Memory leak with Maya 6 on Linux

[jiann]

I have noticed a rather big (but quite slow happening) memory leak in Maya 6 when just doing some standard modeling.

When I first start Maya up my computer is using about 400MB of RAM. But over the next few hours of modeling, Maya (I assume) makes the X server use up all of my 1GB of RAM and 500MB swap. My machine then begins to come to a halt - until I restart X, freeing up the memory.

I am just using standard poly editing stuff, split poly, moving verts etc, with an occasional render.

Anyone else noticed anything like this?

Maya 5 used to run for days with no problems.. and I haven't upgraded that much since then.

Fully qualified machine at Uni that also exhibits the problem:
Red Hat Enterprise Workstation 3
P4 3GHz
2GB RAM
QuadroFX 1000 128MB

My local machine:
Debian Linux Unstable
Kernel 2.6.4
NVIDIA driver 5336
1GB RAM
128MB GeForce Ti 4600

[chicorico]

After tracking down a nasty memory leak on my system for a while, I've traced it to maya 6, so I might be having the same problem. I have a gig of ram, and after a short while of normal maya usage, both the X server and maya are using pretty much all of it. Quitting maya of course clears that portion of it, but I have to restart X completely to reclaim that memory. Upon further inspection Ive found this problem extremely easy to demonstrate - I open a terminal, run top, hit M to sort by memory usage, run maya, create a sphere, and start dragging it around the screen randomly. In the top window I can watch maya's and X's memory usage climb rapidly until before long I'm using a gig of ram to drag a sphere around the screen. Ouch.

I've verified that Maya 5 is free of this issue.
I've reproduced this problem under maya 6 and maya 6.01 on both of the following machines, trying various kernels and nvidia drivers (5336 and 6111) with the same results

P4 2.4 GeForce4 Ti4200 64m running Fedora Core 2
dual athlon 1.5 GeForce2 64m running Redhat 9

Can anyone else try that little experiment and tell me if they have the same problem? Or has anyone else noticed this memory issue? I guess its back to maya 5 for me for the moment =(

[jiann]

Yep. Sounds exactly the same as the issue I have. I have filed a bug with alias, but haven't really heard anything back in over a month, don't know what is happening on their end... Let me know if you have any progress.

[chicorico]

The only other thing i've discovered is that the leak seems to be in some way related to the channel box, for if i hide it and do the sphere dragging test, all is well... I stumbled across a thread at http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=140...age=4&pp=15 which looks like people were having possibly similar issues relating to channel box memory leaks/sluggishness in 6.. except they're all running windows...

[sauzer]

Ditto that. The memory usage remained stable after hiding the channel box. ANY SOLUTIONS YET? It is difficult doing anything without the channel box. Can you have a floating channel box? Same memory leak?

Maya 6 Unlimited on Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 3

[joojaa]

wierd im not experiencing a leak i never even noticed and trust me i would have noticed a trivial one like this.

Have yoou guys tried upgrading to 6.01 (no i didnt have problems on 5.01 either).

[user_deleted]

Shaidar,

I have not experienced memory issues while running Maya on SuSE Linux Professional. The reason you may be having memory issues and also reason for Alias not responding to your bug report is that you are trying to run Maya on a Debian based system. I'm assuming you used something like Alien to convert the Maya RPM binary packages to ".deb" that were originally compiled for Red Hat Linux. Considering I installed Maya "as is" on my RPM based distribution and did not have such an issue with memory as you experienced I'd conclude your package conversion either did not go as intended or Maya will not run properly on your distribution. If you're open to consider using an alternate Linux distribution that is RPM based then read my post in this forum regarding Novell's November releases.

Workstation Specs:
CPU: Intel P4-HT 3.2 GHz
Motherboard: Abit IC7-G
RAM: 1 GB OCZ Dual Channel PC4000 500MHz
HDD: x2 Western Digital 120 GB 7200 RPM
Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 500 AGP / Driver: IA32 53.36
OS: SuSE Linux Professional 9.1 (32-bit)
Desktop: KDE 3.3
Maya: Unlimited 6.0.1

[chicorico]

Dark_Knight:
I've experienced the memory leak in both Redhat 9 and Fedora Core 2, so I don't think its an RPM based issue unless skyvu3d and I are experiencing different bugs.

Joojaa:
yes, 6.01 has the leak too.

Anyway a little new light on the subject:
As a test, I launched maya with X11 forwarding over the network to a completely different system (an old iMac running yellow-dog linux with no hardware 3d acceleration at all) and when doing the drag test on it I didn't get the memory leak. This tells me that it's likely an issue related to NVidia hardware acceleration. So I assume its just a problem maya experiences with "consumer" nvidia cards like we're both running.. And since they're unsupported by Alias we can't really complain about it so I guess we're out of luck =(. I suppose we can send a bug report to Nvidia and hope they fix the drivers...
Anyone got a spare Quadro laying around? ; )

[jiann]

Nah I don't think that is the problem. My uni has some dell linux machines running RH enterprise 3. They have quadro fx 3000 and I have tested and they have the same memory leak. This is what I reported to alias, not my debian machine, as it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the distribution.

And the fact that nothing was wrong with 5.x leads me to believe that it isn't anything to do with the nvidia drivers. I tested maya 5 and maya 6 at uni and again 5 didn't have any memory leak.

I'm trying to work out if there is anything different between our machines and the linux machines that studios would use - it's hard to believe that the leak wouldn't be fixed if the big users of maya were experiencing it....

Are you using KDE or GNOME? I doubt it would be anything to do with this but both my local machine and the machines at Uni use GNOME and experience the leak...

PS. I didn't use alien to convert the package, just used RPM on debian so that "shouldn't" be the issue... And I am running 6.0.1, same problem.

[jiann]

Ok I just did a bit more testing. Tried with just plain old X, no kde, no gnome, just an xterm and twm. Does exactly the same thing.

If I hide the channel box no memory leak. Very odd.

Tried swithing back to kernel 2.4, and to the qualified nvidia drivers 5336, same issue. Very irritating.

Seems like it is a maya 6 issue but then people seem to have it working on their machines.

Anyone have any ideas?

[joojaa]

Well the point as general is that its exremely hard to find the problem as following is true.

a) some or atleast most of the true heavyweight users arent expreriencing this problem. Wich might be due to [cencored] [cencored] [cencored] [cencored].

or peoplr using subpar components wich is sad for them but not realy something taht a real busines would whine about because tehy can get the hardware thats in their interst to keep them runnig.

I not realy crying out for you, it works for me and i get a
advantage. But ist supprising taht the guys i trust most dont have this problem, maeks me more than suspicious of your motives... sorry, not meaning to be harsh but such is the case.

PS also note athat a quddro 3000 is one of the oldest quaddro cards out there! and is not the best possible card form compatibilty standpoint altough it should be adequate for most jobs!!!!

[jiann]

Umm, the quadro fx 3000 is not one of the oldest quadros! Actually I made a mistake, it is a quadro fx 1000 at uni. A card that is basically the same as it is still listed on the nvidia latest products page. Can't exactly call that old in my opinion!! There definitely shouldn't be any problem with a 128MB 8x AGP workstation card, it is well above the "qualified hardware" for maya.

And with something as simple as switching off the channel box fixing the problem, I highly doubt the problem is hardware related. Possibly a conflict with some driver/libc versions or something. But it sounds like a bug to me.

[joojaa]

No there shouldnt be problems with the diplay card per se but the reason can as well be the bios of the mobo, its one of the critical components in the loop.

1000 ands 2000 are older than 3000 yes infact 1000 is a bit of a oddball in thge series by now.

if it is a bug wich is highly likely then why is it that only some machines experience the problem and others dont? And is the but aw related or is the bug from some external source such a s differences in os setup? If tis a lib thing like you said then its rely not soemthing alias can fix easily atleast bacause debugging it is HARD HARD HARD.

[jiann]

The point is that if Maya 5 works perfectly on a qualified hardware machine and Maya 6 doesn't then Alias should fix the problem ASAP. Just because it may be hard to diagnose is not an excuse, it is their responsibility as the software developer to fix the program on machines it is meant to run on.

On another note, reading through that thread on CGtalk about similar issues with the windows version makes you think that there must be something wrong somewhere. Two OSs seem to have an issue with the channel box...

[joojaa]

Have you contacted alias they would probably fix it if you sent them full disclosure of your sytem specs...

Altough if your on a non qualified distro doubt they would do anything (except tell you the distro isnt qualified ). Why woul anyone risk using a non qualified distro in firstplace? Just out of spite or sport?

Anyway I dont experience this leak (altough theres a different leak in the render eingene under windows) in windows or linux on a qaddro fx 1100, 2000 and a 500.

Are you on 6.0 or 6.01?

So is dont realy se a need for a fix but that doesnt mean there isnta issue, i wont be logging a bug because i dont se it. But where it is is another matter.

Ps. there are plenty of ways to ensure your software going wonky in linux, all of wich clearly are not the software makers problems, but rather tjhe local administrators. THis is as i se it the biggest single issue on linux.

[joojaa]

oaky so i may have been a jerk for awhile here but lets recap some FACTS about thei memoryleak.

-do I experience this problem, no not that im aware of, ive been trying to see it i just dont!

-Have i seen this problem, yes 3 times, all of wich were on systems that were just asking for trouble. disreputable to say the least you get my picture

• It is repeatable, according to you yes, i cant repeat it so its clever bugger. Wich mean its hard to pinpoint.

-is your sytem qualified, well atleast your graphics card is, thats not saying much... i can easily install driver versions and updates patches and libraries that make my life a nightmare so i dont (theres a thin line between stupid admin and buggy software) Lets all blame software its easier than to look at home base.

• older version of maya works fine, great! But that doesnet rule out anything.

-you are pissed. offcourse you are its affecting your work.

-is it possible that its some dirver or library etc type problem. Possibly, then the wisest choise would be to test this.

clecver questions? need aswers.

-are you objective? hard to tell but seem that you are more obsessed about being pissed than objective. Clouds your mind.

-have you contacted local admin? what do they say?

h-ave you contacted alias what do they say?

-is alias fixing this porblem? according to some sources yes...

-does it matter wether the problemi s in driver or progran not realy as nvida and alias work together to solve them but, a persons choise of drivers is of importance here.

-Why is it that people that say are using same version of maya on very comparable systems reporting exact opposites? Have mac people have complained? If so it seems to indicate its something on the system spec such as driver or other clash (trust me this is more comman than mist people seem to think it is as 70-90% of all computer problems are about this)?

-Is there a difference who corrects this problem form your standpoint? Should be No but is it?

-Is it psossible that it affects only certain cards? hard to tell seems tio be a widespread problem especialy amonst people who dont have alias sipport on their side (either bacuse of sytemspcs or non legit version). Still pssible it affects only certain base chipsets. Sould be done with statistical analysis.

-Am i willing to help? Yes i still am but as ive said becaus i dont experience the problem ist hard for me to ponpoint anything or be usefull for you.

• why is it that most guys id trust in maya related info dont experience this problem while others who i dont know to be as solid infosources dont... i can just guess and it dont make me happy.

-is there anything else?

[user_deleted]

Shaider,

Re: "The point is that if Maya 5 works perfectly on a qualified hardware machine and Maya 6 doesn't then Alias should fix the problem ASAP."

Well it's been my experience and I'm sure most Maya users at Highend would agree Alias for the most part has been very supportive of it's user base even for those that don't pay for maintenance support packages. Now considering your above statement I would agree if a release of Maya is not performing as expected on a "qualified system" approved by Alias then Alias should look into the problem. If the bug can be repeated by Alias then they will look into fixing it. Now as per your system specs (see below) listed in your original post it would seem as I already pointed out to you that you are not using Maya on a qualified system as per Alias recommendation clearly posted on their site. Debian Linux is not an approved OS for use with Maya. It's one thing to use an alternate RPM based distribution that is similar to Red Hat such as SuSE Linux, Mandrake, etc but entirely differant to convert the Maya files from their compiled binary RPM to install on a Debian based distribution. Second is that your graphics card is also not approved by Alias for use with Maya. Sure the gaming cards are listed for OSX users but they really have no DCC cards because of Apple. Even in the OSX users case Alias lists several issues with these gaming cards. It never surprises me to find people willing to post several times their complaints about a developer's product even when that same user is not willing to meet the minimum required system specs.

Shaider's machine:
Debian Linux Unstable (not approved)
Kernel 2.6.4
NVIDIA driver 5336
1GB RAM
128MB GeForce Ti 4600 (not approved)

[jiann]

I fully realize that my system is supported and won't even ask alias to look into it.

Initially I thought that it was just a debian issue but when I saw the exact same problem at Uni I realized that it must be more than that.

I don't have any issue with alias and don't expect them to support debian or anything. Just I have seen the EXACT same problem on a fully supported system:

RH enterprise workstation 3
P4 3GHz
2GB RAM
QuadroFX 1000 128MB cards
NVidia driver (can't remember which version off hand)
XFree86 4.3 (from memory)

I was actually quite surprised to see the memory leak on these machines as nearly EVERYTHING is different from my setup (and they are qualified).

So in other words, forgot anything about it not working in debian. The point is that a fully qualified system experiences the same problem.

And again I didn't convert the RPMs. I installed them as is. Shouldn't really be any different from installing it on SuSE as you do. Just because a distribution isn't RPM based doesn't mean it can't use them.

[jiann]

I contacted Alias on behalf of my Uni for the qualified machines at Uni - not for the unsupported debian machine.

They have said that they are looking the problem, but haven't heard anything back from the people actually doing the testing.

[user_deleted]

Well thanks for clearing the system specs up. It would of been better to post your original question with the University system specs than posting your personal system that is not qualified for Maya.

Re: "I didn't convert the RPMs. I installed them as is. Shouldn't really be any different from installing it on SuSE as you do. Just because a distribution isn't RPM based doesn't mean it can't use them."

Actually the binary packages are differant since they are compiled from source for a specific distribution. Red Hat Linux is what Alias compiles their Maya for Linux on and so it has a better chance working on another RPM (Red Hat Package Management) system such as SuSE Linux, Mandrake Linux, Yellow Dog Linux, etc than on one that is Debian based such as Debian, Linspire, etc. As for installing the Maya RPM binary packages with out converting it to Debian binary packages ".deb" it's not recommended. The reason for this is that doing it the way you did does not use Debian's package manager tool to check for all dependencies and errors during the installation. Something you want to have done considering the binary packages were compiled not for a Debian based system but for a RPM based distribution. If you use Alien to convert the ".rpm" packages to ".deb" then you have a better chance of properly installing and running the application. You also have less risk of garbage (left over) files being left on the system if you choose to later update or uninstall the application. It's good to remember that the file structures for Debian and RPM based distributions are differant.