Process won't kill

mrsolo · 03-03-2003, 10:47 AM

Correct me if I'm wrong but won't the command: kill -9 XXXXX, kill the process no matter what? I have this process that has crashed and I can't get it to go away. I typed kill -9 23254, both in my user account and with su and it won't go away? I have had this problem before. What do I need to do to kill it and any other stubborn processes in the future that act the same way?

doublefailure · 03-03-2003, 10:56 AM

in my experience

u gotta kill parent process when the process doesn't die with kill -9

u can see ppid with ps or pstree

hannah2007 · 08-03-2007, 09:22 AM

I have encountered similar problem. With kill -9 it doesn't work. And the parent process of the process I want to kill is 1. In this case, it is not allowed to kill 1. How to kill the hanging process? For me it is not possible to restart the system because it is shared by many people.

unSpawn · 08-03-2007, 11:31 AM

PID 1 is Init and Init reaps zombies automagically after some time has passed. No need to do anything about that.

jlliagre · 08-03-2007, 11:54 AM

If the process isn't a zombie so isn't reaped by init, there is a good chance it is hanging in the kernel in "uninterruptable sleep".
Depending on the driver used, you may fix that by reviving a disconnected peripheral (or a remote server if NFS is the culprit).
If the issue is a buggy device driver, I believe you have no alternative but to reboot.

colucix · 08-03-2007, 12:45 PM

Just an add-on...

Code:

ps -eO user -H

will show the process tree along with the process status (to determine if it is a zombie -Z- or an uninterruptable sleep -D-)