[BUG] Claude Desktop (Linux): GPU process launch retries at ~9,000/sec, writing 346 GB to /var/log/syslog in 24 hours

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

[BUG] Claude Desktop (Linux): GPU process launch retries at ~9,000/sec, writing 346 GB to /var/log/syslog in 24 hours

Summary

On Ubuntu 22.04 with an NVIDIA GPU, Claude Desktop's GPU process fails to launch with error_code=1002. The launch is then retried repeatedly, and each attempt writes an ERROR line to stderr. These lines reach /var/log/syslog via systemd-journald and rsyslog.

Measured from the log timestamps, the retries occur at roughly 9,000 per second and continue for as long as the process runs. Observed disk usage:

$ sudo du -h --max-depth=1 /var/log | sort -rh | head -3
469G    /var/log
4.1G    /var/log/journal
2.0M    /var/log/installer

$ sudo find /var/log -type f -size +1G -exec ls -lh {} \;
-rw-r----- 1 syslog adm 120G Aug  3 10:09 /var/log/syslog
-rw-r----- 1 syslog adm 346G Aug  2 00:00 /var/log/syslog.1

syslog.1 covers a single rotation period (~24 h). The root filesystem ran out of space.

Environment

| | |
|---|---|
| Claude Desktop version | 1.24012.9 |
| Install method | Official Anthropic apt repository (downloads.claude.ai/claude-desktop/apt/stable) |
| OS | Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, x86_64 |
| Kernel | 6.8.0-110-generic |
| Session type | X11 |
| Desktop | GNOME |
| GPU driver | NVIDIA 580.173.02 |
| libva | libva2 2.14.0-1 (Ubuntu 22.04 stock; VA-API interface version 1.14) |
| Hardware acceleration | Default; never manually disabled |

Log output

Excerpt from /var/log/syslog:

[5538:0727/095517.198730:ERROR:media/gpu/vaapi/vaapi_wrapper.cc:1680] Installed VAAPI version is too old. min supported version: 1.17 installed version: 1.14
[5500:0728/101429.991060:ERROR:content/browser/network_service_instance_impl.cc:703] Network service crashed or was terminated, restarting service.
[5500:0728/101429.995143:ERROR:content/common/zygote/zygote_communication_linux.cc:291] Failed to send GetTerminationStatus message to zygote
[5500:0728/101429.999710:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:992] GPU process launch failed: error_code=1002
[5500:0728/101430.000568:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:992] GPU process launch failed: error_code=1002
[5500:0728/101430.000790:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:992] GPU process launch failed: error_code=1002
[5500:0728/101430.000943:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:992] GPU process launch failed: error_code=1002
[5500:0728/101430.001087:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:992] GPU process launch failed: error_code=1002
... (identical lines continue)
[5500:0728/101430.003903:ERROR:content/browser/gpu/gpu_process_host.cc:992] GPU process launch failed: error_code=1002

30 consecutive gpu_process_host.cc:992 lines span 3.3 ms (101430.000568 → 101430.003903). At ~110 bytes per line this is approximately 1 MB/s written continuously.

No GPU process isn't usable. Goodbye. line appears anywhere in the log — the retry sequence did not terminate on its own.

Measurements

Share of total syslog volume, sampled over the last 200,000 lines:

$ sudo tail -n 200000 /var/log/syslog | awk '{print $5}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -5
 194833 com.anthropic.Claude.desktop[420280]:
   1546 kernel:
    788 /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[1463]:
    748 /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[3370]:
    465 systemd[1]:

97.4% of sampled lines come from the app. Each line carries a distinct microsecond timestamp, so rsyslog's message repeated N times deduplication does not apply and every attempt is written out in full.

Expected behavior

The retry sequence terminates after a bounded number of failures, and repeated identical errors are not written once per attempt.

Actual behavior

Retries continue at ~9,000/sec for the lifetime of the process, each writing a log line, until the app is closed or the disk fills.

Impact

• /var/log reached 469 GB; the root filesystem ran out of space.
• Recovery required truncate -s 0 /var/log/syslog (rm does not release the space while rsyslog holds the file descriptor).

What Should Happen?

The retry sequence terminates after a bounded number of failures, and repeated identical errors are not written once per attempt.

Error Messages/Logs

Please see attached file.

Steps to Reproduce

Not yet isolated to a reliable trigger. The conditions under which it was observed:

1. Ubuntu 22.04 (kernel 6.8.0-110-generic), X11/GNOME, NVIDIA driver 580.173.02,

stock libva2 2.14.0-1 (VA-API 1.14).

1. Claude Desktop 1.24012.9 installed from the official apt repository, launched

normally and left running. Hardware acceleration at its default setting.

1. The GPU process fails to launch with error_code=1002 and the launch is retried

continuously (see Log output).

1. Observed across two separate app sessions on different days (PIDs 5500 and 5538,

07/27 and 07/28), so it is not a one-off.

To check whether a given machine is affected:

sudo tail -n 100000 /var/log/syslog | grep -c "gpu_process_host"

A non-trivial count here indicates the same loop.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

1.24012.9 （claude-desktop)

Platform

Other

Operating System

Ubuntu/Debian Linux

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

syslog_tail.txt