Strange goings-on in my 2006 box

[satelliteuser083]

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 :unsure: , 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 https://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.

Edited April 9, 2008 by satelliteuser083

[ianw1974]

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).

[satelliteuser083]

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

 

top - 19:55:33 up  3:39,  3 users,  load average: 1.97, 1.66, 1.75
Tasks: 105 total,   2 running,  93 sleeping,   0 stopped,  10 zombie
Cpu(s): 87.5% us,  3.3% sy,  0.0% ni,  8.9% id,  0.0% wa,  0.3% hi,  0.0% si
Mem:	514868k total,   426636k used,	88232k free,	14620k buffers
Swap:  1638588k total,	 4804k used,  1633784k free,   155784k cached

Don't quite know where the '3 users' comes from, all I could see were myself and root. :unsure:

And, are the zombies significant?

Thanks

Edited April 10, 2008 by satelliteuser083

[ianw1974]

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:

 

top - 09:00:50 up 18 min,  2 users,  load average: 0.18, 0.25, 0.29
Tasks: 127 total,   1 running, 126 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  3.9%us,  1.1%sy,  0.0%ni, 94.9%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   4056644k total,  1062488k used,  2994156k free,	25208k buffers
Swap:  2008084k total,		0k used,  2008084k free,   356364k cached

 

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.

[satelliteuser083]

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

[ianw1974]

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

[tyme]

Don't quite know where the '3 users' comes from, all I could see were myself and root. :unsure:

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):

mark	 pts/1		2008-04-10 04:53 (ptr-209-77-178-36:S.1)
mark	 pts/2		2008-04-10 04:53 (ptr-209-77-178-36:S.2)
mark	 pts/3		2008-04-10 04:53 (ptr-209-77-178-36:S.3)
mark	 pts/4		2008-04-10 04:53 (ptr-209-77-178-36:S.4)
mark	 pts/5		2008-04-10 04:53 (ptr-209-77-178-36:S.5)

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).

Edited April 10, 2008 by tyme

[satelliteuser083]

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?

[satelliteuser083]

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

  PID USER	  PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM	TIME+  COMMAND
6336 lawrence  15   0  436m 303m  10m S 96.3 60.3  20:45.21 kded

Thanks

[Greg2]

which process is 'kded' (permanently consuming in excess of 90%), exactly?

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.