[SOLVED] Darktable freezes computer on export from lighttable

Software darktable
1

Hello,

annoying problem here … I think even older versions did it, I have up to date version from flatpak for Linux (4.2.0) … Every time I try to do an export from lighttable (no matter if using JPEG or TIF), darktable freezes my computer for several minutes requiring after the export a huge amount of memory - it happens after the export, cca 2-3 seconds after it …

Freeze is that kernel moves a lot of memory to swap so after export and unfreeze I have something like 10G swapped because of darktable …

I was googling this, seems to somewhat known but I didn’t find and resolution for a Linux …

thank you very much for help …

This issue renders Darktable for me almost unusable …

regards, ~dan

(ps. I have decent computer with i7 and 16GB of memory)

2

Which value is used in your preferences for darktable resources?

https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/4.2/en/preferences-settings/processing/#cpu--gpu--memory

3

You might want to set darktable resources to normal. Your system shouldn’t swap :slight_smile:

Any opencl device in use?

4

I use defaults here now

1960×1055 331 KB

I tried to play with it but it didn’t help … The behaviour is that once I export something, darktable has suddenly huge peak of requirement for a memory and in result the entire computer hangs for several minutes … 100% reproducible

5

Have you tried renaming your darktablerc file, so darktable can start with default values for everything?

6

What is the log saying? What modules are you using?

7

it sounds crazy but darktable doesn’t seem to have any log in Linux … I was looking everywhere, googling, I even did use hammer `find / -iname *darktable*’ … there are no logs from darktable in my system not any sign in GUI or in RC file that I can enable it

8

I think it is in a folder within the flatpak. There should be a thread around it.

9

On Linux, darktable is logging to the console (terminal).

10

For thr flatpak stuff lives in ~/.var/app/org.darktable.Darktable

And for some info, start it from the terminal with flatpak run org.darktable.Darktable -d all

11

Maybe we should add this to the FAQ in a Flatpak section.

12

Guys, thanks much for help … I’ve resolved the issue … it is really related to that the Darktable wants to use a huge peak of the memory while exporting file so if I really close all apps (yeah, crazy) on my desktop, export works …

13

I see in the corner that you are using D850 images. I think those are 45mp images, but I dont think dt will use that much memory. Looking into the log might explain what module is using memory.

14

If you have resources set to default:

default takes roughly 60% of your system memory and 70% of your GPU memory

So, if you have about 10 GB RAM free, there should be no (significant) swapping; if there is, maybe there is a bug? How much memory do you see darktable grabbing?

15

as I’ve pointed out above - I resolved the issue … Thank you (everybody) so much for all your input … When I export images I simply need to close other applications that are demanding the memory and I should make sure, that at least 8GB of memory is additionally free … then the peak during export happens but once the image is exported, the memory drops back to “normal” level …

It can be nicely seen while looking on the htop while exporting the image …

16

RESOLUTION:

Darktable really needs relatively lot memory while exporting so make sure before exporting that you have enough available memory (eg with default resources you shall have 60% of RAM available for Darktable - it will use it all while exporting, TIF especially)

https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/4.2/en/preferences-settings/processing/#cpu--gpu--memory

17

That’s the case with “normal” dt installations, there was at least one other issue reported about a flatpack-dt with the same problem. I think it’s related to kernel cgroups …

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