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I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 with Xfce on an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz and 4Gb RAM, which I've had for a while and which isn't keeping up with the increasing demands of software updates to Firefox and Xfce etc.

If I leave the computer unused (but on) for any length of time (typically overnight but often shorter) the GUI becomes unresponsive for a couple of minutes but then comes back to life.

I really only use these apps: Firefox, Handbrake, backuppc, terminal.

Since it also covers various other non-GUI functions like backuppc, iptables, bind, dhcp, there may be a lot of unnecessary server-side stuff going on.

This is my freemem output:

adam@gondor:~$ free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           3883         683         909         144        2290        2771
Swap:          4024         186        3837
adam@gondor:~$

Can I diagnose and fix this without adding more hardware, and apart from not using Firefox anymore?

Adam
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  • There no Ubuntu version 16. Which Ubuntu version do you really have? 16.04 or 16.10? They are significantly different. – L. D. James Jun 18 '18 at 01:10
  • It's Ubuntu 16.04 – Adam Jun 18 '18 at 21:53
  • So it is becoming unresponsive if you leave it alone for a while ? Your first step could be to make sure your [HDD is not spinning down](https://askubuntu.com/a/891178/783023) . – Robert Riedl Jun 28 '18 at 06:38
  • That's right - normally it's fine but overnight something seems to nacker it. The disk drive setting in my Disks utility is set to `OFF`. It seems that functionality might not work for the brand of hard drive - Western Digital to be specific and mine is a Hitachi, although I turned it `ON` and watched the syslog, which showed `udisksd` doing its stuff without errors or warnings. I have left `Stand-by`=`OFF`, but set `APM` to `perform better 255 (disabled)`. `1` is `spin down permitted`. It was just `OFF` – Adam Jun 28 '18 at 19:01
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    Maybe try using [`iotop`](https://packages.ubuntu.com/iotop) to see what thread is using disk I/O? I frequently need to ionice things like `tracker-store`, and `iotop` lets you do this interactively. – Nathaniel M. Beaver Jun 29 '18 at 21:08
  • OK I see stuff running like backuppc but this is a dual core CPU - how come the other core isn't free to run firefox? – Adam Jun 30 '18 at 11:49
  • I'm not sure what you mean by GUI "unresponsive". Does that mean the mouse pointer won't move or applications won't refresh? Leave the terminal running `top` overnight. When you come back in the morning is it still updating every few seconds? Press the `Q` key to exit `top`. Can you immediately type some terminal command such as `ll` or does it pause for a couple of minutes? – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jun 30 '18 at 17:16
  • GUI "unresponsiveness" == the mouse moves, but the effect of the clicks is massively delayed. The command line is not so badly affected - I can run top and quit out of it, although it is slightly slowed down. That's probably got access to the other CPU core right, but the GUI thread/s ... glacial – Adam Jul 01 '18 at 11:42
  • have you checked the cpu governor ? Maybe its in powersafe mode or something ? – Robert Riedl Jul 02 '18 at 17:37

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