.1)
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Simple              :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Main                :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline:	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileNone                   :	VAEntrypointVideoProc

Fun fact: Right now, i dont have any issues. I am watching a stream on twitch, and the cpu is at 25% usage with vivaldi stable.
I wasn't able to watch streams all night just yesterday when I started this thread :(

UPDATE: False alarm. I just switched to a different streamer and i am back to over 100% CPU usage.
I can't even reproduce the problem, its so annoying.

[andyprough]

Hey everyone,
yeah the machine is not really new, not sure when I exactly bought it, but 2013 sounds about right.
I just tried installing that new kernel via the MX Installer and got the following error messages:

E: Paket linux-image-5.6.0-2-amd64-unsigned kann nicht gefunden werden.
E: Mittels des Musters »linux-image-5.6.0-2-amd64-unsigned« konnte kein Paket gefunden werden.
E: Mittels regulärem Ausdruck »linux-image-5.6.0-2-amd64-unsigned« konnte kein Paket gefunden werden.
E: Paket linux-headers-5.6.0-2-amd64 kann nicht gefunden werden.
E: Mittels des Musters »linux-headers-5.6.0-2-amd64« konnte kein Paket gefunden werden.
E: Mittels regulärem Ausdruck »linux-headers-5.6.0-2-amd64« konnte kein Paket gefunden werden.

Basically it says, that the packages could not be found.

You need the header package. Go to MX Package Installer, MX Test Repo tab, and install the packages linux-headers-5.6.0-2-amd64 and linux-image-5.6.0-2-amd64-unsigned. That will pull in the kernel, the kernel header package, and the kernel common package and will update grub for you. Reboot, and you should then boot into the 5.6 kernel.

If it doesn't help, you can uninstall those packages and return to the regular 4.19 MX kernel by selecting the same two packages on the same MXPI tab and clicking 'Uninstall' at the bottom.