As far as I used to know the standard nice values of Linux and Unix for all users and all processes where always 0....

Is there something wrong with my Knoppix and Debian boxes
and even a Linux mint and such that the root account runs at the nice value of minus 20 ???

code:
[ CODE ]
sietze@hal9000 ~ $ sudo su
hal9000 sietze # renice 0 -u root
0 (user ID) old priority -20, new priority 0
hal9000 sietze # renice 0 -u sietze
1000 (user ID) old priority 0, new priority 0
hal9000 sietze #
[ /CODE ]

This way all processes are, if they were cars, all driving
at the left lane and that way causing a traffic problem...
and the root account always getting in the way of the user processes...

Is this a sign of a break in ?

what rootkit does this...

I post it to newbies since apparently this
does occur over and over again at the systems that I install Linux on...
And I do not poses enough knowledge to fix it...

Strangest thing after I installed a cron job on an old system
to get root nice values back to 0 my girlfriends
grandson asked me what did you do, it runs so fast again ?

They are always very slow,
windows runs fine and very fast now on the formerly affected box

This laptop that I work on used to run windows,
however it contained a nasty virus
some thing in Chinese kept appearing on screen
and it started running very slow...
so I installed several Linuxes on it...
it the moment I run linux mint...

Can anyone help me with this issue...
it really is no fun at all...

My spouse says that there is nothing wrong with these computers
and just keeps on going using them...
she does not believe in rootkits trojans and such...
can anyone help her out of her dream...

She keeps on saying about how only our network is affected
and that I am delusional...

And I am at the brink of giving up my Linux hobby
and search for some real life things to do....

This issue is been going on for a long time
and still no solution,
despite zeroing out disks, reinstalls, change of modem,
downloading new install images and such...

I even tried FreeBSD,
that seemed to make contact with other
private ip addresses of computers that I do not work with
and it did so with 10 M bit a second...only OpenBSD seemed to work for a while, and when I added the ip addresses to the firewall
the firewall broke, it gave a very strange error
that I could only find once online in regard to a rootkit...
but it´s user interface is not what I need...
it just keeps on being a problem...

Only OpenBSD seemed to work for a while,
but it´s user interface is not what I need...

I just might need to consider a change in tactics,
and install a windows on every computer at her house and pretend
it works flawlessly, well we all know windows...
And its problem

lucky me my Iphone seems unaffected...


Kind regards Sietze van de Burgt...

Ps: Excuse me for my language mistakes since I am a foreigner...

You can try unhide and rkhunter to investigate your installations for malware.

No answers, but some questions. Note that *nix operating systems are network oriented by default. The computer might, for example, be contacting internet time servers to ensure that the computer clock is accurately set.

What are some of these external ip addressed to which you refer? Have you tried doing a whois on some of them? That might answer many of your questions as to whether they are mailicious. See man whois for more.

Have you closed all but essential outgoing ports in your router? For most home users, port 80 for the internet and email ports are the only essential outgoing ports. Email ports can vary depending on whether you are using POP or IMAP, with or without SSL or TLS.

My gut reaction is that you are have nothing to fear, but, the more specific information you provide, the better we can help you. One thing I can assure you of is this: if you want to improve security, running Windows is not a strategy for accomplishing that.

And don't apologize for your English. It's better than that of persons I deal with every day here in the States.

A reply from iPhone,
The thing is the ip addresses are private
Ip addresses from hosts in the us and other country's
It seemed that it was maybe a result
From traffic like peer to peer programs
And such that have been used a couple
Of days before on another computer,
However things got really weird
Once I added this to packet filter firewall
The firewall itself gave an error once I
Added the firth or forth op address and
That turned out to be a kind of message
That does not usually turn up on FreeBSD...

The computer than kept on contacting these
Addresses even the ones I added to the firewall
This was creepy why does a command to
Add to the firewall al if a certain
Not work anymore ?
Why does an error message turn up after
Changing these up addresses it worked fine
Three times and the forth time it suddenly
Seems to backfire ?
I of course checked syntax
and such of this command