protonscr

Client uses 100% CPU every seven seconds (spawning lots of processes)

steamclosed Steam client
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#6603 · opened 2019-10-20 by anohren · updated 2019-11-18 · 4 comments · github
Aanohren 2019-10-20 github

Your system information

  • Steam client version (build number or date): latest as of october 19
  • Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Ubuntu 19.10
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: No
  • Have you checked for system updates?: Yes

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Describe what you expected should happen:

The steam client either A) takes up as little system resources as possible, or B) is possible to quit when running a game, i.e. optional.

...and what did happen:

The steam client is completely saturating the CPU every seven (7) seconds, even when no windows are on screen. Even when playing a game. This makes the game unplayable since it stutters every seven seconds.

  • These CPU spikes go away as soon as the Steam client has quit.
  • Same symptoms on both Ubuntu 19.10 (fresh install) and Xubuntu 19.04
  • They don't go away by quitting the running game.
  • They don't go away from rebooting.
  • They don't go away from OS updates.

Problems that coincide with this bug: I was unable to access the Steam Support page in-client (it showed a spinner and a black page) as well as the Store page (same symptoms). Actually the only top level section of the client that I could access was the Library, with all other pages resulting in a spinner and a black page. I don't know if that's relevant.

I later noticed that Steam is creating and terminating at least 7 new processes every seven seconds, coinciding with the CPU spikes and general slowdown. I'll attach a screenshot if it helps.

Steps for reproducing this issue:

  1. Launch Steam
  2. Observe the effects in the system monitor graph, alternatively by filtering all processes with the "steam" keyword
Aanohren 2019-10-31 github

Images.

Processes spawned
Screenshot from 2019-10-19 21-37-43

Constant CPU spikes
Screenshot from 2019-10-31 13-33-53

All sections of client are black now, including the library
Screenshot from 2019-10-31 13-40-44

Aanohren 2019-11-05 github

Terminal output repeated at the time of CPU spikes:

STEAM_RUNTIME_HEAVY: ./steam-runtime-heavy
Forced create but already created for SharedObjectEvent
STEAM_RUNTIME_HEAVY: ./steam-runtime-heavy
Forced create but already created for SharedObjectEvent
STEAM_RUNTIME_HEAVY: ./steam-runtime-heavy
Forced create but already created for SharedObjectEvent
STEAM_RUNTIME_HEAVY: ./steam-runtime-heavy
Forced create but already created for SharedObjectEvent
STEAM_RUNTIME_HEAVY: ./steam-runtime-heavy
Forced create but already created for SharedObjectEvent
STEAM_RUNTIME_HEAVY: ./steam-runtime-heavy
Forced create but already created for SharedObjectEvent
STEAM_RUNTIME_HEAVY: ./steam-runtime-heavy
Forced create but already created for SharedObjectEvent
Aanohren 2019-11-05 github

Any workaround for this? The client is unusable in this state.

Aanohren 2019-11-05 github

Never mind. I felt I needed to solve this myself in the absence of any feedback here or help from Steam support.

I commented out this line in steamwebhelper.sh like so:

#./steamwebhelper "$@"

There, that wasn't so hard. No more performance problems. It's not like the web helper succeeded in helping to render any web content anyway.

Nothing extracted yet.