[arch-general] Something wrong with firefox/thunderbird driving X cpu usage -> 100%

[mike cloaked]

On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 2:35 PM, Genes MailLists <lists at sapience.com> wrote:
> On 08/10/2012 12:41 AM, gt wrote:
>
>>
>> Why don't you guys try something like claws or sylpheed, if you are
>> having problem with thunderbird. I have used claws a couple of times
>> and I can say that it consumes minimal resources (for a graphical
>> client).
>>
>
>   Unless lots has changed recently, Claws is not really a great replacement
> for TB. In large part due to lack of html compose support (e.g. font control
> and tables can be pretty darn important for some). Evolution might be, tho
> it used to crash a lot - perhaps it has improved recently and is worth
> trying again.
>
>   I use a local imap server for local storage - even on my laptop - so I can
> change email clients with zero dependence on any clients local storage
> quirks.
>
>  I am running TB 17 - one thing worth checking is to ensure GLODA is turned
> off (edit->prefs->advanced->general). This has caused terrible cpu and io
> activity for me in the past.
>
>  On my laptop, while roaming, if i lose connections - then sometimes TB
> re-checks and indexes things - which causes CPU spikes for a bit - but they
> go away.

Gene, your comment above about GLODA is an important one and one which
quite a few people seem not to be aware of - when TB first moved to
GLODA it was automatically switched on when updating TB from the
previous version - and caused me lots of CPU spikes at the time, and
indeed when it was re-indexing long periods of huge CPU usage - at
that time (way back from the current time) I switched off GLODA
permanently, and all the CPU usage issues went away - and I have never
had any problems since - and have never switched GLODA back on!

It might be an idea to try switching off GLODA and see if the CPU high
usage issues remain or not - if they go away then the likely culprit
was GLODA.

-- 
mike c