plymouthd constantly uses 5% of CPU

When plymouthd is burning up 5% of the CPU it also prevents Ctrl-Alt-F6 from giving you a console login. Instead you get a black screen that just echoes what you type.

After "sudo plymouth --quit", the 5% waste is gone and Ctrl-Alt-F6 gives you a console login prompt.

This is what the daemon is doing wasting the CPU:

$ time sudo strace -p465 -c
strace: Process 465 attached
^Cstrace: Process 465 detached
% time seconds usecs/call calls errors syscall
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00 0.020412 1 16376 epoll_wait
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00 0.020412 16376 total

real 0m15.274s
user 0m0.112s
sys 0m0.428s

I have the exact same bug. plymouthd runs at a little under 5% all the time after a reboot. I kill the plymouthd process so it doesn't waste electricity. But it starts up again and does the same thing next boot.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

same here @ 6-7% .

I just noticed this behavior. "sudo plymouth --quit" is my current mitigation, as well.

I did not have this problem until recently changed default theme. Now plymouthd utilizes ~15% cpu.

sudo killall plymouthd

Same on Ubuntu 18.04.2, ~ 5% CPU, plymouth package version 0.9.2-3ubuntu13.5

Sorry, made a mistake in previous comment (package version given is for 16.04.5).

Actually, the package version on 18.04.2 is plymouth 0.9.3-1ubuntu7.18.04.1

Well, it's quite frustrating that the bug still persists even on 18.04. I'm using Xubuntu 18.04 with updates installed and the plymouthd had 25% CPU usage on ThinkPad T43p. I found a workaround on how to disable it. The process won't bother you again.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/407131/why-is-plymouthd-crashing-on-startup

Sorry, that was a wrong link. Here's the correct one:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/766973/16-04-how-to-uninstall-plymouth

Same on Ubuntu Kylin 19.04

See the same bug on my HP Spectre x360 15t.

plymouthd consistently consumes over 20% CPU resources while mostly waiting:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
  487 root 20 0 172488 45328 9900 R 22.6 0.1 156:40.10 plymouthd

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
➜ time sudo strace -p487 -c

strace: Process 487 attached
^Cstrace: Process 487 detached
% time seconds usecs/call calls errors syscall
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
 97.29 0.012121 2 5542 epoll_wait
  1.47 0.000183 6 31 write
  0.80 0.000100 3 31 read
  0.44 0.000055 2 31 31 sendto
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00 0.012459 5635 31 total
sudo strace -p487 -c 0.14s user 0.29s system 2% cpu 19.240 total

This is on Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS

Same on Ubuntu 19.10, ~ 5% CPU,
plymouth package version 0.9.4git20190712-0ubuntu4.1

Same problem on Xubuntu 20.04

Same problem on a fresh install of Ubuntu 19.10 x86_64 on a Toshiba Satellite U405. Another curiosity is that plymouth fails to display anything on the splash screen, it is just black until the system fully boots up.

Removing splash from /etc/default/grub disables plymouth.