unknown activity suspected [SOLVED]

I've been experiencing some turbulance inside my Zorin Lite. I am not sure what happened, I closed all activities and whats left is "Task Manager" to see how much CPU has been consumed. The indicator says around 60% to 70% has been consumed but what shown is just 8% on Task Manager, and rest zeroes. with only 1 activity with 1% and 0%, rise and down periodically.

The impact of this turbulance is when we tried to type something wether on Terminal or on any software, it has some lag. lets say we typed 2222, and what shows is only 2 then freeze for awhile then resumed the input. it's really annoying to be like that. any idea?

Answer / Solution:
There is a user-apt-get-installed package which partially removed from the system, and it causes trouble. It is VERY important to include --auto-remove when running apt remove, like this

Code:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove somepackage

or

Code:

sudo apt purge --auto-remove somepackage

for ultimate complete removal.

I had similar happen to me that drove me absolutely crazy... Sometimes typing something in would lose keystrokes, too.
I resolved it when I unplugged the keyboard from the USB hub and plugged it directly into the computer. Instantly, everything was working normally, again.
The keyboard used to work fine connected through the hub, so I am not sure why that stopped working properly.

Aravisian wrote:I had similar happen to me that drove me absolutely crazy... Sometimes typing something in would lose keystrokes, too.
I resolved it when I unplugged the keyboard from the USB hub and plugged it directly into the computer. Instantly, everything was working normally, again.
The keyboard used to work fine connected through the hub, so I am not sure why that stopped working properly.

yeah dude, for me, it's either solved by rebooting the system or wait for a quite while. I think it's because the system is checking for updates, even tho the indicator saying it's not running anything. It just an assumption.

quenyan wrote:

Aravisian wrote:I had similar happen to me that drove me absolutely crazy... Sometimes typing something in would lose keystrokes, too.
I resolved it when I unplugged the keyboard from the USB hub and plugged it directly into the computer. Instantly, everything was working normally, again.
The keyboard used to work fine connected through the hub, so I am not sure why that stopped working properly.

yeah dude, for me, it's either solved by rebooting the system or wait for a quite while. I think it's because the system is checking for updates, even tho the indicator saying it's not running anything. It just an assumption.

You may try a test by turning off the update notifier and see if you are still getting bogged down:
https://linuxconfig.org/disable-automat ... aver-linux

Activity cannot really be hidden from your CPU usage. I mean, it is technically possible that a person could write a piece of software that spoofs the CPU usage counter... But if that was the case, everyone or a lot of users would experience it. It is extremely unlikely.
Occams Razor: It is far more likely that your particular system is experiencing a normal issue than it is that your particular system is demonstrating a conspiracy. You may consider installing ClamAV anti-virus and running a scan.

If your CPU usage is at 4% and your keyboard signal is bogging down, I would suspect it was due to a keyboard issue, not due to Hidden CPU usage that is camouflaged from view. You could try testing with a different keyboard plugged into a different port, as well. If your computer is so equipped, you could try a MIDI connection.

Aravisian wrote:

quenyan wrote:

Aravisian wrote:I had similar happen to me that drove me absolutely crazy... Sometimes typing something in would lose keystrokes, too.
I resolved it when I unplugged the keyboard from the USB hub and plugged it directly into the computer. Instantly, everything was working normally, again.
The keyboard used to work fine connected through the hub, so I am not sure why that stopped working properly.

yeah dude, for me, it's either solved by rebooting the system or wait for a quite while. I think it's because the system is checking for updates, even tho the indicator saying it's not running anything. It just an assumption.

You may try a test by turning off the update notifier and see if you are still getting bogged down:
https://linuxconfig.org/disable-automat ... aver-linux

Activity cannot really be hidden from your CPU usage. I mean, it is technically possible that a person could write a piece of software that spoofs the CPU usage counter... But if that was the case, everyone or a lot of users would experience it. It is extremely unlikely.
Occams Razor: It is far more likely that your particular system is experiencing a normal issue than it is that your particular system is demonstrating a conspiracy. You may consider installing ClamAV anti-virus and running a scan.

If your CPU usage is at 4% and your keyboard signal is bogging down, I would suspect it was due to a keyboard issue, not due to Hidden CPU usage that is camouflaged from view. You could try testing with a different keyboard plugged into a different port, as well. If your computer is so equipped, you could try a MIDI connection.

yeah, i just switch the updates check to "never" by using update settings, i just hope this solved my problem.

quenyan wrote:yeah, i just switch the updates check to "never" by using update settings, i just hope this solved my problem.

Oh, also- fan troubles- Can you check (repeatedly) what temperatures your computer runs at? A temp gauge conky may help, that way you can actively monitor it for a while.
I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner- I blame my overheating brain.

Aravisian wrote:

quenyan wrote:yeah, i just switch the updates check to "never" by using update settings, i just hope this solved my problem.

Oh, also- fan troubles- Can you check (repeatedly) what temperatures your computer runs at? A temp gauge conky may help, that way you can actively monitor it for a while.
I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner- I blame my overheating brain.

Here you go Aravisian:

https://ecofriend.com/solar-powered-coo ... a-fan.html

so, it happened again today, I think i know the culprit is. It only happen on everytime I open up my laptop's monitor and recovered from sleep/hibernating state. Something fishy on the Hibernation system on Zorin Lite (not sure if this also happened in Regular Zorin).

using psensor when this "strange phenomenon" happening, this is the data showed.

sensor | val | min | max (in Celcius)
core 0 42 - 42 - 53
core 2 52 - 52 - 55
cpu 26 - 26 - 26
ambient 49 - 48 - 49
cpu usage 34% - 18% - 82%
free memory 7% - 3% - 10%

with 1 terminal opened, 1 falkon browser, 1 psensor running

I also realized this is not only impacted to keyboard typing but also mouse/touchpad cursors, overall it's sort of monitor lag.

quenyan wrote:It only happen on everytime I open up my laptop's monitor and recovered from sleep/hibernating state. Something fishy on the Hibernation system on Zorin Lite

Great working it through and observations. Your temps look normal and the Usage went pretty high, there.
Zorin Lite uses the XFCE desktop and there is a Known Bug on hesitation or freezing during lock and unlock with XFCE desktop. Logout/ login, restart- same basic thing.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1685141
MX Linux, Manjaro Linux, Xubuntu- you can find reports on any derivitive that uses XFCE complaining of this.

https://forum.manjaro.org/t/xfce-deskto ... yria/84717

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1014800 ... ing-screen

Let's use this as a starting point and take the direction of it being that bug and see where it takes us.

Well, since this is xfce related bug, I think we can't do much about it. I didn't use lockscreen, but since "suspend" also causing this bug to appear, then I guess shutting down when I'm not using the laptop is the only solution right now. I don't really shutting down my laptop when I'm done for the day, I just shut my laptop lid, and It goes suspend. by being suspend for 16 hours, it takes around 4% of laptop battery, I don't know if that is a lot or little consumption on sleeping state.

Right now I switched the lid setting to "turning off the monitor" instead of "suspend", and no problem resuming it after leaving for a while, everything still fast as lightning. with CPU usage only 14% max. Also, shutting it down when leave for the day. I guess it's safe to turning the software update back up also.

quenyan wrote:Well, since this is xfce related bug, I think we can't do much about it. I didn't use lockscreen, but since "suspend" also causing this bug to appear, then I guess shutting down when I'm not using the laptop is the only solution right now. I don't really shutting down my laptop when I'm done for the day, I just shut my laptop lid, and It goes suspend. by being suspend for 16 hours, it takes around 4% of laptop battery, I don't know if that is a lot or little consumption on sleeping state.

Right now I switched the lid setting to "turning off the monitor" instead of "suspend", and no problem resuming it after leaving for a while, everything still fast as lightning. with CPU usage only 14% max. Also, shutting it down when leave for the day. I guess it's safe to turning the software update back up also.

One solution I found while searching suggests that the network adapter is a culprit (bug between XFCE communicating with network service.) Suspending the network service prior to suspending the machine and then re-enabling it after waking the machine worked for many users.
In this discussion, a user wrote a script for it.
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/system-susp ... /107168/11

I have hopes this may help you.

Aravisian wrote:

quenyan wrote:Well, since this is xfce related bug, I think we can't do much about it. I didn't use lockscreen, but since "suspend" also causing this bug to appear, then I guess shutting down when I'm not using the laptop is the only solution right now. I don't really shutting down my laptop when I'm done for the day, I just shut my laptop lid, and It goes suspend. by being suspend for 16 hours, it takes around 4% of laptop battery, I don't know if that is a lot or little consumption on sleeping state.

Right now I switched the lid setting to "turning off the monitor" instead of "suspend", and no problem resuming it after leaving for a while, everything still fast as lightning. with CPU usage only 14% max. Also, shutting it down when leave for the day. I guess it's safe to turning the software update back up also.

One solution I found while searching suggests that the network adapter is a culprit (bug between XFCE communicating with network service.) Suspending the network service prior to suspending the machine and then re-enabling it after waking the machine worked for many users.
In this discussion, a user wrote a script for it.
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/system-susp ... /107168/11

I have hopes this may help you.

thanks bro, It is very possible that network adapter is the culprit, but when i tried to look up for the related file, it is not there, do you know where all the conf file located at?

Hmmm... Zorin Lite- XFCE, should be "NetworkManager."

Today, I turned on my laptop from off state, and I realized that the problem still continue the I tried to search for more. I opened up the Task Manager, and turn on the "display all process" then I got 1 process which took half of the CPU right away.
its something called "aide --config....blablabla update" hmm...what update is that? it runs for like 20 mins, after that it stopped.

Could you take a screenshot of that message? Would be useful if we could see all of it - blah blah ain't going to help!

yeah wait, when i was about to write it down, it cooled down and disappeared. I will wait for it again and take screenshot of it.

here it comes again, this time I took the screenshot right away.

quenyan wrote:here it comes again, this time I took the screenshot right away.

That is AIDE, which is Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment. I think the "E" stands for Environment, anyway.
One of the perks of using AIDE over Tripwire is that AIDE usually can run without slowing your computer down. But not always. Sometimes, it can run for a lengthy amount of time with high CPU usage.
I do not believe Zorin comes with AIDE pre-installed for Lite or Core. I just checked my machine and then my sons machine and neither have AIDE on the machine.
Did you install AIDE? Or was it included with another package?

ah, when you remind me of preinstalled stuff, I now remember what "AIDE" is in my own understanding. I remember installing "AIDE" from somewhere, perhaps in terminal using apt get or something like that, because I was trying to get the similar "AIDE" on Android phone, a developer tool for Android Device. However I forgot if I ever installed "AIDE" on my laptop since I forgot my intention was and I was let down that "AIDE" in Computer devices is not the same as "AIDE" in Android Device.

I don't remember where I got AIDE was, it is perhaps not throught aptget because it's not listed in the list when running apt remove.

since it detects "aide is not installed", perhaps I did remove aide. but since option --auto-remove has some parts left I guess it's not removed cleanly and causes the mysterious update. I did the auto-remove so I guess I have to wait and see if it solved the problem or not.

quenyan wrote:since it detects "aide is not installed", perhaps I did remove aide. but since option --auto-remove has some parts left I guess it's not removed cleanly and causes the mysterious update. I did the auto-remove so I guess I have to wait and see if it solved the problem or not.

Your screenshot showed AIDE as clearly running in some way. I wonder if it was partly removed, causing it to run, but keep freezing up due to missing files.
Let's hope purging all AIDE files will help you.
You might try using Synaptic Package manager to search for AIDE files, as well.

It's been couple days monitoring suspected problem with suspend mode on and now my dell inspiron laptop is running like a deer being chased by tiger again. super cooling down and no more ghost activity . it seems fully removing AIDE solved the problem completely. thank you bro for figuring out what the problem was.

quenyan wrote:It's been couple days monitoring suspected problem with suspend mode on and now my dell inspiron laptop is running like a deer being chased by tiger again. super cooling down and no more ghost activity . it seems fully removing AIDE solved the problem completely. thank you bro for figuring out what the problem was.

And it only took three pages. Actually, it was you posting an Exact Screenshot of the problem: AIDE.
Without that, I would still be grasping at straws.

Aravisian wrote:

quenyan wrote:It's been couple days monitoring suspected problem with suspend mode on and now my dell inspiron laptop is running like a deer being chased by tiger again. super cooling down and no more ghost activity . it seems fully removing AIDE solved the problem completely. thank you bro for figuring out what the problem was.

And it only took three pages. Actually, it was you posting an Exact Screenshot of the problem: AIDE.
Without that, I would still be grasping at straws.

yeah, I was almost gave up at searching for the most ultimate lightweight linux OSes, Zorin Lite is my ultimate solution and I force myself not to believe if this is The OS fault, because it was very okay long time ago, it also gets updated very frequently, luckilly I stumble upon the "show all process" option in Task Manager, without that it will be very difficult to find out the exact culprit.

LXQt?

Swarfendor437 wrote:LXQt?

what's that about bro? Zorin Lite is XFCE based, not LXQt. btw I'm not sure either if LXQt is lightweight enough versus XFCE.

I installed LXQt on Core - when you install elements on any Zorin it adds the DE to the list associated with the Cog at Login.

https://thebetterparent.com/2019/07/the ... nvironment.

My LXQt desktop on Core: