Mate-appearance-properties loads a CPU core to almost 80%

Support & Help Requests
#1

When I start I start System -> Preferences -> Appearance I see that many of the themes don’t have thumbnails and show a question mark icon instead.
As a result, mate-appearance-properties tries to generate the required thumbnails. This activity loads a single CPU core to almost 100% and never completes. Upon closing mate-appearance-properties the window is closed but the process continues to run, indefinitely in the background, occupying almost 100% of a CPU.
If I kill the process then CPU load returns to normal, but the next time mate-appearance-properties is executed a CPU core is fully utilised again.

Regards, Eber.

#2

That is odd. Here's mine:

Is this a fresh install, fully updated?

What versions are you running? In terminal:

inxi -S
#3

inxi -S
System: Host: eber-VPCEG15FL Kernel: 4.8.0-45-generic x86_64 (64 bit)
Desktop: MATE 1.12.1 Distro: Ubuntu 16.04 xenial
I've installed some themes but it was working fine... and something happened a the icons disappeared as the next image:

matteappereance.png599×599 42.7 KB

The DE works fine but , when I start System -> Preferences -> Appearance, this activity loads a single CPU core to almost 100% and never completes

#4 
sudo apt -f install

Any errors?

#5

No nothing

sudo apt -f install
[sudo] password for eber:
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

#6

What could be a easy fix would be to upgrade to MATE 1.16; your on 1.12.1.

1 Like
#7

ok, thank you. I am going to upgrade to MATE 1.16
I will tell you if it works

1 Like
#8

And just to be sure (after):

sudo apt full-upgrade

and reboot

#9

It worked, thank you for your support.
Could you tell me if there is a list about themes that I can install without troubles, or what kind of themes,icons so

#10

Excellent :slight_smile:

Ubuntu Mate supports only the themes you have loaded, but there are third party sources to try at your own risk. Here’s one…

https://www.gnome-look.org/browse/cat/136/ord/latest/

:wave:

#11

For anyone who’s still avoiding GTK3/Mate, something like this should solve it:

# launch the program
mate-appearance-properties
# now close the GUI
# and then get PID of the process
pid=`ps -C mate-appearance-properties -o pid=`
# show files in your home directory opened by the process
lsof -p $pid | grep /home/$USER
# if the problematic files aren't in your home directory, show all files
# except libraries
lsof -p $pid | grep -v /usr/lib
# (re)move the suspect files (usually theme config files) and see if it helps