I have a Ubuntu x64 machine on a OpenVZ VPS account on a QuadCore processor with 1GB/2GB(burst). A few days ago I've managed to successfully update it to 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. There's only one problem: my "init" process (PID = 1) is at 100% CPU usage, keeping one core 99.5% of the time at full throttle.
Is there any solution to stop the strange init's behavior? Can I trace what happens behind that init process to find out what makes it spike so high?
From Bellum PLC Forum - Ubuntu 11.10 init 100% cpu usage bug:
I noticed an CPU usage issue with init due to upstart, Which was eating 99% ram constantly. and i decided to find working fix. This is a bug which has been confirmed by Ubuntu but below is a simple quick fix patch which should work completely for all.
Firstly Open up SSH and add the following PPA
add-apt-repository ppa:jammy/upstart.fix-880049
Hit enter and Enter again.If It says command not found, Issue this command first
apt-get install python-software-properties
Then
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
Cannot add PPA: 'ppa:jammy/upstart.fix-880049'. Please check that the PPA name or format is correct.
Apr 21, 2017 at 12:58
Unfortunately, because upstart makes heavy use of ptrace() for its 'expect fork' capabilities, it is really hard if not impossible to strace or attach to it w/ gdb most of the time.
However, you can turn on verbose logging.
initctl log-priority info
If you want even more stuff
initctl log-priority debug
This may at least give some clue as to what it is doing to use up all those CPU cycles.
The problem is that init requires access to /dev/console, which does not exist in an OpenVZ virtual machine.
If you have access to the physical machine, you can create the /dev/console device, by granting access to the physical device:
vzctl set 105 --devices c:5:1:rw --save
Replace 105 with the number of your virtual server. I had the same issue, and this solved the problem without having to compile a patched init.
It looks like this is a known bug in 11.10:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/upstart/+bug/880049
A patch has been submitted:
EDIT: Okay, the patch seems to work, but I modified it a bit.
Adding this:
if (system_setup_console (CONSOLE_NONE, (! restart)) < 0)
nih_free (nih_error_get ());
to init/main.c after:
if (system_setup_console (CONSOLE_OUTPUT, (! restart)) < 0)
nih_free (nih_error_get ());
works for me, insofar as the 100% cpu issue is gone, but the devs say it's not a proper fix.
upstart fix released by James Hewitt (2011-11-24)
https://code.launchpad.net/~jammy/+archive/upstart.fix-880049
#add-apt-repository ppa:jammy/upstart.fix-880049
#apt-get update
#apt-get upgrade
#reboot
init after reboot 0.0%
