Run away process, what are you? :- \

Chadley Wilson chadley at pinteq.co.za
Wed Apr 28 10:28:48 UTC 2004


Hello Guys and Gals

I keep experiencing a strange run away process. seems it always starts
early in the evenings, But I cant find it. I have checked my cron
scheduled tasks and have even disabled it.

What happens is while listening to music from hard-disk or watching a
movie from dvd or hard disk, the sound  or movie will start to hack as a
result of a lot of hard drive activity.
So I have tried to run top and see what is using all the cpu time, but
everything seems to be normal, nothing is reporting to be excessively
high, I have even closed xine, gxine and xmms.
Check it out!
This is when the system is fine:

Mem:   773612k av,  758832k used,   14780k free,       0k shrd,  146900k
buff
       370312k active,             205632k inactive
Swap:  522104k av,    3964k used,  518140k free                  286108k
cached
                                                                                                                                                             
  PID USER     PRI  NI  SIZE  RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM   TIME CPU
COMMAND
 4301 root      15   0  113M  32M  8548 S    18.6  4.3 104:58   0 X
16120 chadley   15   0 12456  12M  8484 S     7.6  1.6   0:04   0
gnome-terminal
 4420 chadley   15   0  7008 7008  5864 S     0.1  0.9   0:09   0
metacity
    1 root      16   0   420  420   360 S     0.0  0.0   0:04   0 init
    2 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
keventd
    3 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0 kapmd
    4 root      34  19     0    0     0 SWN   0.0  0.0   0:00   0
ksoftirqd/0
    6 root      25   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
bdflush
    5 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:01   0 kswapd
    7 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
kupdated
    8 root      20   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
mdrecoveryd
   12 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
kjournald
   81 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0 khubd
 2140 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
kjournald
 2240 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
kjournald
 2351 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
kjournald
 3852 root      16   0   568  568   488 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
syslogd
 3856 root      15   0   372  372   312 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0 klogd
 3877 rpc       16   0   572  572   496 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
portmap
 3897 rpcuser   19   0   708  708   632 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
rpc.statd
 3944 root      15   0  2352 2348  1532 S     0.0  0.3   0:00   0
mount.smbfs
 3949 root      15   0  2360 2356  1540 S     0.0  0.3   0:00   0
mount.smbfs
 3963 root      16   0   432  432   376 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0 apmd
 4003 root      15   0   652  652   468 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0 smartd
 4058 root      19   0  1404 1404  1232 S     0.0  0.1   0:00   0 sshd
 4074 root      16   0   892  892   776 S     0.0  0.1   0:00   0 xinetd
 4095 root      16   0  2492 2308  1844 S     0.0  0.2   0:00   0
sendmail
 4104 smmsp     16   0  2260 1984  1756 S     0.0  0.2   0:00   0
sendmail
 4126 root      16   0  5700 5584  5472 S     0.0  0.7   0:00   0 httpd
 4136 root      16   0   596  596   528 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0 crond
 4169 xfs       16   0 11232  10M  1176 S     0.0  1.4   0:15   0 xfs
 4179 root      16   0  2480 2024  1664 S     0.0  0.2   0:00   0 smbd
 4183 root      16   0  2232 1788  1552 S     0.0  0.2   0:19   0 nmbd
 4202 daemon    16   0   568  560   508 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0 atd
 4212 dbus      17   0   856  840   760 S     0.0  0.1   0:00   0
dbus-daemon-1
 4253 root      18   0   340  340   288 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
mingetty
 4254 root      18   0   344  344   288 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
mingetty
 4255 root      18   0   344  344   288 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
mingetty
 4256 root      19   0   344  344   288 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
mingetty
 4257 root      20   0   344  344   288 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
mingetty
 4258 root      20   0   344  344   288 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
mingetty
 4259 root      16   0  1948 1948  1792 S     0.0  0.2   0:00   0
gdm-binary
 4310 chadley   15   0  8828 8828  6664 S     0.0  1.1   0:00   0
gnome-session
 4363 chadley   16   0   624  564   500 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
ssh-agent
 4367 chadley   16   0 18272  17M  2020 S     0.0  2.3   0:02   0
gconfd-2
 4372 chadley   15   0  1680 1680   364 S     0.0  0.2   0:00   0 esd
 4381 chadley   16   0  2528 2528  1988 S     0.0  0.3   0:00   0
bonobo-activati
 4383 chadley   15   0  7168 7168  5584 S     0.0  0.9   0:00   0
gnome-settings-

Ok 
Now this is when the hard drive light is going nuts and the system is
unresponsive and everything is extremely slow.

 12:24:11  up 2 days,  2:54,  2 users,  load average: 0.25, 0.28, 0.13
83 processes: 82 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU states:  cpu    user    nice  system    irq  softirq  iowait    idle
           total    0.0%    0.0%    0.0%   0.0%     0.0%    0.0%    0.0%
Mem:   773612k av,  759016k used,   14596k free,       0k shrd,  146932k
buff
       370480k active,             205624k inactive
Swap:  522104k av,    3964k used,  518140k free                  286124k
cached
                                                                                                                                                             
  PID USER     PRI  NI  SIZE  RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM   TIME CPU
COMMAND
 4301 root      15   0  113M  32M  8548 S    11.8  4.3 105:08   0 X
16120 chadley   15   0 12720  12M  8488 S     6.8  1.6   0:05   0
gnome-terminal
 4428 chadley   16   0  5608 5608  4880 S     0.5  0.7   1:49   0
magicdev
 4420 chadley   16   0  7008 7008  5864 S     0.1  0.9   0:09   0
metacity
 4424 chadley   15   0 18056  17M  9056 S     0.1  2.3   0:07   0
gnome-panel
15982 chadley   16   0 41632  40M 17156 S     0.1  5.3   0:40   0
evolution
16160 chadley   16   0  1144 1144   880 R     0.1  0.1   0:00   0 top
    1 root      16   0   420  420   360 S     0.0  0.0   0:04   0 init
    2 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
keventd
    3 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0 kapmd
    4 root      34  19     0    0     0 SWN   0.0  0.0   0:00   0
ksoftirqd/0
    6 root      25   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
bdflush
    5 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:01   0 kswapd
    7 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
kupdated
    8 root      20   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
mdrecoveryd
   12 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
kjournald
   81 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0 khubd
 2140 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
kjournald
 2240 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
kjournald
 2351 root      15   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00   0
kjournald
 3852 root      16   0   568  568   488 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
syslogd
 3856 root      15   0   372  372   312 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0 klogd
 3877 rpc       16   0   572  572   496 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
portmap
 3897 rpcuser   19   0   708  708   632 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
rpc.statd
 3944 root      15   0  2352 2348  1532 S     0.0  0.3   0:00   0
mount.smbfs
 3949 root      15   0  2360 2356  1540 S     0.0  0.3   0:00   0
mount.smbfs
 3963 root      16   0   432  432   376 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0 apmd
 4003 root      15   0   652  652   468 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0 smartd
 4058 root      19   0  1404 1404  1232 S     0.0  0.1   0:00   0 sshd
 4074 root      16   0   892  892   776 S     0.0  0.1   0:00   0 xinetd
 4095 root      16   0  2492 2308  1844 S     0.0  0.2   0:00   0
sendmail
 4104 smmsp     16   0  2260 1984  1756 S     0.0  0.2   0:00   0
sendmail
 4126 root      16   0  5700 5584  5472 S     0.0  0.7   0:00   0 httpd
 4136 root      16   0   596  596   528 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0 crond
 4169 xfs       16   0 11232  10M  1176 S     0.0  1.4   0:15   0 xfs
 4179 root      16   0  2480 2024  1664 S     0.0  0.2   0:00   0 smbd
 4183 root      15   0  2232 1788  1552 S     0.0  0.2   0:19   0 nmbd
 4202 daemon    16   0   568  560   508 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0 atd
 4212 dbus      17   0   856  840   760 S     0.0  0.1   0:00   0
dbus-daemon-1
 4253 root      18   0   340  340   288 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
mingetty
 4254 root      18   0   344  344   288 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
mingetty
 4255 root      18   0   344  344   288 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
mingetty
 4256 root      19   0   344  344   288 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
mingetty
 4257 root      20   0   344  344   288 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
mingetty
 4258 root      20   0   344  344   288 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
mingetty
 4259 root      16   0  1948 1948  1792 S     0.0  0.2   0:00   0
gdm-binary
 4310 chadley   16   0  8828 8828  6664 S     0.0  1.1   0:00   0
gnome-session
 4363 chadley   16   0   624  564   500 S     0.0  0.0   0:00   0
ssh-agent

Ok so the question is, is there another way to find out what is causing
the strange behaviour?



-- 
Chadley - Linux Rocks
Welcome to my world.
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