Electron CPU usage

[wtidwell]

@mibafz00
Forgive me if this is dumb, but couldn’t you just delete the electron folder and reinstall a specific version with

Npm install electron@version?

[Mykle1]

Some mention here of high CPU usage. Maybe electron IS the culprit

https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/

electron v1.7.6 beta
@electron-bot electron-bot released this 24 days ago · 233 commits to master since this release

Bug Fixes

Fixed query string parsing in PDF Viewer #10008
Fixed crash that occurred when loading URL in detached WebContents #9819
Fixed issues around update permissions and non-admin users #10071
Fixed chrome storage access scope to be shared across domains #9951
Fixed content scripts matches #10075
Fixed bug that returned an object instead of an empty string when reading from an empty asar file with ‘utf8’ option #10160
Prevented async tasks from crashing after the Node environment is destroyed #10099
Linux

Fixed issue where opening menu would cause high CPU usage on certain Linux distributions #10070

[djsunrise19]

Input from my side: I checked the issues with electron 1.8 beta. Same problems.

[roramirez]

@pedroken said in Electron CPU usage:

I’ll try to use @Mykle1 's version of electron. I`ll google it (how to). Never did it.

Well, you let we know if with that version of Electron is fixed the CPU usage. You can modified by hand the package.json to say to npm what version to install of Electron.

[djsunrise19]

My two cents again ;): My electron pakackage.json version is v.1.6.10. I made a downgrade to v1.4.15. Code says “invalid”. But the installation seems to work? Do you guys know, where I can check the installed electron version?

No effect. 55% CPU and very sluggish (256MB GPU Memory):

[Mykle1]

@djsunrise19 said in Electron CPU usage:

Do you guys know, where I can check the installed electron version?

You can see the installed version in this file MagicMirror/node_modules/electron/dist/version

[djsunrise19]

@Mykle1 Thanks. Yes, v1.4.15.

[Mykle1]

@djsunrise19 said in Electron CPU usage:

Thanks. Yes, v1.4.15.

I just had a thought (miracle). What version of MM is everyone using?

My Pi3 B mirror is running MM version 2.1.0. I’ve had no reason to update it. It’s rock solid

[djsunrise19]

@Mykle1 said in Electron CPU usage:

@djsunrise19 said in Electron CPU usage:

Thanks. Yes, v1.4.15.

I just had a thought (miracle). What version of MM is everyone using?

My Pi3 B mirror is running MM version 2.1.0. I’ve had no reason to update it. It’s rock solid

I had this problems since the new MM2 Version. Very long so. But my version is the newest one. 2.1.2 I think.

[Mykle1]

@djsunrise19 said in Electron CPU usage:

I had this problems since the new MM2 Version. Very long so. But my version is the newest one. 2.1.2 I think.

uh oh! So you DIDN’T have this problem before the new version?

[SashMare]

Hi.

I made a downgrade Electron from v1.7.15 to v1.4.15.
CPU load up to 320% is gone.

Hardware: BCM2835
Revision: a22082
MagicMirror: 2.1.2

[wtidwell]

@SashMare @Mykle1 my
I also downgraded electron to 1.4.15 and I’m seeing dramatically improved performance!

[djsunrise19]

@wtidwell said in Electron CPU usage:

@SashMare @Mykle1 my
I also downgraded electron to 1.4.15 and I’m seeing dramatically improved performance!

Do you have some CPU load Screenshots? As I read, around 55% is to high too.

[wtidwell]

@djsunrise19
Not on hand but I’m seeing in the mid 20’s with newsfeed animations

[Mykle1]

@wtidwell said in Electron CPU usage:

I also downgraded electron to 1.4.15 and I’m seeing dramatically improved performance!

Well, that’s good news! :^)

[Mykle1]

You guys are both running MM 2.1.2? There has been some mention that this problem arose after the upgrade. My Pi3 B mirror is still running MM 2.1.0. :-/

Just a thought.

[mibafz00]

@Mykle1
Today, I tried the following:

MM 2.1.2 + Electron 1.7.5 --> CPU 100% during transitions

MM 2.1.2 + Electron 1.4.15 --> problem still there, CPU 100% during transitions

MM 2.1.0 + Electron 1.7.5 --> problem still there, CPU 100% during transitions

MM 2.1.0 + Electron 1.4.15 --> problem (probably) gone, CPU 40% during transitions

So i guess you have to downgrade both, MM and electron…!?

[Mykle1]

@mibafz00 said in Electron CPU usage:

MM 2.1.0 + Electron 1.4.15 --> problem (probably) gone, CPU 40% during transitions

I’m curious. What is the CPU load at rest, when no transitions are executing?

In any case, that’s a good amount of testing on your part, and hopefully it will lead to a final diagnosis of the problem.

[djsunrise19]

Today, I tried a few things, too. Perhaps my results could be helpful for us. Sorry, this will be a long post ;). I have following the devices:

• Raspberry 3 Model B - my standard mirror device
• Asus Tinker Board
• odroid C2 (ARM64)

Software Versions MM:

• MM v2.1.2 on all devices

Electron Versions:

• Raspberry 3 Model B (v1.6.11)
• Asus Tinker Board (v1.4.15) but v1.6.11 works the same
• odroid C2 (ARM64) (v.1.8.0 - because of the x64; I uninstalled spectron, because there is no x64 support)

Configs:

• Standard (Calendar, Compliments, Newsfeed, Clock)
• MyConfig (Calendar, Compliments, Newsfeed, Clock, Todoist, Sonos, Netatmo, WheaterUnderground, Stocks, Reiseauskunft, Strava); here, cpu usage is a little bit higher, but the behaviour is the same.

The 100% usage topic seems to be a electron problem and I think it can be solved with some downgrades of MM2 and electron. v.1.7.5 seems to be bad. Whatever, here is what I found out:

1. nmon with the ATB (v1.7.5 electron here) and default config:
   
   CPU usage while transitions is very high. Lagging!

2. nmon with the ATB (v1.4.15 electron here) and default config:
   
   CPU usage is better but, to be honest, way to high for transitions (cpu peaks). And still some small lags.

3. nmon with the odroid and default config:
   
   The best result. but still peaks while the transitions. Some lags here, too.

So, here is my actual config:
4) nmon with the Raspberry 3 Model B and MyConfig:

Same here, still lags.

The last thing I tried was very interesting. I opened my chromium on the ATB and put the webadress from my Raspberry 3 Model B device in it. So I openend that Rapsberry 3 Model B MM2 on my ATB. And that happens:

Absolutely smooth, no peaks at all.

BTW: My Raspberry 3 Model didn’t have any more cpu usage while that process.

Can anybody tell us, WHY?

[A Former User]

@djsunrise19
As I see, rendering engine of electron seems to be the reason of whole of thing. Electron has its own v8 and renderer. I doubt it goes worse on some late version. I don’t know why, but there is few things we could do.

Report this to electron, wait a patch. Or downgrade or… turn off the animation.