RHELv4 and v5 - So slow as to be unusable.

[Gary E Barnes]

> From: lists-redhat <replies-lists-b3z1-redhat at listmail.innovate.net>
> Date: 10/07/2010 12:44 PM
> Subject: Re: RHELv4 and v5 - So slow as to be unusable.
> 
> I think you indicated in one of your earlier messages that you have
> ntpd running on these machines. Have you tried turning it off (and
> killing the running process) to see what happens?
> 
> I don't normally run ntpd on my laptops but one got it
> installed/enabled on a recent install. When not connected to a
> network I was seeing things somewhat like what you're seeing. The
> load goes up, but nothing shows in "top", and the keyboard become
> fairly unresponsive. Killing off ntpd seemed to clean up the problem.
> 
> If that fixes it, then you can try to debug what's going on, e.g.,
> confirming that they really do have access to your in-house ntp
> server.
> 
> Of course, it may not be this at all, but since I'm not seeing a lot
> of ideas I thought I'd pass along this one.
> 
>    - Richard

ntp is on my list of suspects.  I've been considering running it under a 
tracing program so that I can watch the system calls and try to correlate 
them with the problem when it occurs.  But killing ntpd, or doing 
"/etc/init.d/ntpd stop" doesn't fix the problem.  I'll have to try turning 
it off, reboot, and run for a day without it and see what happens.  One 
frustration with this problem is that I only get one or two shots a day at 
"seeing" anything.

        Gary