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#1 2004-10-29 13:45:55

ScottTFrazer
Member
Registered: 2004-10-20
Posts: 47

Noob troubleshooting help.

I'm having a problem that I'm not sure how to troubleshoot and was hoping someone here could give me a direction to look in.

I'm running a fairly simple xorg / kde setup, and after about 6 hours the desktop becomes completely sluggish and the time starts reporting incorrectly.

Typically, after I hit ctrl-alt-backspace to try and get back to the command prompt (I'm not running kdm) I get tired of waiting for it and just cold boot the machine.

Yesterday I gave it enough time to get back to the prompt and noticed that running programs outside of X was still nearly impossible, though I could run "date" repeatedly and see that not only was the time incorrect, it was occassionally counting backwards.

the only modules I've loaded are my two sound card modules (snd-card-0 and snd-pcm-oss) and the only daemons I've loaded are syslog-ng, network, crond, portmap, fam, xinetd, and sshd.

Where should I be looking?

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#2 2004-10-29 14:29:22

phrakture
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From: behind you
Registered: 2003-10-29
Posts: 7,879
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Re: Noob troubleshooting help.

first:
is there a reason you are running xinetd... portmap/fam I never use because I don't run KDE, so I wouldn't know....

secondly:
do you have any odd cron jobs?  it's possibly there is an hourly cron job doing... updatedb or something that takes a long time.

If you are using xinetd to open the sshd port, it is not needed.  I run sshd stand-alone and it works fine.

the next time it gets really sluggish, run "ps aux" from a terminal and see which process is taking up most of the CPU (it will be in percentage).  You could also try top, but top may be real slow if your whole system is slow... I suggest ps.

Try to post your "ps aux" output here the next time this happens, then I can help you further.

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#3 2004-10-29 14:33:47

xerxes2
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From: Malmoe, Sweden
Registered: 2004-04-23
Posts: 1,249
Website

Re: Noob troubleshooting help.

as phrakture said, try the commands "top" , "ps aux" or "free"
free shows you your memory usage,
also try xfce4 for a day, if your system works with that there is something wrong with kde,


arch + gentoo + initng + python = enlisy

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#4 2004-10-29 15:04:07

ScottTFrazer
Member
Registered: 2004-10-20
Posts: 47

Re: Noob troubleshooting help.

xinetd is in there to launch vsftpd.

The only cron entries I have are the defaults:
/etc/cron.daily:
logrotate  shadow  updatedb  whatis

I think sshd is running standalone.

I've now got terminal windows running 'watch -d -n 1 free' 'watch -n 1 ps auxO -C'  and top.  I'll see if I can still copy/paste them when the system starts to die :-)

Thanks!

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#5 2004-10-29 15:41:52

phrakture
Arch Overlord
From: behind you
Registered: 2003-10-29
Posts: 7,879
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Re: Noob troubleshooting help.

i have a feeling this may be updatedb - running on my P3 866, I use to get real sluggish performance every so often, I'd check ps and cron/updatedb would be killing the cpu...
personally I removed updatedb - as I usually search with find anyway

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#6 2004-10-29 15:43:36

ScottTFrazer
Member
Registered: 2004-10-20
Posts: 47

Re: Noob troubleshooting help.

It just started again.

It kills things related to time first.  i.e. no  typamatic anymore and my screen blanks randomly because the powercontrol thinks enough time has elapsed to kick in.

Here's what I mean about the time:

[sfrazer@it44 ~]$ date
Fri Oct 29 12:50:50 EDT 2004
[sfrazer@it44 ~]$ date
Fri Oct 29 12:50:49 EDT 2004
[sfrazer@it44 ~]$ date
Fri Oct 29 12:50:49 EDT 2004
[sfrazer@it44 ~]$ date
Fri Oct 29 12:50:48 EDT 2004
[sfrazer@it44 ~]$ date
Fri Oct 29 12:50:49 EDT 2004
[sfrazer@it44 ~]$ date
Fri Oct 29 12:50:50 EDT 2004
[sfrazer@it44 ~]$

free:

Every 1.0s: free                                        Fri Oct 29 12:50:48 2004

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:       1000116     284612     715504          0      27876     153684
-/+ buffers/cache:     103052     897064
Swap:       262576          0     262576

top:

top - 12:50:48 up  3:19,  1 user,  load average: 0.08, 0.27, 0.24
Tasks:  72 total,   9 running,  62 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.6% us,  0.1% sy,  0.0% ni, 99.3% id,  0.0% wa,  0.0% hi,  0.0% si
Mem:   1000116k total,   284612k used,   715504k free,    27876k buffers
Swap:   262576k total,        0k used,   262576k free,   153684k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
  788 sfrazer   16   0 36460 7564  10m R  0.0  0.8   0:35.28 artsd
  803 sfrazer   16   0 22408  13m  19m S  0.0  1.3   0:19.98 gaim
  703 root      16   0  167m  34m 135m R  0.0  3.6   1:07.29 X
    1 root      16   0  1504  512 1352 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.69 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   0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0
    4 root       5 -10     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.02 events/0
    5 root      10 -10     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 khelper
    6 root      15 -10     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kacpid
   22 root       5 -10     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.03 kblockd/0
   23 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.06 khubd
   35 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 pdflush
   36 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 pdflush
   38 root      10 -10     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 aio/0
   37 root      25   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kswapd0
   39 root      25   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 jfsIO
   40 root      25   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 jfsCommit
   41 root      25   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 jfsSync
   42 root      10 -10     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 xfslogd/0
   43 root       6 -10     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 xfsdatad/0
   44 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 xfsbufd
  159 root       6 -10     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 ata/0
  177 root      16   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kseriod
  180 root       6 -10     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kcryptd/0
  181 root       6 -10     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kmirrord/0
  188 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.41 kjournald
  312 root      19   0  1584  816 1412 S  0.0  0.1   0:02.12 devfsd
  519 root      15   0  1748  740 1564 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.00 syslog-ng
  562 root      16   0  1532  544 1376 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.00 crond
  574 bin       16   0  1592  428 1420 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 portmap
  586 sfrazer   17   0  2996 1468 2552 S  0.0  0.1   0:23.10 fam
  598 root      16   0  1976  780 1660 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.00 xinetd
  611 root      20   0  3336 1448 2964 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.03 sshd
  624 sfrazer   16   0  2992 1696 2264 S  0.0  0.2   0:00.01 bash
  630 root      17   0  1500  472 1336 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 agetty
  631 root      16   0  1500  472 1336 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 agetty
  632 root      16   0  1500  472 1336 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 agetty
  633 root      16   0  1500  472 1336 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 agetty
  669 root      16   0  1500  472 1336 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 agetty
  691 sfrazer   19   0  2832 1352 2224 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.00 startx
  702 sfrazer   17   0  2320  648 2164 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.00 xinit
  744 sfrazer   16   0  2840 1368 2224 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.00 startkde
  769 sfrazer   16   0 23692  10m  22m S  0.0  1.1   0:00.10 kdeinit
  772 sfrazer   16   0 22728 9.9m  21m S  0.0  1.0   0:00.04 kdeinit               

ps aux:

Every 1.0s: ps auxO -C                                               Fri Oct 29 12:50:49 2004

USER       PID %CPU %MEM   VSZ  RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
sfrazer    828  0.8  3.2 90936 32508 ?       Sl   09:35   1:41 /opt/mozilla-firefox/li
root       703  0.5  3.5 171088 35772 ?      S    09:31   1:08 X :0
sfrazer    788  0.2  0.7 36460 7564 ?        S    09:32   0:35 artsd -F 10 -S 4096 -d
sfrazer    586  0.1  0.1  2996 1468 ?        Ss   09:31   0:23 /usr/bin/fam
sfrazer    803  0.1  1.3 22408 13336 ?       S    09:32   0:20 /usr/bin/gaim
sfrazer    914  0.0  0.0  1912  984 pts/4    S+   10:55   0:03 top
sfrazer    895  0.0  1.6 28300 16308 ?       S    10:54   0:03 kdeinit: konsole
sfrazer   2213  0.0  0.0  1752  852 pts/1    S+   11:05   0:01 watch -n 1 ps auxO -C
sfrazer    794  0.0  1.5 26568 15544 ?       S    09:32   0:02 kdeinit: kwin
sfrazer    849  0.0  1.7 28888 17084 ?       S    09:46   0:02 kdeinit: konsole
sfrazer    891  0.0  1.6 28324 16508 ?       S    10:54   0:01 kdeinit: konsole
sfrazer    802  0.0  1.6 28256 16796 ?       S    09:32   0:02 kdeinit: kicker
root       312  0.0  0.0  1584  816 ?        Ss   09:31   0:02 /sbin/devfsd /dev
sfrazer    805  0.0  1.4 25808 14548 ?       S    09:32   0:01 kdeinit: klipper
sfrazer    799  0.0  1.6 27244 16600 ?       S    09:32   0:01 kdeinit: kdesktop
root         1  0.0  0.0  1504  512 ?        S    09:31   0:00 init [3]
sfrazer    808  0.0  1.6 28912 16708 ?       D    09:32   0:00 korgac --miniicon korga
root       188  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    09:31   0:00 [kjournald]
sfrazer    798  0.0  1.3 24528 13104 ?       S    09:32   0:00 kdeinit: khotkeys
sfrazer    777  0.0  1.4 25288 14768 ?       S    09:31   0:00 kdeinit: kded
sfrazer    899  0.0  0.0  1748  800 pts/2    S+   10:55   0:00 watch -d -n 1 free
sfrazer    790  0.0  1.6 31996 16680 ?       S    09:32   0:00 kdeinit: knotify
sfrazer    769  0.0  1.1 23692 11152 ?       Ss   09:31   0:00 kdeinit: Running...
root        23  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    09:31   0:00 [khubd]
sfrazer    793  0.0  1.2 24156 12684 ?       S    09:32   0:00 kdeinit: ksmserver
sfrazer    772  0.0  1.0 22728 10172 ?       S    09:31   0:00 kdeinit: dcopserver --n
sfrazer    774  0.0  1.1 24388 11464 ?       S    09:31   0:00 kdeinit: klauncher
root       611  0.0  0.1  3336 1448 ?        Ss   09:31   0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
root        22  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S<   09:31   0:00 [kblockd/0]
sfrazer    850  0.0  0.1  2996 1692 pts/1    Ss   09:46   0:00 /bin/bash
root         4  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S<   09:31   0:00 [events/0]
sfrazer    624  0.0  0.1  2992 1696 tty1     Ss   09:31   0:00 -bash
root         2  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    09:31   0:00 [migration/0]
root         3  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        SN   09:31   0:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
root         5  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S<   09:31   0:00 [khelper]
root         6  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S<   09:31   0:00 [kacpid]
root        35  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    09:31   0:00 [pdflush]
root        36  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    09:31   0:00 [pdflush]
root        38  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S<   09:31   0:00 [aio/0]
root        37  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    09:31   0:00 [kswapd0]
root        39  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    09:31   0:00 [jfsIO]
root        40  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    09:31   0:00 [jfsCommit]
root        41  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    09:31   0:00 [jfsSync]
root        42  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S<   09:31   0:00 [xfslogd/0]
root        43  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S<   09:31   0:00 [xfsdatad/0]
root        44  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    09:31   0:00 [xfsbufd]
root       159  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S<   09:31   0:00 [ata/0]
root       177  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S    09:31   0:00 [kseriod]
root       180  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S<   09:31   0:00 [kcryptd/0]
root       181  0.0  0.0     0    0 ?        S<   09:31   0:00 [kmirrord/0]
root       519  0.0  0.0  1748  740 ?        Ss   09:31   0:00 /usr/sbin/syslog-ng
root       562  0.0  0.0  1532  544 ?        S    09:31   0:00 /usr/sbin/crond
bin        574  0.0  0.0  1592  428 ?        Ss   09:31   0:00 /sbin/portmap
root       598  0.0  0.0  1976  780 ?        Ss   09:31   0:00 /usr/sbin/xinetd -staya
root       630  0.0  0.0  1500  472 tty2     Ss+  09:31   0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 vc/2
root       631  0.0  0.0  1500  472 tty3     Ss+  09:31   0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 vc/3
root       632  0.0  0.0  1500  472 tty4     Ss+  09:31   0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 vc/4
root       633  0.0  0.0  1500  472 tty5     Ss+  09:31   0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 vc/5
root       669  0.0  0.0  1500  472 tty6     Ss+  09:31   0:00 /sbin/agetty 38400 vc/6
sfrazer    691  0.0  0.1  2832 1352 tty1     S+   09:31   0:00 /bin/sh /usr/X11R6/bin/
sfrazer    702  0.0  0.0  2320  648 tty1     S+   09:31   0:00 xinit /home/sfrazer/.xi
sfrazer    744  0.0  0.1  2840 1368 tty1     S    09:31   0:00 /bin/sh /opt/kde/bin/st
sfrazer    791  0.0  0.0  1496  348 tty1     S    09:32   0:00 kwrapper ksmserver       

wacky.

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#7 2004-10-29 15:57:34

phrakture
Arch Overlord
From: behind you
Registered: 2003-10-29
Posts: 7,879
Website

Re: Noob troubleshooting help.

ok, just because it may be related, i'll start with the time/date thing

Are you using any form of ntp? (ntpdate, ntp)
is your clock set to UTC? (check rc.conf)
does your motherboard support UTC if it is set? (some don't)
check to see if kde is somehow running some form of ntp to update time - I have no clue where to look for this...

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#8 2004-10-29 16:30:20

ScottTFrazer
Member
Registered: 2004-10-20
Posts: 47

Re: Noob troubleshooting help.

no ntp that I'm aware of.

Clock is set to local time, America/New_York for a timezone

Unfortunately, I think I have bigger problems now, as I just did a pacman -Syu on the box, got a new kernel rev, (2.6.9-1) and now I can login but nothing else seems to work...  top takes about 3 minutes to come up.

*sigh*

Okay, this is either a hardware or kernel-level problem.  I've just had to rebuild the box thanks to improper use of fsck (that at least a five-yard penalty) and all I've got on there right now is the base install, nano and sshd and it's doing the date thing immediately...

I'm gonna look for bios updates.

Edit:
I think the Bios update fixed it...  ran all weekend with no lockups and no time funnyness.

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