"The offending callback was SourceFunc" errors flooding syslog. 50k + errors per SECOND! Disk filling up!

[spawnsworth]

Hi all,

Today I got an unexpected popup message warning me that I was about to run out of available disk space in / partition.

After investigating I found /var/log/syslog was 53 GB.
The syslog was absolutely chocked full of the following errors:

Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos gjs[9294]: Attempting to run a JS callback during garbage collection. This is most likely caused by destroying a Clutter actor or GTK widget with ::destroy signal connected, or using the destroy(), dispose(), or remove() vfuncs. Because it would crash the application, it has been blocked.
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos gjs[9294]: The offending callback was SourceFunc().
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos gjs[9294]: Attempting to run a JS callback during garbage collection. This is most likely caused by destroying a Clutter actor or GTK widget with ::destroy signal connected, or using the destroy(), dispose(), or remove() vfuncs. Because it would crash the application, it has been blocked.
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos gjs[9294]: The offending callback was SourceFunc().
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos gjs[9294]: Attempting to run a JS callback during garbage collection. This is most likely caused by destroying a Clutter actor or GTK widget with ::destroy signal connected, or using the destroy(), dispose(), or remove() vfuncs. Because it would crash the application, it has been blocked.
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos gjs[9294]: The offending callback was SourceFunc().
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos gjs[9294]: Attempting to run a JS callback during garbage collection. This is most likely caused by destroying a Clutter actor or GTK widget with ::destroy signal connected, or using the destroy(), dispose(), or remove() vfuncs. Because it would crash the application, it has been blocked.
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos gjs[9294]: The offending callback was SourceFunc().
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos gjs[9294]: Attempting to run a JS callback during garbage collection. This is most likely caused by destroying a Clutter actor or GTK widget with ::destroy signal connected, or using the destroy(), dispose(), or remove() vfuncs. Because it would crash the application, it has been blocked.
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos gjs[9294]: The offending callback was SourceFunc().
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos gjs[9294]: Attempting to run a JS callback during garbage collection. This is most likely caused by destroying a Clutter actor or GTK widget with ::destroy signal connected, or using the destroy(), dispose(), or remove() vfuncs. Because it would crash the application, it has been blocked.
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos gjs[9294]: The offending callback was SourceFunc().
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos gjs[9294]: Attempting to run a JS callback during garbage collection. This is most likely caused by destroying a Clutter actor or GTK widget with ::destroy signal connected, or using the destroy(), dispose(), or remove() vfuncs. Because it would crash the application, it has been blocked.
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos gjs[9294]: The offending callback was SourceFunc().
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: #0   55d7028edb90 i   /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-connect@zorinos.com/service/daemon.js:726 (91c9e584920 @ 971)
Sep 10 19:25:17 k-zorinos org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.ZorinConnect[9294]: == Stack trace for context 0x55d7028c71a0 ==

This is a small snippet. This error is repeating about 50 THOUSAND times per second and causes disk space to run out pretty quickly.

I have seen this pop up on Ubuntu forums etc. I updated gnome-shell and rebooted. All seemed well but now the same problem is back again.

As a side note, timeshift is also frequently using 100% CPU and hasn't completed a snapshot in over a month. Something weird going on here.

Anyone else having this issue with ZorinOS? This is a very serious problem as it's causing some 60 GB of disk to fill up within about 3 hours just by logging errors!

Many thanks!

[zenzen]

I have no idea what is causing this, but you can set a small script that runs every few minutes to "clear" the log file so that you don't have to deal with this manually until you figure this out. Not only is annoying but so many writes can be damaging to the hard drive itself.

Type crontab -e to edit the cron jobs for the current user.

# This will run it every 15 minutes

# m h  dom mon dow   command
*/15 * * * * truncate -s 0 /var/log/syslog

For that particular log file you may need sudo privileges. Check this command first and if you get a permission error then you'll need to add it to the sudo user, using sudo crontab -e.

Remember to remove these jobs when you no longer need them!

[Aravisian]

@spawnsworth

This is a very serious problem

Agreed. And @zenzen provided a good workaround to prevent running out of disk space.

This is a Gnome-Shell bug. If this was me...
I would probably back up personal data and wipe and reinstall Zorin OS.
That would be far more likely to effectively address it, then trying to take it a piece at a time - assuming taking it a piece at a time even worked at all.

[spawnsworth]

Thanks guys. The cron well help to manage the issue for the time being at least.
I mean, it's consuming about 3 GB of disk space every 10 minutes which is absolutely beyond insane.

I've ran out of space a couple of times and just emptied the syslog file with:

sudo > /var/log/syslog

53 GB freed up in less than a second.

Reinstalling the OS is a pain so would like to avoid that if possible.
The issue has been around for a while but I haven't found the solution/fix as yet. Bug was reported in Ubuntu 20.04:

Shell stuck forever spewing syslog (#1868) · Issues · GNOME / gnome-shell ·...

Also, it specifically complains about the zorin-connect daemon. May uninstall zorin-connect and see if the problem goes away.

All good at the moment though so I'm not exactly sure what triggers it. I recently installed Java 17 to run Minecraft.

Between that and Timeshift using 100% CPU whilst apparently running a snapshot, yet snapshots have been failing for a few weeks, so that's something else that needs sorting. Yayyy

[zenzen]

@spawnsworth

All seemed well but now the same problem is back again.

From the Gnome bug report it seems people are roughly identifying what is triggering this behavior. Some after locking the session and logging back in, others when Firefox restoring a previous session... Maybe this happens when you do something specific, or is it as soon as you boot the computer?

A trick you can use to monitor this is opening a terminal (which may itself be the cause of the issue, but oh well) and watch the file for changes with:

watch ls -lh /var/log/syslog/

It will run this command every two seconds by default, enough to notice if the file size increases quickly which may help to identify the cause.

Otherwise, I agree that a reinstall may be more effective. But maybe removing Zorin Connect is enough, and try to install it again to see if it continues to misbehave.

[spawnsworth]

Just an update on this issue in case anyone else comes across it. It turns out this was pretty significant:

As a side note, timeshift is also frequently using 100% CPU and hasn't completed a snapshot in over a month. Something weird going on here.

I found that timeshift was failing because it couldn't write snapshots to my micro SD card (which had been working fine for months). The micro SD was corrupt.

I created an EXT4 partition in my 1 TB internal non SSD drive (you know the ones) to store timeshift snapshots instead of the borked micro SD. Since then, snapshots have been working, there has been no more instances of timeshift gobbling up 100% CPU and above all, I have not seen a single "The offending callback was SourceFunc" error ever since.

This is clearly related to the root cause IMO. So if anyone else has the same issue, check "top" or "htop" output and if timeshift is using 100% CPU at will then it's a sign the storage device you have deployed to store timeshift snapshots has sh*t the bed.

Hope this helps!