superfluous apps won't stay uninstalled??

rose_bud4201 · 02-03-2003, 11:03 AM

Hi,
Just a minor problem, but it's pesky and I'd really rather have it resolved. My processor has been overheating of late, and to the end of fixing that I'd like to cut down on its load...
Running ps -A gives me this:

Code:

  PID TTY          TIME CMD
    1 ?        00:00:05 init
    2 ?        00:00:00 keventd
    3 ?        00:00:00 kapmd
    4 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd_CPU0
    5 ?        00:00:00 kswapd
    6 ?        00:00:00 bdflush
    7 ?        00:00:00 kupdated
    8 ?        00:00:00 mdrecoveryd
   12 ?        00:00:00 kjournald
  109 ?        00:00:00 devfsd
  205 ?        00:00:00 khubd
  595 ?        00:00:00 knodemgrd
  942 ?        00:00:00 dhcpcd
  975 ?        00:00:00 dhcpcd
 1031 ?        00:00:00 portmap
 1047 ?        00:00:00 syslogd
 1055 ?        00:00:00 klogd
 1103 ?        00:00:00 rpc.statd
 1120 ?        00:00:00 gpm
 1229 ?        00:00:01 xfs
 1314 ?        00:00:00 atd
 1326 ?        00:00:00 xdm
 1341 ?        00:00:00 saslauthd
 1362 ?        00:00:00 xinetd
 1364 ?        00:00:09 X
 1399 ?        00:00:00 cupsd
 1997 ?        00:00:00 proftpd
 2030 ?        00:00:00 crond
 2221 tty1     00:00:00 mingetty
 2222 tty2     00:00:00 mingetty
 2223 tty3     00:00:00 mingetty
 2224 tty4     00:00:00 mingetty
 2227 tty5     00:00:00 mingetty
 2228 tty6     00:00:00 mingetty
 2845 ?        00:00:00 xdm
 2919 ?        00:00:00 wmaker
 2949 ?        00:00:00 xscreensaver
 2990 ?        00:00:00 wmCalClock-Wind
 2993 ?        00:00:00 rxvt.bin
 2999 pts/0    00:00:00 bash
 3029 pts/0    00:00:00 ps

I didn't think I installed KDE initially, as I run WindowMaker and habitually only install the gnome libraries for the sake of making my life easier, but what do I know

. I've tried uninstalling KDE via Mandrake's rpmdrake, but each time I think I've uninstalled it I reboot and run rpmdrake...and it's right back in place...I'm very confused, as I really would rather not have KDE (and all its background apps) installed and running...can anyone give me an idea why it won't stay uninstalled??
thanks much
Laura
btw, I've a feeling that quite a few of those aforementioned processes are completely unnecessary...is there a way to tell which programs are calling those processes, or at least find out which ones really are crucial and which ones just feel like running, so I can take their process calls out of the startup scripts?

mcleodnine · 02-03-2003, 11:35 AM

While 'ps -A' will tell you what's running, 'top' will tell you where all your horsepower is being consumed.

I don't see any KDE stuff in your ps output so my guess is that you're concerned about the processes that start with 'k' and those would be kernel processes which we don't really want to be stopping.

All I can really see as not totally necessary are proftpd and the screensaver but in the background they'll just be chawin' some RAM not really clock cycles. Looks like a pretty clean system.

You should be more concerned about your cooling issue. If you're overheating under this load you'll get stopped cold (er - hot?) when you try to rip an mp3 or render that povray masterpiece.

PLay with the 'top' command (press'h' while it's running to see some options) and see what your CPU load is like.

rose_bud4201 · 02-03-2003, 12:16 PM

You're right - it was the processes beginning with 'k' that had me worried.
'top' give me this:

Code:

  1:04pm  up  1:40,  1 user,  load average: 0.02, 0.02, 0.00
48 processes: 46 sleeping, 2 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU states:  0.8% user,  0.0% system,  0.0% nice, 99.2% idle
Mem:   515768K av,  162484K used,  353284K free,       0K shrd,    9960K buff
Swap:  401584K av,       0K used,  401584K free                   77848K cached

  PID USER     PRI  NI  SIZE  RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM   TIME COMMAND
 1364 root      11 -10  148M  19M  3072 S <   0.3  3.9   1:25 X
 3055 laura     17   0 31284  30M 11864 S     0.3  6.0   1:01 opera
    1 root       8   0   484  484   420 S     0.0  0.0   0:05 init
    2 root       9   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00 keventd
    3 root       9   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00 kapmd
    4 root      19  19     0    0     0 SWN   0.0  0.0   0:00 ksoftirqd_CPU0
    5 root       9   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00 kswapd
    6 root       9   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00 bdflush
    7 root       9   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00 kupdated
    8 root      -1 -20     0    0     0 SW<   0.0  0.0   0:00 mdrecoveryd
   12 root       9   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00 kjournald
  109 root       9   0   972  972   768 S     0.0  0.1   0:00 devfsd
  205 root       9   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00 khubd
  595 root       9   0     0    0     0 SW    0.0  0.0   0:00 knodemgrd
  942 root       9   0   456  456   400 S     0.0  0.0   0:00 dhcpcd
  975 root       9   0   516  516   448 S     0.0  0.1   0:00 dhcpcd
 1031 rpc        9   0   532  532   448 S     0.0  0.1   0:00 portmap

That being the case, and given that it's never done this before, the logical conclusion is that it's a hardware issue...bother. I built it myself, and it's really a pretty decent system, but I'll have to see about putting in another fan or so. Thanks very much for your help! Incidentally, do you know of a good hardware-monitoring app for linux? i.e. one that can give me on-the-fly CPU temps, fan speeds, that sort of thing? I've searched Sourceforge but nothing seems to be what I need :-/.
thanks,
Laura

mcleodnine · 02-03-2003, 01:16 PM

the lm_sensors project. (google for it) for motherboard/cpu/fan monitoring and ide-smart for S.M.A.R.T. enabled hard drives (most recent drives use smart).

Once you get those runnig there's fancy apps like gkrellm to give a pretty picture of the machine's status.

And as for overheating - if all your stuff is new I'd be looking into a larger heatsink as I doubt another case fan will do you any good.

rose_bud4201 · 02-03-2003, 02:29 PM

thanks very much!