CPU running at 100% usage while no applications are running

mike_morley · 05-17-2007, 12:36 PM

I know their are things running in the background but nothing is showing as using excessive CPU usage via the PS command.

Also there is 0.35kB/s download and 0.44kB/s upload network usage whilst no network applications are running (that I know of).

How can I find out what is eating up my CPU usage?

Could I have been hacked? If so how do I find out for sure?

Quakeboy02 · 05-17-2007, 12:44 PM

Have you tried running "top"? If you're a gnome user then Applications->System Tools->System Monitor->Processes->CPU Time may be helpful.

mike_morley · 05-17-2007, 12:51 PM

X is running at 80 - 90% CPU with user root

Quakeboy02 · 05-17-2007, 01:03 PM

I don't know much (nothing really) about Fedora. On my Etch machine, Xorg takes up less than 3% of the CPU, so 80-90% sounds like an awful lot. But, are you running an old Pentium 133 with an embedded video processor that uses motherboard memory and some sort of active background? We'll need to see what the apples are to make sure we don't compare them to oranges.

PocketSam · 05-17-2007, 01:42 PM

A bit off topic question:
Is it safe to use X under root? I've heard about a few incidents when working with X as root had crashed the system.

Can't remember what exactly happened, but a man advised to give up using X uned root login.

mike_morley · 05-17-2007, 01:48 PM

I am running a AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3500+ with 2.5GB Ram, 256MB Nividia Gfx card.

Also as a P.S. Regarding PocketSam's comment.... I agree... It seems unnecessary and rather.... Unwise to run X as root.

Quakeboy02 · 05-17-2007, 01:51 PM

Well, I guess it's not an overloaded machine, then.

Are you using the Fedora driver for the nvidia card, or are you using the nvidia.com driver? Other than that, I don't think I have any suggestions for you.

mike_morley · 05-17-2007, 02:00 PM

I'm using the drivers that came with FC5... I take it I should try and find the appropriate drivers for my GFX card from Nividia.

This however still wouldn't explain why it is taking the best part of my CPU time. I am sure it didn't use to.

samstar · 05-17-2007, 02:23 PM

Hi,

Can you check if ACPI is enabled and throttling your processor? Try changing power modes to "Dynamic" or "Powersave", and see if it throttles down.

Sam

mike_morley · 05-17-2007, 02:29 PM

how do I do that?

samstar · 05-17-2007, 03:15 PM

Sorry, I really don't know how to do it in Fedora. Maybe someone who knows Fedora or acpi check commands could be a better help.

You could try and see if there's a power manager icon in your system tray, and try right clicking on it.

Sam

mike_morley · 05-17-2007, 03:30 PM

Cheers for the pointer samstar.

I got the following under Laptop Power management... It should be noted that this isn't a Laptop...

Your computer seems to have a partial ACPI installation. ACPI was probably enabled, but some of the sub-options were not - you need to enable at least 'AC Adaptor' and 'Control Method Battery' and then rebuild your kernel.

wantamad · 05-17-2007, 04:02 PM

check if your swap space is turned on.

mike_morley · 05-17-2007, 08:52 PM

erm... yeah it is but I have yet to use it

osor · 05-17-2007, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PocketSam

A bit off topic question:
Is it safe to use X under root? I've heard about a few incidents when working with X as root had crashed the system.

Can't remember what exactly happened, but a man advised to give up using X uned root login.

The X server itself generally requires special privileges to access the graphics card and open other devices (at least under the intel architecture). The executable itself is generally suid root on many systems. This is different from logging in as root, and different from allowing root access to the X server through xhost.