looking at htop it looks like console-kit is a huge RAM hog
why do I want it eating up about 25% of my memory?

my record is ~150 processes of it
then i removed it

I didn't know this

ConsoleKit is currently not actively maintained. The focus has shifted to the built-in seat/user/session management of Software/systemd called systemd-logind!

I always disable it and have never run into any issues, but I use a basic window manager instead of a DE (KDE, XFCE, etc.) and I also don't use any of the GUI DE applications.

consolekit is one of those things that even after you read what it is, you're not really sure what it is.

VSZ?

That includes memory from shared libs which other applications will also be using.

If you add up the VSZ column you will most likely end up with a value that exceeds your systems memory.

I wish I had an answer for you to describe how to look deeper to find the problem, but I do use heavier DE's, both Xfce and KDE with basic compositing, and using KDE's System Monitor (ksysguard) while in Xfce, typing "console" in the search window reveals that console-kit-daemon is currently using all of 608K of ram. I've had x486 systems that could handle that, assuming it would "loadhigh"

ConsoleKit is required by Window Managers and Desktop Environments to allow a user session to have access to system power services for the init system. Without it you'd have to relog as root each time you'd want to reboot or shutdown the system. Trust me, keep it around.

It's also not entirely abandonware even though systemd incorporated logind. ConsoleKit is a standalone version so chances are it'll be useful and keep receiving patches as not all distributions are drinking the poison koolaid. Certain distributions, like LFS/BLFS which I use, keep a version up in the repositories for usage. Just because the original developers put it on inactive doesn't mean we're going to use systemd just to have logind services.

I would rather have a root VT running at all times than waste that much memory
this is not windoze there is NO excuse for a memory hog eating up 25% of the ram that is doing nothing
even as a user I can tap the power switch and shutdown the system

I also removed aconandi (or how ever it is spelled ) because it keeps crashing and locking KDE for what seems like forever

???????? You're right there is no excuse but the problem is on your end if you are getting 25% ram usage for Console-Kit when I'm using 608K (I seriously doubt you only have 2 megs of ram :P) Additionally, although when KDE released v4 (and I should add "too soon") Akonadi and Nepomuk were runaway disasters. By the next version that was solved but unfortunately not before it alienated a lot of users and started a myth that it is ongoing.

If you'd like to see a screenshot of my KDE desktop with Conky reading out CPU and Ram usage, or of KSysguard highlighting Console-Kit and Akonadi just say the word.

FWIW, I'm not trying to imply you are a clueless admin, just that you've possibly overlooked something or customized something with a negative impact. Slackware is solid. KDE is solid. If we have problems, 9 times out of 10, we created them. That's actually one of the main values of Slackware. We don't have to hunt for days to discover the source of a problem because Slackware doesn't assume we are morons and has none of that condescending "Here... let me just do that for you. Trust me...you'll like it" attitude or behaviour.

GNU/Linux based systems are ever evolving and so is a lot of the software surrounding them. Yes, this isn't Windows, but software is evolving to mimic certain functionality to ease workloads and help end users. The Linux distribution of today isn't the same Linux distribution of ten years ago.

You don't technically have to have ConsoleKit, but honestly it does save a lot of time and trouble with permissions over basic init level functionality like rebooting and shutdowns.

The init wars right now have done a lot of collateral damage to many projects where most have either been absorbed by other projects expanding their outlooks while some are abandoned totally or dumped into maintenance only.

Seriously, when Consolekit bothers you just don't use and look if there is any functionality that you are missing. But enorbet is right, it shouldn't take that much RAM. On my Slackware system running the i3 WM console-kit-daemon takes 1.9MB and ck-launch-session uses only 372KB, so I get about 2.3 MB as whole for Consolekit.
How are you measuring the RAM consumption?

Just launched htop here and consolekit daemon is consuming a total of 0.0% of my ram

shouldn't it be that you just set SUID permisions ?

just to clarify
i removed console-kit a long time ago as it would spawn a process every time i opened a shell
so after a couple days id have a screen full of them, and that is really bad software if you ask me (i had viruses that did less.. damage)

i also run as root so didn't notice anything missing
(note: i know and don't care about security implications of running as root, its behind a firewall and no shady software allowed)

console-kit-daemon is creating a new thread for each process, which htop is reporting as a new process.

I'll bet that the command returns 1 on your system. console-kit-daemon isn't oinking up as much of your resources as you think.

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