Why does STM32CubeIDE use Chromium and peg my CPU so high on MacOS?

[Antypas.Peter]

I'm running IDE version 1.13.1 on MacOS 11.7.1 on a MBP with a dual core 2.8Ghz i7. Unlike every other IDE / CAD package that I use, STM32CubeIDE pegs my CPU really high and spins up the fans even when doing NOTHING. As in, there is no project open, no editors, no HW configuration, literally NOTHING.

Why?

 

[CTapp.1]

Yep, I'm seeing similar.

It's a real pain when using it on the move as it's killing battery life.

[wickeLine228]

Same, wtf is even Chromium helper in my notifications

[Oskar_H]

This CPU overload is not MacOS specific, I have the same issue on Ubuntu with the latest STM32CubeIDE 1.14.

Most of the time when I am running this tool it consumes about 30%-40% CPU in 3 threads permanently, doing just nothing ! By chance I work mainly on a desktop PC, but for laptop users it should be a battery killer application, I admit.

The Chromium threads are launched by JxBrowser which is commonly used to display dynamic web pages in Java. As far as I have noticed, it is used by STM32 Target Selector for an MCU when opening the CAD Resources tab (3D animations and so on...). It is also used by the infamous MyST Login system, unmasked by the so *** cookies banner.

Fortunately these 3 threads do not eat too much memory. Phew !

I have attempted to kill the 3 chromium threads while the tool is running and it does not seem to make it unstable, the only consequence is I cannot open the CAD resources tab anymore, but I don't care. If I ever would need it, my internet browser is not so far :)

If the CPU overload bothers you too much, maybe have this a try, but at your own risk.

We may hope that in a near future ST will optimize this usage...

[AScha.3]

I have IDE v 1.13.1 running on Linux MX (5 y old now), "normal " state:

Just on xx.ioc edit, sometimes (!!) going to 30..40% cpu load (doing nothing), until closing the MX/ioc edit window.

Then "normal" again...(or crash...hangup in this state, only kill the app possible then.)

So the IDE is "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" .  In one individual .

[Antypas.Peter]

I ended up ditching the ST IDE and going with Makefile based regular Eclipse. If I have time, I will explore VSCode as well, as I really liked it a lot when I worked on ESP32 stuff.

[CTapp.1]

Has this been fixed in the 1.15 release? I'm running 1.15.1 (Mac) and I'm no longer seeing any Chromium threads using excessive CPU:

[CTapp.1]

Just noticed a Chromium thread that was showing as "Not responding" in Activity Monitor (along with some others that were "normal").

I quit the IDE and ended up with 3 Chromium threads left running at 100% CPU after the IDE had terminated. These threads eventually terminated on their own, but two of them crashed leaving Crash Reports.

[PR.10]

It is not MACOS issue. It does the same thing on windows 10/11. All cube versions up to 15.1 (I have now). Plus it used to be much worse when .ioc editor/form is open.

It is very annoying the CPU fan is noisy running all the time gathering dust and battery does not last :(

I had AMD notebook with external gpu and intel notebook with integrated gpu. same problem on both.

chromium.exe started by cube ide is constant cpu load.

[WojRus]

I think it's possible to remove and block Chromium permanently. I don't see any important side effects yet. Procedure for Windows 10 for reference:

- Disable STM32CubeIDE.
- Backup and delete all "jxbrowser" dirs in "c:\Users\USER_NAME\.stm32cubeide".
- RMB on "c:\Users\USER_NAME\.stm32cubeide" -> "Properties" -> "Security".
- Select user "USER_NAME" -> "Edit".
- Select user "USER_NAME" again.
- Check "Deny" at "Write" permission.
- Accept all.

 

[radoslav]

I experienced similar issues with excessive CPU/GPU usage. The solution from @WojRus worked also in my case.

The CubeIDE is poorly optimized indeed.

[diabolo38]

Win 11 version 1.17 and it's till here 

ide on it"s own is not using much cpu but The  8 chromium does (2% on  16 threads 12th gen i7)

I many time kill this chromium process by hand  and it' seam not to affect any badly the ide ...