Thunderbird using 100% CPU on newly installed ArcaOS 5.0.6

[Bennie Nelson]

Today I migrated to ArcaOS 5.0.6 from v5.0.4. I copied my Thunderbird content from the old machine and dropped it into C:\HOME. Thunderbird starts OK, but after about 5 minutes, it starts using 100% until I kill it using top.

I have been using this method for email migration on OS/2 and Linux since the Netscape days, and I've not seen this before. Does anyone have any idea what's going on and I how I can remedy this?

Thanks,
Bennie Nelson

[Dariusz Piatkowski]

What version of Thunderbird are you running?

Dave released an update a couple of weeks ago, you can find it on Hobbes. I am running 45.8.0 which came from thunderbird-45.8.0.en-US.os2-Pentium-m-17112020.zip, so far no problems, the update went fine although I did have to add LIBVPX RPM package I think.

[Dave Yeo]

I take it that the profile was previously in C:\home? Did you try looking in the activity monitor (under Tools) to see if there was any activity?

[Bennie Nelson]

I should have given the system specs:

Thunderbird 45.8.0 was installed with ArcaOS. I zipped the contents of C:/Home/Thunderbird, including the subdirectories on the prior VM and unzipped them into the same location on the VM. Regarding libvpx: version 1.6.1-1.oc00 is installed, but yum lists both older and newer versions (1.4.0 and 1.8.2).

ArcaOS is running in a virtual machine under VirtualBox 6.1.16, with the Guest Additions installed by the ArcaOS installer. The virtual machine was set up using the instructions provided at the link below:

https://www.arcanoae.com/wiki/arcaos/installation-planning/virtual-machine-configuration/oracle-vm-virtualbox/

The VM has 1 CPU, 2 GB RAM, and plenty of disk space (12 GB free).

I cannot find a folder called 'Tools', but I did run the CPU Monitor and it shows the CPU at 100%.

Thanks,
Bennie Nelson

[Dave Yeo]

I cannot find a folder called 'Tools', but I did run the CPU Monitor and it shows the CPU at 100%.

Sorry for not being clear, Tools is the Thunderbird menu item. With only one CPU is Thunderbird at all responsive?

[Dave Yeo]

A couple of other things to try. First try starting Thunderbird up in safe mode. Should be an icon under Programs-->Installed Software-->Thunderbird.
If that doesn't work, try minimizing it, wait for a couple of minutes and restoring it.
If that doesn't work, make sure you have a good backup of your profile, and try deleting all the msf files in your profile. They'll get recreated as you touch folders in Thunderbird. One drawback of this method is that if you haven't compacted your folders lately, deleted and filtered messages will return.
When moving a profile, you should always compact all folders first.

[Bennie Nelson]

Thunderbird with one CPU has always run OK for me. I looked at the Activity Monitor under Tools, but nothing shows up when the Thunderbird process goes to 100%.

> A couple of other things to try. First try starting Thunderbird up in safe mode. Should be an icon under Programs-->Installed Software-->Thunderbird.
> If that doesn't work, try minimizing it, wait for a couple of minutes and restoring it.

Same behavior for both.

> If that doesn't work, make sure you have a good backup of your profile, and try deleting all the msf files in your profile. They'll get recreated as you touch folders in Thunderbird. One
 > drawback of this method is that if you haven't compacted your folders lately, deleted and filtered messages will return.
> When moving a profile, you should always compact all folders first.

I haven't tried this yet, but only the InBox needs to be compressed from time to time. I did delete the two cache folders, but that didn't resolve. I haven't done anything with the startupcache folder, yet. I'll try deleting the msf files, but that will have to wait for another day. If that doesn't work, I may try removing the old profile and start Thunderbird with nothing so a new one will be created, and then drop the mail folders and address book into the newly created profile.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Bennie Nelson

[Dave Yeo]

Deleting the startupcache shouldn't hurt. Unluckily profile corruption is a weakness of the Mozilla apps and sometimes starting over is about all you can do. You might want to restore your original zip again just in case, otherwise a new profile is likely best.

[Bennie Nelson]

I decided to leave Thunderbird off and start Firefox, leaving it running at the start up page. Firefox also uses 100% of the CPU. So this issue is common to the Mozilla packages.

[Bennie Nelson]

I confirmed the Firefox behavior on a different VM running ArcaOS 5.0.6. Thunderbird has never been started on the second one, so it's definitely something that is common to the two Mozilla packages.

Bennie Nelson

[Dave Yeo]

Did you run ANPM or YUM to update all the RPM's and reboot at the end? Did you accidentally install the libc that came with the VBox additions?

[Bennie Nelson]

I ran ANPM after the install to update packages, and I ran yum to install packages needed for OpenOffice. I used the Vbox additions provided by the ArcaOs installer, rather than using the older method. Does this mean the libc version is incorrect? How do I verify that against the following yum list libc* output?

Installed Packages
libc.i686                              1:0.1.4-1.oc00                installed
libcurl.i686                           7.37.0-2.oc00                 installed
libcx.i686                             0.6.6-1.oc00                  installed

Thanks,
Bennie

[Bennie Nelson]

The Libc06 dlls on ArcaOS are different from the Libc06 dlls on VBox Guest Additions CD image mounted by VBox:

ArcaOS:
 3-28-20   8:33          45,363    124  libc06.dll
 3-28-20   8:33          45,364    124  libc061.dll
 3-28-20   8:33         153,497    124  libc062.dll
 3-28-20   8:33         153,497    124  libc063.dll
 3-28-20   8:33         153,563    124  libc064.dll
 3-28-20   8:33         153,563    124  libc065.dll
 3-28-20   8:33         316,502    124  libc066.dll
       1,021,349 bytes in 7 files and 0 dirs

VBox GA:
10-15-20  2:46p        48,179      0 ---r  libc06.dll
10-15-20  2:46p        48,179      0 ---r  libc061.dll
10-15-20  2:46p       157,161      0 ---r  libc062.dll
10-15-20  2:46p       157,161      0 ---r  libc063.dll
10-15-20  2:46p       157,213      0 ---r  libc064.dll
10-15-20  2:46p       157,213      0 ---r  libc065.dll
10-15-20  2:46p     1,361,666      0 ---r  libc066.dll
        7 file(s)   2,086,772 bytes used

[Bennie Nelson]

Additional information: I installed ArcaOS, including VBox Guest Additions,  in a different VM with 2 CPUs. The installed libc06 dlls are different from the VMs with patches and updates installed, and they are also different form the set that is included with the VBox Guest Additions.

12-25-19  6:59a        45,363    124 a---  libc06.dll
12-25-19  6:59a        45,364    124 a---  libc061.dll
12-25-19  6:59a       153,497    124 a---  libc062.dll
12-25-19  6:59a       153,497    124 a---  libc063.dll
12-25-19  6:59a       153,563    124 a---  libc064.dll
12-25-19  6:59a       153,563    124 a---  libc065.dll
12-25-19  6:59a       316,489    124 a---  libc066.dll
        7 file(s)   1,021,336 bytes used

I started Firefox before running any updates, and top reports 95% to 100%. Even with FF on the blank startup page, the CPU monitor utility (Programs/Utilities) shows high usage on both CPUs. Next, I'll run the ANPM updates and try FF again.

Bennie

[Dave Yeo]

I don't think it is libc, it is just a common mistake to follow the instructions in the additions and backlevel libc. What the problem is, I can't guess since it has happened on 2 installs, so not likely an install failure.
Did you follow the instructions at https://www.arcanoae.com/wiki/arcaos/installation-planning/virtual-machine-configuration/oracle-vm-virtualbox/?