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**lmilano** · Sep 30, 2009, 07:19 AM

Re: Flash causing 100% CPU use

Yes, flash + FF is hit and miss. Konqueror and flash too. What I do is just find my way around:

1. On one of my systems, FF3.3 was working better than FF3.5, so I stayed there, on another system is the opposite.
2. Konqueror is more prone to hanging at 100% cpu
3. I built a 3 core system (for very little money) so I can still have a fully responsive system if a browser plugin goes mad.
4. Some times closing and reopening the browser does it.
5. At work i need to use windows xp (the only windows in my life) and Firefox has serious issues with the adobe plugin
6. Some times it takes [ctrl][esc] to open the system processes window and kill the hang process

It is not clear to me if the culprit is the browser or the plugin provider, I think it's the plugin itself but it seems that the same plugin can work better with some particular versions of the same browser, so it might be more complicated ...

**Detonate** · Sep 30, 2009, 07:30 AM

Re: Flash causing 100% CPU use

I have the same problem, it does not always happen. And it only happens on my 64 machine. It keeps running even after you close FF. CPU is at 100% and temp starts shooting up. Have to kill the process npviewer.bin to get things back to normal.

**Telengard** · Sep 30, 2009, 10:16 AM

Re: Flash causing 100% CPU use

On my Kubuntu 8.04 system I had problems with Adobe Flash locking up on Konqueror. Because YouTube and almost all other video sites use Flash, I switched to Firefox. Firefox does occasionally crash while running Flash applets, but only rarely.

The problem I now have with Flash is that it uses a huge amount of CPU, though not always 100%. High CPU usage means fullscreen video on YouTube does not work well at all. Depending on the video, I sometimes only get a static picture.

Researching these problems on the web led me to a couple of conclusions:

- Everyone agress that Adobe Flash is buggy and a huge resource hog, at least on Linux.
- Adobe doesn't give a crap about any browsers besides IE and FF.

Macromedia Flash used to be an effective, lightweight way to provide animations and interactivity on the web. The Adobe era has brought bloat and feature creep in a big way.

Nowadays Flash and Flash video ubiquitous on all kinds of web sites. It would be so much better if we had a true standard and serious Free Software contenders. If I believed Gnash were a usable replacement I would gladly switch.

**lmilano** · Sep 30, 2009, 11:24 AM

Re: Flash causing 100% CPU use

@Telegard:

A couple comments:

When using an Applet, you can right click and configure Adobe's Flash. Is hardware acceleration enabled for you? It might be using the cpu rather than the gpu.

I believe Gnash "is getting there" lately, but not quite there. I hope it keeps moving forward, too!

Good point about Adobe. Their PDF reader is a 100 freakin MB download in Linux! I am glad they are at least giving binary support in Linux (which is infinitely better than no support). But hey!

**Zeikcied** · Sep 30, 2009, 12:04 PM

Re: Flash causing 100% CPU use

Flash doesn't make Firefox hang, and I've had no crashing issues or anything. Just the CPU use jumps up to 100%.

I think this has only really been happening with Flash 10. Maybe a little with Flash 9. I know Flash 8 didn't really have this problem. It could also be an issue with KDE 4.2 and 4.3. I really don't know. I don't remember when this all started. I'm pretty sure Flash didn't have this issue on my machine this whole time. Just in the past several months. Maybe near the beginning of the year or the end of last year.

My fear with Gnash is that it may have the same CPU use issue when it's at the point of being a near perfect Flash Player replacement. I don't know if it will or not, and I don't know why Adobe's player has issues on certain Linux systems and not others.

I just want to know how I can stop Adobe's Flash Player from taking up so much resources. Like I said, there are several solutions on Ubuntuforums, but I don't know if there may be problems and solutions specific to KDE 4.3. (I think the solutions on Ubuntuforums are mainly geared toward GNOME users, and I don't know if they would necessarily work the same in KDE.)

**Telengard** · Sep 30, 2009, 12:20 PM

Re: Flash causing 100% CPU use

Originally posted by Zeikcied

Flash doesn't make Firefox hang, and I've had no crashing issues or anything. Just the CPU use jumps up to 100%.

Your experience is not unique; just search the forums.

I think this has only really been happening with Flash 10.

By my recollection some people reported better results with Flash 10, others worse.

It could also be an issue with KDE 4.2 and 4.3.

The various problems with Adobe Flash are not confined to KDE 4. I am a KDE 3.5 user, and even GNOME users have problems.

I just want to know how I can stop Adobe's Flash Player from taking up so much resources.

I doubt that anyone knows, especially because Adobe Flash is not Free. Even if the community can find the problems with the plug-in, we still must rely upon Adobe to fix it. IMHO the best you can hope for is some obscure work-around.

**Telengard** · Sep 30, 2009, 12:23 PM

Re: Flash causing 100% CPU use

Originally posted by lmilano

@Telegard:
When using an Applet, you can right click and configure Adobe's Flash. Is hardware acceleration enabled for you? It might be using the cpu rather than the gpu.

I want to give this a try. I'll edit this post later to let you know what I found.

Edit:

I am running Kubuntu 8.04.3 with KDE 3.5.10.
I am using Firefox 3.0.14 with Adobe Flash Player plug-in 10,0,22,87.
I have chosen this YouTube video as a test case.
I have closed all windows except Firefox with 1 tab, Kate, and KDE System Guard.

Initial CPU load without Firefox is about 16.7
CPU load with Firefox and an empty tab is about 16.7
CPU load with the video loaded but paused is about 28

For the tables below, the following abbreviations apply:

HW accel = The hardware accelleration option of the Adobe plug-in (enabled/disabled)
mode = Video mode (windowed/fullscreen)
HD = The HD button of the YouTube applet (enabled/disabled)
CPU = Approximate CPU load shown in KDE System Guard
FPS = My subjective guess at the Frames Per Second

HW accel: disabled
mode: windowed
HD: disbled
CPU: 88
FPS: watchable, but not great

HW accel: disabled
mode: fullscreen
HD: disabled
CPU: 98
FPS: 6-12 (video stutters)

HW accel: disabled
mode: windowed
HD: enabled
CPU: 99-100 (clearly pegging)
FPS: 0.5 (video and sound stutter)

HW accel: disabled
mode: fullscreen
HD: enabled
CPU: 99-100 (clearly pegging)
FPS: 0.3 - 0.5 (video and audo stutter, video lags audio)

HW accel: enabled
mode: windowed
HD: disabled
CPU: 88
FPS: watchable, but not great

Well, the rest of the results are pretty much the same. There is no noticeable difference with HW accel enabled.

**KeithZG** · Sep 30, 2009, 03:35 PM

Re: Flash causing 100% CPU use

Originally posted by Telengard

Nowadays Flash and Flash video ubiquitous on all kinds of web sites. It would be so much better if we had a true standard and serious Free Software contenders.

We almost did have a true standard with HTML5's video tag; nonetheless we do have *some* working implementations anyways. using entirely Free Software methods. Example, http://openvideo.dailymotion.com

**vinnywright** · Sep 30, 2009, 07:09 PM

Re: Flash causing 100% CPU use

ok Telengard looks like a good compareson chart

so I'm copying it and filling in the #'s as thay come to me.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I am running Kubuntu 9.04 with KDE 4.3.1
I am using Firefox 3.0.14 with Adobe Flash Player plug-in 10,0,32,18
I have chosen this YouTube video as a test case.
I have closed all windows except Firefox with 3 tab's,System Monitor 2.26.0.1 and a extra konsole

O and I'm in Gnome KDE has ben freezeing on me as of late

Initial CPU load without Firefox is about ? dident check
CPU load with Firefox and 2 forum tab's and sys monitor is about CPU1-20% and CPU2-11%
CPU load with the video loaded but paused is about CPU1-25% and CPU2-15%

For the tables below, the following abbreviations apply:

HW accel = The hardware accelleration option of the Adobe plug-in (enabled/disabled)
mode = Video mode (windowed/fullscreen)
HD = The HD button of the YouTube applet (enabled/disabled)
CPU = Approximate CPU load shown in System Monitor 2.26.0.1
FPS = My subjective guess at the Frames Per Second

first change I cant ajust the flash setings but it's stuck on hardware accelleration on.......the setings box coms up but is unresponsive and wont close ....had to reload the page to clear it.

HW accel: on
mode: windowed
HD: disbled
CPU-1 90% CPU-2 80%
FPS: just fine

HW accel: on
mode: fullscreen
HD: disabled
CPU-1 90% CPU-2 90%
FPS: just fine

HW accel: on
mode: windowed
HD: enabled
CPU-1 60% CPU-2 90+
FPS: just fine

HW accel: on
mode: fullscreen
HD: enabled
CPU-1 70%CPU-2 95-100 (clearly pegging)
FPS: (video stutter,) cpu fan throtaling up

HW accel: on
mode: windowed
HD: disabled
CPU-1 60+ CPU-2 60+.....strang it's lower than the first run?
FPS: just fine

he he and the last set held stedey with the 3 windows in that cool mirored slide switch moad compiz - shift>meta>s he he....
now my net is slow so I had to paws it and let some cake up first then all is well

VINNY

**Zeikcied** · Sep 30, 2009, 08:29 PM

Re: Flash causing 100% CPU use

Originally posted by Telengard

Originally posted by Zeikcied

Flash doesn't make Firefox hang, and I've had no crashing issues or anything. Just the CPU use jumps up to 100%.

Your experience is not unique; just search the forums.

I think this has only really been happening with Flash 10.

By my recollection some people reported better results with Flash 10, others worse.

It could also be an issue with KDE 4.2 and 4.3.

The various problems with Adobe Flash are not confined to KDE 4. I am a KDE 3.5 user, and even GNOME users have problems.

I just want to know how I can stop Adobe's Flash Player from taking up so much resources.

I doubt that anyone knows, especially because Adobe Flash is not Free. Even if the community can find the problems with the plug-in, we still must rely upon Adobe to fix it. IMHO the best you can hope for is some obscure work-around.

I know it's a common problem and isn't just confined to KDE. But I don't know if it's all one cause, or several different causes with the same result. Like one thing in KDE causes the problem, but something different in GNOME causes it. I have no idea. I'm just guessing. I don't really want to go trying out a dozen workarounds and really screwing something up in the process. I'm far from a Linux expert, so I like to avoid messing with my configuration too much.

**josefko** · Oct 01, 2009, 03:30 AM

Re: Flash causing 100% CPU use

I would try to workaround the problem by using Firefox plugin mediaplayerconnectivity, which allows to play flash videos on line in external player like VLC.

**Zeikcied** · Oct 01, 2009, 09:42 AM

Re: Flash causing 100% CPU use

Originally posted by josefko

I would try to workaround the problem by using Firefox plugin mediaplayerconnectivity, which allows to play flash videos on line in external player like VLC.

But that only works with sites like YouTube and stuff, right? It wouldn't help if I want to play Flash games.

**KeithZG** · Oct 09, 2009, 01:53 PM

Re: Flash causing 100% CPU use

Originally posted by Zeikcied

Originally posted by josefko

I would try to workaround the problem by using Firefox plugin mediaplayerconnectivity, which allows to play flash videos on line in external player like VLC.

But that only works with sites like YouTube and stuff, right? It wouldn't help if I want to play Flash games.

Sadly it would not

That being said, you don't happen to have a Cowon D2? Okay, strange question I know, but it's my own favourite mp3-player, and it just so happens that it can natively run flash. So I actually have a number of flash games on it that I play on the go, just ripped out of webpages. Okay, it's a bit out there as a suggestion, but I just noticed this thread in my "unread replies" listings while literally playing a flash-based game on my Cowon D2 that very moment, heh.

**Detonate** · Oct 09, 2009, 02:31 PM

Re: Flash causing 100% CPU use

As I said earlier, this is on my machines definitely a 64 bit problem and it does not occur on my 32 bit machines. So if this is a big problem for you, see if running the 32 bit version of the OS will work for you.

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