Electron CPU usage

Mykle1

Got a few spare SD cards so I installed a fresh new Jessie and MagicMirror-develop(which installed Electron 1.7.6). Well, I’m sad to report that Electron 1.7.6 gags on a default installation of MM. Using nmon for stats, Electron CPU usage soared over 225% every time there was a transition of both the Compliments module and the newsfeed module. When either made a transition by themselves, CPU usage was well over 140%. There was not much “at rest” time because newsfeed rotates pretty quickly by default. However, rare moments of “at rest” time showed near normal CPU usage of about 15%.

I did this as a test, to satisfy my own curiosity, because my Pi3 doesn’t have the issues discussed here. Using the same Pi3 that hosts my mirror, running Jessie and MM 2.1.0 and Electron 1.4.15, it performs amazingly well, with no outrageous CPU usage or heat issues (fan installed).

The same Pi3, with the newest develop installation of MM, which installs Electron 1.7.6, is hard pressed to handle the default of 4 modules adequately.

Needless to say, I’m going back to my original SD card, with Jessie, MM 2.1.0 and Electron 1.4.15

EventHorizon

@Mykle1 Brilliant work and testing mate :)

Mykle1

A few words of caution about Raspbian Stretch

I’ve been doing some testing recently, mostly concerning CPU usage with different versions of Raspian and MM. Once I got bluetooth to work, I continued testing with newer and newer versions, until I got to Raspbian Stretch.

The firmware update that accompanies Stretch disabled my Wifi and Bluetooth, and no amount of backward flashing to earlier firmware versions is fixing the issue. When I say disabled, I mean the Pi doesn’t recognize its own Wifi or Bluetooth adapter, as if it doesn’t have them. Google it BEFORE you attempt this upgrade.

r3z3

I’ve just downgrade to the electron@1.4.15 version : no more high CPU usage !
Thanks !

Mykle1

@r3z3 said in Electron CPU usage:

I’ve just downgrade to the electron@1.4.15 version : no more high CPU usage !
Thanks

That’s fantastic! I’m really happy with the results of this topic. We put our heads together and came up with a workaround that works for most people. Kudos to everyone that participated and continues to participate.

I only cooked one Pi3 during my testing. Can anyone help me to reflash a Pi3 B to a firmware version dated about January, 2017?

Mr.Sponti

I also did a downgrade from MagicMirror 2.1.1 and electron@1.7 as proposed
to MagicMirror 2.1.0 and electron@1.4.15. and see a significant lower CPU usage. Formerly CPU usage was most of the time over 100% up to 200%. Now, top shows a CPU usage of electron between 2 to 3 %.

I hope that the electron dev team will take a look to fix that problem in a future release!

Mykle1

@Mr.Sponti said in Electron CPU usage:

Now, top shows a CPU usage of electron between 2 to 3 %.

Yeah boy! :^)

Mykle1

@wtidwell said in Electron CPU usage:

Hey all, new user here.

You see what you started? :^)

Reotch2

@loctruong96 said in Electron CPU usage:

sudo npm install electron@1.4.15 -g

WAIT PATIENTLY FOR ELECTRON TO LOAD IN THE BACKGROUND

a new line appear indicate electron has finished installing

Go to your download folder, exact Magic Mirror 2.1.0

Go to the newly exacted forlder, open another folder named config

Change the file name Config.js.example to Config.js inside the config folder

@Mykle1

I keep getting the same issue as @EventHorizon but none of his fixes seem to work (sudo npm install -g electron --unsafe-perm=true) or (nom @latest -g).

I’m starting with a fresh STRETCH install, and get to step 9 (npm install && npm start) where I get the (types/node) fault.

Any ideas?

Thanks all.

loctruong96

@Reotch2 Hello I think this happened because electron was not successfully installed using npm as a global variable. It happened to me too and i had to reinstall electron as a global variable which is the -g at the end is for. Can you confirm that you have successfully install electron ?