I've just spent the last 10 minutes watching the CPU-history graph (Gnome System-monitor), on my Tosh Sat Pro 4600 box running mva 2006. Interestingly , the CPU load is around 90% for about 45 seconds every minute. Only firefox, kwrite and system-monitor are running, the LAN is down (cable even removed) and, according to my understanding of computers/OS's, the machine should be just idling along at about 5-10%. If this were Windoze I'd be panicking and reaching for the AV, but that, according to this post http://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtop...p;hl=anti-virus,
is unnecessary in a linux setup. Am I becoming paranoid, or somthing? How likely is it that I've got some 'uninvited friend' running about in the box?

If anyone could provide to this simple soul an explanation of what's going on (which might also reduce my state of concern), that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Did you look at what processes were running at the time? The "top" command from a console is good, as the most used processes appear at the top of the list, so you can easily see what pops up every 45 seconds (hopefully).

Thanks, Ian. Is the following of any interest ? (it's the 'header' of top):


Don't quite know where the '3 users' comes from, all I could see were myself and root.
And, are the zombies significant?
Thanks

Your memory looks fine to me, but you'll get processes below this that could be using a lot of resources - namely CPU since it's quite high. I currently have:



and I have Evolution and Firefox open in Gnome. Yes, I have more memory but that wouldn't mean I only use 4% of CPU. You need to take a look at the processes below to find out more.

How do I access stats on these other processes (top only displays 25)?

Also, what is a zombie?; I've done a search but all relevant hits assume that you know what it is. Thanks

On Unix and Unix-like operating systems, a zombie process or defunct process is a process that has completed execution but still has an entry.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&s...on&ct=title

Any terminal window (or terminal session, really) you have open counts as another "user". If you are logged into a desktop, have on terminal open, and within that terminal su to root top will report three users. If you would like to get some info on what users are logged in and from where you can use the "who" command at a terminal. Here is an example from my server where I'm running screen with 5 terminals open, all running different programs and such (naim, irssi, two shells and top):

First column is username, second is the terminal session number, third is the date of login, and last is an identifier that is usually linked to the system name or ident information of the source of the connection (in this case you can see the external IP of my system in this information: 209.77.178.36).

Well, the culprit seems to be firefox (v1.5.0.7). I've got 7 tabs open but all sites have been completely loaded (if that's the right expression, i.e. everything seems to be static). Nevertheless, 'top' is telling me that firefox is consuming beween 75 and 85% of cpu-time, even when (as now) the LAN is down. About 10 seconds in every 45, firefox-load decreases to between 15-25%, then shoots back up to 75-85%. Apart from firefox I've got system-monitor (1-2%), a konsole (for 'top', 1-2%) and kwrite (for this report, <1%) open. Seems mighty strange to me, surely this can't be normal; any ideas about what's going on?

Still less than happy about this cpu-loading problem. Is it possible to identify the process associated with a zombie and which process is 'kded' (permanently consuming in excess of 90%), exactly?

Thanks

KDED stands for KDE Daemon. Here's the kded/README.

I've never had kded use anywhere near that much cpu. You can use the readme to help check for your problems.