Zeitgeist-daemon using all the CPU

Hi there! :)

Some time ago I had a problem in my Ubuntu installation. All of a sudden, I had some weird process using all the CPU, causing the computer to become really slow and hot and making the laptop fans go crazy. Since I use conky, I quickly verified that the weird process causing all of it was zeitgeist-daemon. Zeitgeist-daemon is a process that keeps track of activities on your system (file usage, browser history, calendar events, etc.) and logs them into a central database. It does not only create a chronologic register, but also supports tagging and can establish relationships between activities.

Maybe due to some buggy update it went nuts and was keeping the whole CPU busy.

I tried to kill the process but it would just show up again and keep doing the same.

To temporarily disable it I had to perform a few steps (source):

1. Add the Zeitgeist PPA to the system:

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:zeitgeist/ppa
   

2. Install the latest version of Zeitgeist:

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get upgrade
   

3. Restart zeitgeist-daemon

   zeitgeist-daemon --replace

4. Install activity-log-manager

   sudo apt-get install activity-log-manager
   

5. Open activity-log-manager and click the "Logging active button" in the bottom right corner of the window to disable logging.

(Click the photo for better resolution in Picasa Photostream)

After disabling it in the activity-log-manager, all the problems were gone and everything was working as desired again :) .

If desired, it can be turned on again by clicking the same button.

It happened some time ago and I have reinstalled Ubuntu in the meantime and I have zeitgeist-daemon turned on ever since and never got the same problem again. I guess it was just due to a buggy update. Anyway, if it happens to you, now you know how to fix it :) .

Take care! :)

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