On Wed, 17 Dec 2003, Gustavo Rahal wrote: > Reply-To: fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx > > I have this same problem. At least for me what happens is that the > process "fam" keeps the cdrom busy. I can only umount it after killing > this process. Type "/sbin/fuser -mv /mnt/cdrom" to check if this is > your case... > Does anybody know what is the purpose of this process? The 'fam' process/API notices when files change for the desktop and other registered processes (see stat). In part this is how the desktop is aware of the CDROM to put an icon up on the background. With fam an application like the desktop does not need to poll (stat) a long list of directories, devices and files over and over. Mostly /mnt is watched -- see xfstab. In addition to the desktop other applications can request that fam monitor devices and send a message when it changes. Killing such a process might leave 'fam' watching but there is no longer a process picking up the messages. For example if you kill -9 such a process it has no opportunity to notify fam that it no longer matters. Timeouts that might be too long for you are intended to clean things up (eventually). Fam has a config file (/etc/fam.conf) as well as some command line debug modes. Note also that fam and networks can be a tangle. Watch your NFS mounts and exports. If you have a samba/nfs directory open on the desktop ponder how the desktop notices a remote addition to that view. Most folks should not export /, /mnt, /dev many do. If you are not behind a firewall that blocks the fam port you may wish to manage the port (iptables, ipchains) or simply set fam to listen to the local interface only. In /etc/fam.conf read the comments and see the line: local_only = false Change it to: local_only = true I think the port is.... /etc/rpc:sgi_fam 391002 fam Or you may wish to turn it off. See inetd or xinetd (some should look in /etc/xinetd.d/sgi_fam). I had some RH/Linux troubles with CD ROMS but turning fam off did not fix them. Thus... I suspect multiple applications are all interested in the CDROM: some to burn when blanks are inserted, some to play music when audio CDs are inserted, some to play mp3's when an iso full of audio stuff shows up, some to notice and auto-run a CDROM on insertion. Some to "auto-magically" divine the fs type and mount it. Some use fam/imond some stat, some may even attempt to open the device in a polling loop. For the API think of it as select() on a blocked stat() system call that unblocks on change. Regards, TomM -- T o m M i t c h e l l mitch48 -a*t- yahoo-dot-com
