6 ms·

New Google ChromeOS updates cause 100% CPU usage, heating issues

93 points by headalgorithm 6y ago

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
tyingq 6y ago
From the bug report[1] "E KernelUidCpuFreqTimeReader: Failed to read /proc/uid_time_in_state: java.io.FileNotFoundException:" So, sort of because of missing files, but more about ignoring an exception and running on into code that's probably looping. [1] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1132459 https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=113245...
- tibbydudeza 6y ago
  Odd as I don't find such a proc interface in my Ubuntu WSL. It seems to be Android specific.
  - cesarb 6y ago
    I see no reference to that file in a checkout of the upstream Linux kernel I had here, and I never saw that file in /proc in any Linux system I've played with, but looking at my phone (with Termux) I do see that file. I agree, it seems to be Android specific.
  - tyingq 6y ago
    It's filed as a ChromeOS bug...Chromebooks and family.
    - snazz 6y ago
      So if it doesn't exist in regular Linux or ChromeOS, then it must be an Android feature that was accidentally enabled in non-Android builds.
- jeffbee 6y ago
  It seems the class in question exists in Android 8 and not but not 10 or 11. https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/refs/tags/android-9.0.0_r60/core/java/com/android/internal/os/KernelUidCpuFreqTimeReader.java https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/...
- innagadadavida 6y ago
  Should this type of problem be caught reliably during QA or were there any rare conditions that triggered it?
Animats 6y ago
...Google Play 'com.android.vending:download_service' suddenly utilizing 95-100% of the CPU for an extended period. Of course, Google gave their vending product the privilege of running in background. Because it's important.
- tehlike 6y ago
  play store should probably run in the background as part of updating apps. What's _really_ wrong about it?
  - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
    Animats is pointing out that Google has interfered with many apps from running in the background for performance reasons. But Google always special-cases their own apps and gives them extreme privileges on your device, because Google can do no wrong.
    - jeffbee 6y ago
      It's still a stupid take even after you restated it. The system has background processes. If it did not, nothing would work.
      - Animats 6y ago
        Android (unlike IOS?) seems to have launch-on-push capabilities.[1] That's how updating presumably should be handled. The updater doesn't need to be alive in background when idle. [1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50368716/how-to-automatically-open-app-when-receive-push-notification https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50368716/how-to-automati...
userbinator 6y ago
I wonder how much software issues like this cause people to unnecessarily throw away perfectly functional hardware and buy new, given that ChromeOS is heavily targeted towards the non-technical and non-computer-literate. I've personally fixed a few systems that I got for free because they were "broken", by simply reinstalling the OS.
- vilifiedtwin 6y ago
  I think these kind of things should be taught in schools from young age, so that people would have some understanding why some things happen they way they happen (for example why could laptop that has worked perfectly fine become barely usable after few months) and strategies of critical thinking. I am pretty sure there would be at least one person in the room when such decisions happen saying that, but there will be another person saying: What about the economy? Some people unfortunately still believe in broken window parable - that if people could fix their own laptops, then economy would collapse, but they don't think how much people could get progress with their goals if they didn't have to spend money on a new laptop every time it slows down.
  - bobthepanda 6y ago
    The problem with this is that kids have limited attention span and there are only so many hours in a school day and so many hours of homework. In recent decades (at least in the US) we have already gutted civics and home economics completely, and effectively gutted arts and music programs, in the pursuit of STEM and looking good on PISA rankings. What else are we going to eliminate for this new requirement?
    - userbinator 6y ago
      I would think basic computer literacy should be included in "the pursuit of STEM" itself, but instead it turned into having masses of students who have next to no interest in, and can barely turn on a computer, being forced into "learn to code" classes...
makecheck 6y ago
It’s actually kind of amazing just how small of a problem can cause a high-CPU bug. For example, decrementing an unsigned integer to get to a gazillion when you thought you were near zero. And with 64-bit variables being more common, the wrap-around value is a hell of a lot bigger so you could tee up a ton of extra CPU work from something like this. I like to add sanity checks to loops that force them to break after some “clearly unreasonable” amount, and other such guards, just in case.
- SCHiM 6y ago
  That wrap around is very often even a security vulnerability. The common usage pattern in low level C is: if (attacker_size == 0) return SizeError; char* string_buffer = malloc(attacker_size+1); // oops, string_buffer could be 0 sized. memcpy(string_buffer, attacker_buffer, attacker_size); This caused huge security issues, 2 separate times. The first time was when attackers started understanding integer overflow attacks. The second time was when codebases switched from 32 to 64 bit. The last one is more tricky. But I have seen code 'ported' (that I think looked) like this: uint64_t attacker_size = ...; if ( attacker_size == 0 || attacker_size == UINT64_MAX) return SizeError; uint32_t string_size = ((uint32_t)attacker_size+1)*2; // Oops, overflow on 32 bit register, string_size = 0; // etc
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- type0 6y ago
  > decrementing an unsigned integer to get to a gazillion only until you reach googol, then it should be fine /s
jeffbee 6y ago
Gah, I've been wondering what's wrong with my Pixelbook Go all day. It sucks that they identified this issue by Friday but didn't stop the release.
somerandomboi 6y ago
Well I use a Debian virtual machine on my Acer Chromebook, I completely avoided this by not updating Chrome OS. Still, it appears as though this could have been solved with a C program in Crosh? Actually a comment referenced this, nevermind.
nshm 6y ago
Same in chrome on macbook, suddenly it starts to eat 200% cpu and only chrome restart helps. Battery is killed already. Did anyone notice that?
sunstone 6y ago
My chromeOS updates recently have been sketchy. It's almost like they're pushing daily updates or something. In particular the sleep/wake process has gone completely bonkers, it's like it completely restarts on every cycle. I'm hoping for stability to return sometime soon though it's been a few weeks already.
A_No_Name_Mouse 6y ago
Just stop holding the spacebar or disable spacebar heating :-) https://xkcd.com/1172/ https://xkcd.com/1172/

93 points by headalgorithm 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

From the bug report[1] "E KernelUidCpuFreqTimeReader: Failed to read /proc/uid_time_in_state: java.io.FileNotFoundException:" So, sort of because of missing files, but more about ignoring an exception and running on into code that's probably looping. [1] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1132459 https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=113245...

tibbydudeza 6y ago
Odd as I don't find such a proc interface in my Ubuntu WSL. It seems to be Android specific.
- cesarb 6y ago
  I see no reference to that file in a checkout of the upstream Linux kernel I had here, and I never saw that file in /proc in any Linux system I've played with, but looking at my phone (with Termux) I do see that file. I agree, it seems to be Android specific.
- tyingq 6y ago
  It's filed as a ChromeOS bug...Chromebooks and family.
  - snazz 6y ago
    So if it doesn't exist in regular Linux or ChromeOS, then it must be an Android feature that was accidentally enabled in non-Android builds.
jeffbee 6y ago
It seems the class in question exists in Android 8 and not but not 10 or 11. https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/refs/tags/android-9.0.0_r60/core/java/com/android/internal/os/KernelUidCpuFreqTimeReader.java https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/...
innagadadavida 6y ago
Should this type of problem be caught reliably during QA or were there any rare conditions that triggered it?

Animats 6y ago

...Google Play 'com.android.vending:download_service' suddenly utilizing 95-100% of the CPU for an extended period. Of course, Google gave their vending product the privilege of running in background. Because it's important.

tehlike 6y ago
play store should probably run in the background as part of updating apps. What's _really_ wrong about it?
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago
  Animats is pointing out that Google has interfered with many apps from running in the background for performance reasons. But Google always special-cases their own apps and gives them extreme privileges on your device, because Google can do no wrong.
  - jeffbee 6y ago
    It's still a stupid take even after you restated it. The system has background processes. If it did not, nothing would work.
    - Animats 6y ago
      Android (unlike IOS?) seems to have launch-on-push capabilities.[1] That's how updating presumably should be handled. The updater doesn't need to be alive in background when idle. [1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50368716/how-to-automatically-open-app-when-receive-push-notification https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50368716/how-to-automati...

userbinator 6y ago

I wonder how much software issues like this cause people to unnecessarily throw away perfectly functional hardware and buy new, given that ChromeOS is heavily targeted towards the non-technical and non-computer-literate. I've personally fixed a few systems that I got for free because they were "broken", by simply reinstalling the OS.

vilifiedtwin 6y ago
I think these kind of things should be taught in schools from young age, so that people would have some understanding why some things happen they way they happen (for example why could laptop that has worked perfectly fine become barely usable after few months) and strategies of critical thinking. I am pretty sure there would be at least one person in the room when such decisions happen saying that, but there will be another person saying: What about the economy? Some people unfortunately still believe in broken window parable - that if people could fix their own laptops, then economy would collapse, but they don't think how much people could get progress with their goals if they didn't have to spend money on a new laptop every time it slows down.
- bobthepanda 6y ago
  The problem with this is that kids have limited attention span and there are only so many hours in a school day and so many hours of homework. In recent decades (at least in the US) we have already gutted civics and home economics completely, and effectively gutted arts and music programs, in the pursuit of STEM and looking good on PISA rankings. What else are we going to eliminate for this new requirement?
  - userbinator 6y ago
    I would think basic computer literacy should be included in "the pursuit of STEM" itself, but instead it turned into having masses of students who have next to no interest in, and can barely turn on a computer, being forced into "learn to code" classes...

makecheck 6y ago

It’s actually kind of amazing just how small of a problem can cause a high-CPU bug. For example, decrementing an unsigned integer to get to a gazillion when you thought you were near zero. And with 64-bit variables being more common, the wrap-around value is a hell of a lot bigger so you could tee up a ton of extra CPU work from something like this. I like to add sanity checks to loops that force them to break after some “clearly unreasonable” amount, and other such guards, just in case.

SCHiM 6y ago
That wrap around is very often even a security vulnerability. The common usage pattern in low level C is: if (attacker_size == 0) return SizeError; char* string_buffer = malloc(attacker_size+1); // oops, string_buffer could be 0 sized. memcpy(string_buffer, attacker_buffer, attacker_size); This caused huge security issues, 2 separate times. The first time was when attackers started understanding integer overflow attacks. The second time was when codebases switched from 32 to 64 bit. The last one is more tricky. But I have seen code 'ported' (that I think looked) like this: uint64_t attacker_size = ...; if ( attacker_size == 0 || attacker_size == UINT64_MAX) return SizeError; uint32_t string_size = ((uint32_t)attacker_size+1)*2; // Oops, overflow on 32 bit register, string_size = 0; // etc
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
type0 6y ago
> decrementing an unsigned integer to get to a gazillion only until you reach googol, then it should be fine /s

jeffbee 6y ago

Gah, I've been wondering what's wrong with my Pixelbook Go all day. It sucks that they identified this issue by Friday but didn't stop the release.

somerandomboi 6y ago

Well I use a Debian virtual machine on my Acer Chromebook, I completely avoided this by not updating Chrome OS. Still, it appears as though this could have been solved with a C program in Crosh? Actually a comment referenced this, nevermind.

nshm 6y ago

Same in chrome on macbook, suddenly it starts to eat 200% cpu and only chrome restart helps. Battery is killed already. Did anyone notice that?

sunstone 6y ago

My chromeOS updates recently have been sketchy. It's almost like they're pushing daily updates or something. In particular the sleep/wake process has gone completely bonkers, it's like it completely restarts on every cycle. I'm hoping for stability to return sometime soon though it's been a few weeks already.

A_No_Name_Mouse 6y ago

Just stop holding the spacebar or disable spacebar heating :-) https://xkcd.com/1172/ https://xkcd.com/1172/