High CPU usage of remote in Wine since Build 903 - some affected users but apparently not everyone

I see no reason to think that is a badly designed loop. Let’s not forget that Wine is an admirable effort but nevertheless is far from complete.

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9 posts were merged into an existing topic: Linux Roon Control GUI Please [not on roadmap, you may try to use Wine]

Hi chaps, the discussion had drifted off topic … so I’ve moved the posts to the linked topic … where you can continue that discussion and this topic can stay on track.

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This topic was automatically opened after 10 minutes.

Now that Roon runs again on my main control, I finally had time to look into this by myself.

System: Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS, Linux 5.4.0-120-lowlatency, wine-7.0, Intel® Core™ i5-6400T, Lenovo ThinkCentre M700 SFF

I see roughly the same figures reported in top as shown in the OP. Is this a problem for me? No, not at all. Looking at the system monitor graphs, having Firefox running with usually a dozen tabs open already creates a substantial load and opening Roon doesn’t add that much to it as the numbers might imply. The load shows neatly distributed over all 4 cores. Despite the fact that this is a small form factor PC, the fan runs civilized and barely noticeable. I could still close Firefox to reduce the load (significantly).

My conclusion:

Based on the nature of the Roon UI, Roon always used more resources than other, *normal" dektop apps.

grafik
Click on the picture to go the source posting.

Now even upped to 120 fps (on supported systems only?) may have made it use even more resources, but this seems to be part of the game (continuous development of the software, adding support for new hardware) and likely unavoidable.

Fun fact: I once installed and run a “real” game (Steam Proton so using Wine of some sorts) on this machine - for five minutes. After that time I had enough of the turbine sound the fan produced.

Skimming through this whole thread again, it seems the major complaint is not about the higher load per se, but the accompanying circumstances (audible fan noise). So affected users should maybe investigate if there are options available to optimize load balancing/power saving/fan (speed) control on their machines.

Note: Using Lenovo (former IBM) laptops and now this SFF PC, I made the experience that a lot of effort was put into proper Linux support for the premium Think-range of products. Maybe this is why the fan behaves so civilized right out-of-the-box on my machine compared to the machines of other users here?

With my normal Firefox use, approx 20 tabs, Firefox uses about 5% CPU. Roon plus wineserver shows approx 100% in top. The result of that is the laptop fans are always blowing, while they never do without Roon and never did with Roon either before this started. And of course the on-battery time plummets accordingly. Closing all other apps has no effect on this. So yes this is a new problem of Roon-on-Wine and has nothing to do with my good and well-optimized laptop (Dell XPS)

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Fun fact 2: Roon versions before build 903 don’t make any fan noise.

Fan speed depends on temperature and temperature depends on CPU load. We dont need any fancy rendering of static images.

There should be an option to turn all such useless toys off.

There is no other regular app in my daily use causing such extreme load and subsequent fan noise. And this is the only paid SW I use…

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Current XPS laptops are advertised to support 4 different “performance modes”: Quiet, Performance, Cool and Optimized. Which one are you using?

The problem occurs in all of them. (It’s not a current model but 2018, an i7 8th gen, however current Ubuntu does offer several power options in the system menu).

My Dell is a convertible and tent mode has a bit better cooling and then the fans go off, but the battery usage obviously is unaffected and I can only use it at the desk with an external keyboard, so this is not a real solution either.

The problem is not cooling mode. The problem is crazy load. Much higher then in any other app. I run it on Core i5 Gen10 with 16GB RAM on Latitude 5410

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There is no need to specifically reply to my post if you don’t like the software’s design as such. I can’t help you with that. I assume you saw that Roon is more like a game than other, conventional software - so higher load has to be expected IMO.

It’s not surprising that you get direct replies if what you write makes no sense in this context. Roon is not a game as the display is nearly always static, the issue started with build 903 and did not occur before, the problem is not our laptops nor the cooling.

I accept that there was no promise that it would work on wine, but it did when I bought Roon and else I might not have. (And the Linux remote thread title said “use Wine”). I also accept that the issue is probably some performance problem within wine.

However, we know that it is not necessary, and it is a problem

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That’s your opinion. My opinion is that sharing my experience as a user of the same software, seeing the same load as you do, makes sense in this context. That is why I invested the time to pursue this issue and did write-up my findings.
I’m sorry you and others don’t like or share my conclusions - but completely neglecting them instead of pursue the given hints to see if they allow to remedy the issue with the fan noise seems short sighted to me. I agree that it would be nice and effortless for affected users if Roon could lower the load again, but we don’t know if this is even possible. So it looks like for the time being the best thing you and others can do, is try to reduce the unwanted effects.

Pre-configured and sold with Ubuntu by Dell (including support)? Generic or specific power options?

Laptop hardware is often very specific and optimized in many ways by the manufacturer to balance performance, battery drain and fan noise. Part of those optimizations often come as (Windows exclusive) driver package. While I, as a long time user know that Lenovo (former IBM) put a lot of effort into Linux support, making their specific optimizations also available on that platform, I don’t know about Dell. Maybe you can find optimizations for your laptop directly on Dell’s site, else an internet search may yield some results?

Unfortunately, the convertible does not have official Dell support. The options I mentioned are Ubuntu’s new generic ones, but I have Dell’s tools installed as well. I have used Linux exclusively as my personal desktop OS for 30 years, I am pretty handy with it.

If a process continuously needs 100%, it is not a surprise at all that the fans come on, and that’s what Dell support would say as well. Reducing the fans could maybe reduce the noise, but the price would obviously be a hotter laptop, and it would do nothing for the resulting poor battery usage when Roon runs.

It’s fine if the whole thing does not bother you, but understand that it’s not helpful for people who are bothered by it and it can be seen as a bit upsetting to be told repeatedly that one should not be bothered. This is the same as when someone asks for feature X and it’s being told that they don’t really want or need it.
Especially as your hints only address a part of the issue at best.

The fact remains that the whole issue did not occur before build 903, and newer builds do absolutely nothing better in any way on the desktop that warrants the issue.

Luckily the remote starts nearly instantly, and I can mitigate it by tent mode for longer editing sessions, so I can live with it for the time being, but ideal it’s not, and it’s much worse than it was when I bought into and committed myself to Roon. I think it’s understandable that I am not thrilled. If it stays that way, I may get myself a MacBook Air or something for Roon, but clearly it’s nicer to have it at the fingertips at the main machine, like it was until a few months ago.

Sorry, but the current situation with the high load seems to be a fact to me. That Roon always used more resources/created a higher load as other applications is a fact as long as I’m with Roon. It’s definitly nothing I can change. The statement about the game engine is not mine, it’s from Roon’s CTO.
I shared my findings and my conclusion - you don’t have to share them and I never told you otherwise, let alone repeatedly. It is my conclusion that the current load is likely, likely and not for fact, does not go away. You’re welcome to have your own opinion about that. Why you think that I have to neglect my findings and follow your opinion instead is beyond me.
I tried, based on my findings, to point affected users at areas where they possibly can mitigate
the fan noise issue, trying to be helpful for some. That’s more than I’ve seen from you so far.

So you are in contact with the wine team, trying to resolve the issue?

I don’t understand what this means. Of course it is a fact or the thread would not exist. The fact I meant is that this has started with build 903, apparently due to the new high frame rate stuff, which does absolutely nothing for me. Before that, it did not use more resources for me then any other app, at least not in any noticable way

I don’t expect you to change anything about it either, I just hope that you stop telling affected people that they are not.

If you had read the thread you would have seen what I tried. That’s all I have the time for, and my hope would be that the software I paid 600 for would just work. Like I said, I accept that there were no promises. End of for me

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Which I never did.

Well you have repeatedly said that all is fine, it doesn’t bother you, it is just like Firefox, it’s what must be expected, it’s our laptops or our fan settings

I don’t think there is reason to quarrel. I see that you intended to be helpful, but unfortunately there is nothing that can be done on the spot that really helps. Debugging Wine might, but I have no experience with that and I just don’t have the time it would cost me.

Please decide what your issue is, the high load or the fan noise. I’m affected by the same high load as you are and wrote so. I don’t have issues with fan noise, most likely because optimizations for my machine are already integrated into the Linux kernel and drivers by the manufacer of my system (and also wrote so), but provided hints where affected users may look for to optimize their own machines.
If you already did look in those areas, already loaded a driver package from the manufacturer, and so on, this is probably not gonna help you (but how could I have known this without asking?) but other affected users may be able to mitigate their fan noise issue with that information. Though I never claimed that this will resolve the high load issue.