Les wrote:
>
> On Thu, 2007-01-25 at 14:02 -0600, Steve Siegfried wrote:
> > Les wrote:
> >
> > > On Wed, 2007-01-24 at 21:04 -0600, Steve Siegfried wrote:
> > > > Les wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Ladies and gentlemen...
> > > > > I have 104 processes listed when I run the monitor. My system is
> > > > > slowing to a crawl, dropping internet connections and jerking like it
> > > > > has epilepsy. Would someone please tell me how many process should be
> > > > > running in a simple workstation setup (not a server).
> > > > >
> > > > > Or better yet post a list.
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > Les H
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > It's actually more complicated than that. Response times & zippyness
> > > > pretty much rely on:
> > > > - how much spare capacity the cpu has,
> > > > - how much memory is available,
> > > > - amount of I/O (including networks) taking place
> > > >
> > > > A quick place to start looking for what's using all your horsepower
> > > > is top(1) (it's in the procps package). Pids that clock lots of time
> > > > are your first suspects.
> > > >
> > > > See also: nice(1).
> > > >
> > > > Hope this helps,
> > > >
> > > > -S
> > > Here is the output:
> > > # top -b -n 1
> > > top - 10:38:49 up 1 day, 19:16, 1 user, load average: 0.19, 0.52, 0.79
> > > Tasks: 113 total, 1 running, 112 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
> > > Cpu(s): 11.3%us, 1.5%sy, 0.1%ni, 85.8%id, 1.2%wa, 0.1%hi, 0.0%si,
> > > 0.0%st
> > > Mem: 254824k total, 248528k used, 6296k free, 3076k buffers
> > > Swap: 524280k total, 87628k used, 436652k free, 68036k cached
> > >
> > > PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
> > > 17220 root 15 0 2156 912 704 R 5.6 0.4 0:00.07 top
> > > 1 root 15 0 2032 564 540 S 0.0 0.2 0:02.88 init
> > > 2 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0
> > > 3 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 ksoftirqd/0
> > > 4 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0
> > > 5 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.63 events/0
> > > 6 root 14 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.05 khelper
> > > 7 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 kthread
> > > 53 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.30 kblockd/0
> > > 54 root 20 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 cqueue/0
> > > 55 root 20 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ksuspend_usbd
> > > 58 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 khubd
> > > 60 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 kseriod
> > > 88 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kapmd
> > > 93 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:02.13 pdflush
> > > 94 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:02.21 pdflush
> > > 95 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:08.64 kswapd0
> > > 96 root 20 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 aio/0
> > > 257 root 11 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kpsmoused
> > > 279 root 12 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ata/0
> > > 280 root 12 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ata_aux
> > > 287 root 13 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kmirrord
> > > 292 root 14 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ksnapd
> > > 295 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:11.12 kjournald
> > > 328 root 11 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kauditd
> > > 362 root 17 -4 2916 372 336 S 0.0 0.1 0:01.39 udevd
> > > 598 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 kgameportd
> > > 697 root 11 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ac97/0
> > > 1289 root 13 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kmpathd/0
> > > 1323 root 13 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kjournald
> > > 1813 root 15 0 9540 4716 324 S 0.0 1.9 0:00.11 restorecond
> > > 1824 root 18 0 1696 516 472 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.37 syslogd
> > > 1827 root 18 0 1644 380 328 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.07 klogd
> > > 1854 root 15 0 2124 312 264 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.97 mcstransd
> > > 1867 rpc 16 0 1780 396 392 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.00 portmap
> > > 1921 root 15 0 4924 260 236 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.05 rpc.idmapd
> > > 1941 dbus 18 0 13080 1248 984 S 0.0 0.5 0:36.77 dbus-daemon
> > > 1993 root 19 0 6260 752 636 S 0.0 0.3 0:08.64 automount
> > > 2038 root 18 0 15292 332 328 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.01 hpiod
> > > 2043 root 15 0 13032 856 580 S 0.0 0.3 0:02.32 python
> > > 2089 ntp 15 0 4840 4840 3856 S 0.0 1.9 0:00.87 ntpd
> > > 2115 root 15 0 8984 832 636 S 0.0 0.3 0:01.25 sendmail
> > > 2126 smmsp 15 0 7920 636 524 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.05 sendmail
> > > 2138 root 15 0 1868 280 260 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.37 gpm
> > > 2149 root 18 0 5392 612 544 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.51 crond
> > > 2182 xfs 18 0 4132 1188 500 S 0.0 0.5 0:01.16 xfs
> > > 2213 root 18 0 2584 344 300 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.02 atd
> > > 2229 root 18 0 47464 31m 3000 S 0.0 12.6 15:29.20 yum-updatesd
> > > 2257 haldaemo 15 0 6560 2216 1252 S 0.0 0.9 1:45.20 hald
> > > 2258 root 15 0 3104 892 804 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.09 hald-runner
> > > 2266 haldaemo 18 0 2348 576 572 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.00 hald-addon-keyb
> > > 2270 haldaemo 15 0 2344 576 572 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.00 hald-addon-keyb
> > > 2278 haldaemo 15 0 2344 604 580 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.59 hald-addon-keyb
> > > 2288 root 18 0 1920 528 508 S 0.0 0.2 0:11.16 hald-addon-stor
> > > 2290 root 18 0 1924 528 508 S 0.0 0.2 0:05.41 hald-addon-stor
> > > 2326 root 15 0 1960 768 624 S 0.0 0.3 0:06.07 dhcdbd
> > > 2342 root 15 0 14544 1528 1332 S 0.0 0.6 0:06.01 NetworkManager
> > > 2358 root 15 0 3156 988 868 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.03 NetworkManagerD
> > > 2453 root 18 0 1952 432 284 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.21 smartd
> > > 2461 root 18 0 1624 368 364 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 mingetty
> > > 2462 root 18 0 1628 368 364 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 mingetty
> > > 2463 root 19 0 1628 368 364 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 mingetty
> > > 2464 root 20 0 1624 368 364 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 mingetty
> > > 2465 root 21 0 1628 368 364 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 mingetty
> > > 2466 root 23 0 1628 368 364 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 mingetty
> > > 2541 root 18 0 4488 988 984 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.01 prefdm
> > > 2544 root 15 0 15376 1956 1952 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.32 gdm-binary
> > > 2633 root 18 0 15764 1768 1712 S 0.0 0.7 0:00.39 gdm-binary
> > > 4079 root 15 0 9748 1204 1088 S 0.0 0.5 0:02.89 cupsd
> > > 9138 lesh 15 0 2520 1132 960 S 0.0 0.4 0:05.79 gam_server
> > > 11489 root 15 0 33772 13m 6200 S 0.0 5.5 18:23.24 Xorg
> > > 11712 lesh 15 0 22416 5296 4312 S 0.0 2.1 0:00.88 gnome-session
> > > 11768 lesh 18 0 4288 344 220 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.03 ssh-agent
> > > 11771 lesh 18 0 2736 484 404 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.00 dbus-launch
> > > 11772 lesh 15 0 13080 972 728 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.24 dbus-daemon
> > > 11779 lesh 16 0 7480 3760 1656 S 0.0 1.5 0:06.36 gconfd-2
> > > 11782 lesh 20 0 2532 536 456 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.00 gnome-keyring-d
> > > 11784 lesh 15 0 33364 5932 4620 S 0.0 2.3 0:10.97 gnome-settings-
> > > 11800 lesh 15 0 17664 8088 5932 S 0.0 3.2 0:44.01 metacity
> > > 11804 lesh 15 0 66300 4456 3660 S 0.0 1.7 0:28.23 gnome-power-man
> > > 11807 lesh 18 0 70660 9.8m 7324 S 0.0 4.0 0:10.75 gnome-panel
> > > 11809 lesh 20 0 105m 8924 7368 S 0.0 3.5 0:07.55 nautilus
> > > 11814 lesh 15 0 38528 2152 1620 S 0.0 0.8 0:00.99 bonobo-activati
> > > 11822 lesh 16 0 11164 2380 2036 S 0.0 0.9 0:00.14 gnome-vfs-daemo
> > > 11826 lesh 15 0 69672 9.8m 7344 S 0.0 3.9 0:14.49 wnck-applet
> > > 11830 lesh 15 0 97148 5552 5004 S 0.0 2.2 0:00.46 trashapplet
> > > 11839 lesh 15 0 16056 4428 3652 S 0.0 1.7 0:09.53 gnome-screensav
> > > 11847 lesh 15 0 22564 5112 4596 S 0.0 2.0 0:00.43 notification-ar
> > > 11849 lesh 15 0 69080 6404 5668 S 0.0 2.5 0:02.73 mixer_applet2
> > > 11851 lesh 19 0 27900 7004 5800 S 0.0 2.7 0:05.77 clock-applet
> > > 11863 lesh 15 0 2440 728 692 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.55 mapping-daemon
> > > 11871 lesh 16 0 44236 4996 4652 S 0.0 2.0 0:00.42 eggcups
> > > 11879 lesh 15 0 22116 3112 3104 S 0.0 1.2 0:00.10 gnome-volume-ma
> > > 11886 lesh 15 0 24580 8460 5444 S 0.0 3.3 0:01.43 puplet
> > > 11887 lesh 15 0 89664 20m 9572 S 0.0 8.3 2:23.51 beagled
> > > 11891 lesh 15 0 68256 8604 6736 S 0.0 3.4 2:15.95 nm-applet
> > > 11898 lesh 18 0 5900 1032 1028 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.04 escd
> > > 11960 lesh 15 0 14900 3464 3128 S 0.0 1.4 0:06.72 pam-panel-icon
> > > 12052 root 15 0 1804 616 516 S 0.0 0.2 0:03.32 pam_timestamp_c
> > > 12155 lesh 15 0 100m 5640 3776 S 0.0 2.2 0:01.80 evolution-data-
> > > 13644 lesh 22 0 70940 7724 6228 S 0.0 3.0 0:00.49 evolution-alarm
> > > 16910 lesh 30 15 38172 14m 7888 S 0.0 6.0 0:06.58 beagled-helper
> > > 16981 lesh 15 0 60916 8372 5792 S 0.0 3.3 0:01.19 notification-da
> > > 16984 root 15 0 2280 1088 788 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.01 dhclient
> > > 17057 lesh 15 0 188m 24m 16m S 0.0 9.8 0:27.39 evolution
> > > 17104 lesh 15 0 31132 26m 2564 S 0.0 10.5 0:08.36 spamd
> > > 17108 lesh 18 0 31264 25m 1996 S 0.0 10.3 0:00.47 spamd
> > > 17112 lesh 15 0 83784 12m 8472 S 0.0 5.1 0:21.06 gnome-terminal
> > > 17117 lesh 18 0 2440 664 564 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.01 gnome-pty-helpe
> > > 17118 lesh 16 0 4624 1432 1156 S 0.0 0.6 0:00.19 bash
> > > 17149 lesh 15 0 80044 19m 13m S 0.0 7.9 0:06.39 gedit
> > > 17151 root 18 0 4808 1208 956 S 0.0 0.5 0:00.05 su
> > > 17155 root 15 0 4624 1444 1168 S 0.0 0.6 0:00.15 bash
> > >
> > > [root@localhost ~]#
> > >
> > > Other that just entirely too many things running, this doesn't seem to
> > > tell much about the problem.
> > > Note that I run Gnome desktop, but there are a large number of items
> > > beginning with "k", which I thought indicated
> > > the KDE versions of software.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Les H
> > >
> > >
> >
> > Okay... first: was your system sluggish when you grabbed the output
> > above? If not, it's probably not much use in diagnosing the problem.
> > Your average system load looks light, so you're clearly not continously
> > beating the CPU to death.
> This also applies to swap. I am not getting much swap action either.
If I remember an earlier post correctly, you've oversubscribed memory by about
150%, so you _are_ swapping. The issue with swapping is not whether or not
it's happening, but when it happens, how much and how often.
> > Second: yum-updatesd seems to have accumulated 15 and a half minutes
> > of cpu time. Is that process stuck somehow? You don't usually see yum
> > related stuff taking that much cpu time.
> >
> When running firefox, I was seeing CPU nearly 100% a lot and never less
> than about 40%.
> There doesn't seem to be much difference with system monitor running or
> not.
>
> > Third: Xorg has clocked over 18 minutes, which seems high, especially
> > since your box has been up slightly more than 43 hours. This tells me
> > that you've either got a real slow cpu/graphic combo or you've got a
> > ton of automatic graphic stuff running. You might look at a simplier
> > (less graphic intensive) window manager.
> 433Mhz CPU, ATI Rage MB graphics.
433Mhz? Ouch! So this is a Pentium-2 or Pentium-3, right? With 256MB
of memory, right? That slow and that small make running <ahem> "large"
programs painful... programs like firefox tend to force smaller programs
to swap in order to generate enough room to run.
> > Fourth: Looks like your box only has 256MB of memory. This is kinda
> > small for most recent Linux boxen. Further, as of the snapshot above,
> > you're using over 87MB of swap space. This probably means that your
> > box is quietly swapping itself silly. Is the disk light on a lot
> > or, if the light isn't hooked up, can you hear the disk drives a lot?
> > My guess is yes.
> >
> Not really. The light is broken somehow, but the drive is mostly
> silent.
Actually, modern drives are pretty quiet and you can't always hear 'em
when they move the read/write head by small amounts. Without the drive
light working, it may be tough to tell by ear when the drives are doing I/O.
> >
> >
> >
> > Recommendations:
> > 1- For each hard drive ($X) you've got, run:
> > hdparm /dev/hd$X
> > and make sure the "using_dma" line says "1 (on)". If using_dma
> > isn't "1 (on)", then examine your BIOS settings at the next
> > boot for that drive to make sure that DMA is 1) supported,
> > 2) enabled, and 3) that the drive itself actually supports DMA.
> 2 drives, DMA on both.
Good.
> > 2- Look at the list of daemons/servers you're currently running
> > and get rid of any you don't absolutely need.
> I believe this is the problem, so I posted the top list. None of the
> daemon processes
> seems to be non-essential to my admittedly old eyes.
> I have the following services running:
> Network Manager
> NetworkManagerDispatcher
> acpid
> anacron
> atd
> autofs.
> cpuspeed
> crond
> cups
> gpm
> Haldaemon
> hplip
> ip6tables
> iptables
> kudzu
> lm_sensors
> Kudzu
> lmsensors
> mcstrans
> mdmpd
> messagebus
> gpm
> ip6tables
> iptables
> nscd and ntpd
James Wilkinson's previous post to the Fedora list about what to turn off
is pretty complete. I'd argue over a couple of 'em (like gpm and sshd),
but you could just as easily start by turning off the stuff he recommends
and then turning stuff back on one at a time until you hit a performance
snag, too.
>
>
>
> > 3- Buy more memory. Shoot for 1GB if your wallet can stand it,
> > but make sure your motherboard can support it (almost all
> > recent ones can).
> >
> > After all the above:
> >
> > 3- Look into why yum-updatesd is sucking so much CPU time.
> >
> > 4- Look at a more modern graphic card
> >
> > Hope this helps,
> >
> > -S
>
Given all that's in this thread, especially the 433Mhz/256MB cpu/memory
info, I'd strongly recommend you look at 512MB or even 1024MB worth
of memory. If your CPU is a Pentium 2 or Pentium 3, memory should
be fairly cheap at your local BestBuy or CircuitCity. If I recall
correctly, it ought to be PC100 or PC133 memory, but take your box
(or just the memory SIMs if you're comfortable removing 'em and have a
ground strap to use while doing so) with you to make sure they give you
the right kind of SIMs. If you have the hardware manual that came with
your computer, it'll tell you in there, too (and will also tell you what
the upper limit for memory is as well).
Adding memory will NOT speed up your computer until you start using
enough memory that the old configuration would have started swapping.
Once you hit that point, you'll notice a considerable difference...
like when running FireFox with 512MB of memory fer instance.
If adding memory is not an option, then work on getting rid of the
memory pigs. Turn off auto-yum and run it manually every so often,
start using a smaller browser (galeon?) and/or quit firefox when not
actively browsing, turn off spamd and use spamassassin via the method
described when you type "rpm -qi spamassassin", et cetera. And try not
to run more than one memory-piggish thing at a time if possible.
Good luck with this ('cause I think you're gonna need some :-)
-S
