0

I'm using Touchégg on Arch Linux and it functions splendidly. However, I'm noticing that as I use it, it gradually takes more and more CPU time.

There are a few things to note:

  • If I kill the process and start it again, then the CPU Usage drops to normal levels (0.1%).
    • I'm starting the process from xfce4-appfinder to execute the command, touchegg.
  • The touchegg command is being run at session startup with these settings in xfce4-session-settings.

I have a few suspicions:

  • It's possible that my problem is that I should include some argument when I start touchegg. I'm currently starting it without any arguments.
    • Notably, running it in a terminal makes it function, but also gives a lot of output whenever I perform a gesture.
    • Also notably, I'm unable to find any information about actually starting Touchegg when I search for it.
  • It seems to only increase in CPU usage as I actually use gestures. Using a USB mouse, or just leaving the computer idle don't seem to increase the process's CPU time (However, this may not actually be the case; I haven't had a chance to rigorously confirm this).

Here's some miscellaneous information, in case it may be useful:

  • Linux Distribution: Arch Linux
  • Linux Kernel: 3.13.5-1

Does anyone know what I can do to keep its CPU usage low so I don't need to kill/start the process every so often?

Improve this question
5
  • 1
    maybe you could use a crontab to periodically kill and start the process for you?
    – Daniel Que
    Commented Mar 6, 2014 at 20:33
  • 1
    Sounds like complicated issue. You should file a bug.
    – user19087
    Commented Mar 6, 2014 at 20:40
  • @DanielQue I've tried that, but for some reason the process doesn't start properly no matter how I build the script run by crond (or by starting touchegg directly by cron).
    – dotVezz
    Commented Mar 6, 2014 at 22:12
  • @user19087 that's one way to go. However, it doesn't seem to have been updated in over a year.
    – dotVezz
    Commented Mar 6, 2014 at 22:14
  • 1
    I rather think it is a programming bug. If you wish to attack this problem yourself, first run strace -c and ltrace -c. If nothing is out of the ordinary then the bug is internal to Touchegg and not related to the system. In that case you must use a profiler like gprof or callgrind. Google is full of useful tutorials.
    – user19087
    Commented Mar 7, 2014 at 0:30

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

This is likely to be the issue with X, I came across this before using the touchegg but gave up on it pretty quickly. Run it until cpu will start going high and look in your journalctl you should see X related warning/error messages. As well as @user19087 offered strace -c would be a good way to start looking deeper into the issue.

Did you build touchegg from AUR or yourself?

Improve this answer
4
  • From the AUR. Both touchegg and touchegg-git have the problem. At this point, I just have a script running that kills it and restarts it every 10 minutes.
    – dotVezz
    Commented Mar 13, 2014 at 15:39
  • That's a rather ugly work around yeah... The last mentions that I can find of people having the same issue were back from 2011 and i don't think there were newer releases of touchegg. It's rather outdated now
    – alexm
    Commented Mar 13, 2014 at 15:59
  • Indeed, it is super hackish. It works though, and is stable. I wonder if there are any alternatives to touchegg for 3+ finger gestures. Seems like a question for Software Recommendations.
    – dotVezz
    Commented Mar 13, 2014 at 17:42
  • I use arch myself with lenovo clickpad and well configured synaptic for touch gestures, but yes that's all 3 fingers max. I have searched before and the only other thing I've seen is a combination of ginn and ported utouch from Ubuntu. I don't know any other alternatives, but do post them back if you find some!
    – alexm
    Commented Mar 14, 2014 at 10:02

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .