2 xorg processes running...?

[stealth]

hello there,

is it normal that i have 2 xorg processes listed in the output of top?

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
18587 root 20 0 655m 270m 61m S 2 13.4 326:36.00 Xorg
18596 root 20 0 655m 270m 61m S 0 13.4 0:00.00 Xorg

if so, why? and why do they use so much memory (each!)?


my system:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750
2 G ram
radeon hd 2600 pro pci-x with 512 mb of memory
latest driver from amd's website (catalyst 8.3)
debian (lenny at present)
2.6.24.3 vanilla kernel
version of xorg in lenny is: X Window System Version 1.3.0



thank you

[cybersnoopy]

I got exactly same situation with you. Once I use the free ati driver, this doesn't happen. fglrx is really wierld...
hello there,

is it normal that i have 2 xorg processes listed in the output of top?

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
18587 root 20 0 655m 270m 61m S 2 13.4 326:36.00 Xorg
18596 root 20 0 655m 270m 61m S 0 13.4 0:00.00 Xorg

if so, why? and why do they use so much memory (each!)?


my system:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750
2 G ram
radeon hd 2600 pro pci-x with 512 mb of memory
latest driver from amd's website (catalyst 8.3)
debian (lenny at present)
2.6.24.3 vanilla kernel
version of xorg in lenny is: X Window System Version 1.3.0



thank you

[DoDoENT]

It happens to me too on catalyst 8.12. They both eat over 100 MB of memory, and if I turn on compiz effects, they eat even more.

With radeon driver, there is only one Xorg process that eats about 50 MB of memory.

I tried to kill one of the process, but I can't, even if I try to kill it as root.

[RealNC]

I have it too (Catalyst 8.12). The extra process seems to be "fake" though; it doesn't really consume any memory or CPU at all and seems an exact clone of the first X process.

Btw, after about 8 hours uptime, the X process hits 400MB usage. And that without Compiz.

[DoDoENT]

So what's the purpose of the second 'fake' xorg process? (a question for an ATI dev team)

[bridgman]

It's a second thread, don't remember what it does though. Both threads share the same memory, there aren't actually two sets of memory being used. There is another thread on here dating back to when the second thread appeared (1-2 years ago) and mtippett posted more about it there. Will see if I can find it.

[NeoBrain]

It's a second thread, don't remember what it does though. Both threads share the same memory, there aren't actually two sets of memory being used. There is another thread on here dating back to when the second thread appeared (1-2 years ago) and mtippett posted more about it there. Will see if I can find it.

Firefox's awesome bar rules them all :D
http://phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10811&page=4
No real explanation there though, he only said it's a thread within the driver...

However, just to clarify that: It doesn't consume the whole memory twice, X just shows up twice in the task manager.

[DoDoENT]

Firefox's awesome bar rules them all :D
http://phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10811&page=4
No real explanation there though, he only said it's a thread within the driver...

However, just to clarify that: It doesn't consume the whole memory twice, X just shows up twice in the task manager.

Thank you very much for that link. Now it's finally clear to me why there are two xorg processes. And it also made me clear why windows detect two graphics cards after installing the ATI catalyst driver.