100 Percent CPU Usage

[Teksonik]

Recently I've been having an issue with the CPU demand holding at 100% for long periods. I've been getting error messages when trying to do normal updates something about "Can Not Obtain Lock". Does that sound familiar? Any idea what the issue could be? (19.04 64 Bit).

I've got a USB stick set up to reinstall but I've done a bunch of customization to my current install so I'd like to try one more time to fix it before over writing and starting fresh.

Thanks in advance for any help !

[Snowhog]

Would be helpful to know what PC you have (Laptop, Desktop, Make/Model, Hardware (GPU, RAM size, etc.)).

[Don B. Cilly]

Try opening a konsole window ad typing top when you see it.
See what the top processes are.
Also typing free in another would give you an idea of how your RAM is doing.

And knowing what sort of hardware you have Kubuntu installed on could be helpful (like how much RAM you have).

About the "something about Can Not Obtain Lock", it could be an instance of two separate apps attempting to use apt/dpkg... a more precise error would help too.

Of course, if you used something like this, it would be easier to diagnose ;·)

[Teksonik]

System specs are irrelevant since this issue did not occur in the past. The system was running Kubuntu just fine until recently. This issue only started recently and I have a feeling that it has something to do with the update problems (Can Not Obtain Lock). I think there was a botched update. I see a lot of entries for "Akandi" in system monitor. I tried to uninstall KMail and KOrganizer but can't uninstall software due to the Can Not Obtain Lock issue.

Anyway thanks for the help I'll try some of the suggestions that Don gave but the problem is the system has become almost totally unresponsive due to the high CPU usage (I'm on a Win 10 system now). I'll probably just reinstall Kubuntu. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again.

[Don B. Cilly]

Try removing the lock on dpkg.

[claydoh]

The cpu usage and the lock issue are likely 100% unrelated.
apt in Debian-like systems use so-called lock files that prevent more than one instance of a package manager from running at the same time. If the lock file is present, Discover or apt will not perform any installation or removal tasks at all, so there probably is not any 'botched update'. This goes for all GUI and command line tools. Sometimes, these lock files are not removed when things are finished up. It can also happen temporarily if the system is doing an automatic check for updates while you open Discover or try to run apt. Usually, the error gives the specific file that is the culprit, but perhaps from the GUI tool, the full error message is not displayed.

To see it, you can use the terminal to see it:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

You will see the full error message, which you can copy and paste here, and we can make sure you delete the offending file.

[claydoh]

As to 100% cpu, that could be all sorts of things. You can use the System Monitor tool to see, or if it is being slow, top on the command line can show which thing is sucking up the cycles.

Does not mean a borked install, though of course reinstalling is quick, but you may end up seeing the same issue - you could have found a bug due to an update, perhaps. But for the 'lock' issue it is a super quick fix, and can happen for random reasons on any apt-based system.

The cpu could be from some addon, widget, or application you added. A common area to look at is the file indexer, which I never see, but seems a very common thing. So perhaps mentioning any customizations might help narrow things down, or help search for known issues on them.

[Teksonik]

Thanks guys, as a follow up I have reinstalled Kubuntu 19.04 and everything is running fine again. It's screaming fast. I'll let you know if the issue occurs again.