Some time back I noticed system load spikes while the system was pretty much at idle in X. This is an SMP system running XFree86 3.3.6 (Rawhide), WindowMaker .61 on RH6.1 (fully updated) with 128M RAM, kernel 2.2.15pre9 ATM. At regular intervals (every 3.5 minutes or so) I started noticing these spikes. Didn't pay much attention at first, and just thought something normal going on in the background. But it is so regular I started trying to see what it was. The spikes last only for a few seconds (5-10) and there is a brief pause between the 2 spikes. Watching this in xosview, each CPU spikes to 100% usage then bounces around 25-75% range for a few seconds, then a slight pause, then an identical spike on the other CPU. Then the cycle repeats. These snippets were captured while I was sitting watching top, nothing else significant going on: Normal (between spikes): PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT LIB %CPU %MEM TIME COMMAND 703 hal 14 0 428 260 200 S 0 1.3 0.2 59:15 wmsysmon 17541 hal 12 0 1036 1036 820 R 0 1.1 0.8 0:02 top 654 root 18 0 65068 52M 2664 S 0 0.3 41.5 125:31 X 1 root 0 0 124 68 52 S 0 0.0 0.0 0:20 init 2 root 0 0 0 0 0 SW 0 0.0 0.0 0:15 kflushd 3 root 0 0 0 0 0 SW 0 0.0 0.0 0:06 kupdate 4 root 0 0 0 0 0 SW 0 0.0 0.0 0:00 kpiod 5 root 0 0 0 0 0 SW 0 0.0 0.0 0:04 kswapd [...] 666 hal 1 0 2456 2292 1044 S 0 0.0 1.7 1:55 wmaker 708 hal 0 0 400 348 172 S 0 0.0 0.2 2:31 wmtime 701 hal 0 0 268 148 112 S 0 0.0 0.1 3:06 asload 710 hal 1 0 228 228 80 S 0 0.0 0.1 1:33 asmixer 712 hal 0 0 932 844 152 S 0 0.0 0.6 3:49 wmglobe 713 hal 0 0 368 368 188 S 0 0.0 0.2 2:27 mount.app 706 hal 0 0 484 364 276 S 0 0.0 0.2 4:03 wmmail 707 hal 0 0 480 340 272 S 0 0.0 0.2 6:13 wmWeather 708 hal 2 0 348 284 228 S 0 0.0 0.2 28:19 wmnet 4668 hal 4 0 824 824 664 S 0 0.0 0.6 16:50 wmSMPmon 730 hal 1 0 1264 1264 540 S 0 0.0 0.9 0:05 Eterm 1270 hal 1 0 1208 1208 984 S 0 0.0 0.9 16:08 rxvt [...] First spike hits CPU 0: PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT LIB %CPU %MEM TIME COMMAND 654 root 12 0 65068 52M 2664 S 0 21.9 41.5 125:22 X 708 hal 7 0 348 284 228 S 0 11.2 0.2 28:16 wmnet 741 hal 3 0 648 588 424 S 0 5.5 0.4 15:43 rxvt 1270 hal 2 0 1208 1208 984 S 0 3.5 0.9 16:07 rxvt 706 hal 2 0 484 364 276 S 0 2.9 0.2 4:02 wmmail 4668 hal 1 0 824 824 664 S 0 2.9 0.6 16:47 wmSMPmon 703 hal 2 0 428 260 200 S 0 2.7 0.2 59:14 wmsysmon 10576 hal 1 0 948 948 736 S 0 2.5 0.7 8:53 wmbp6 700 hal 1 0 400 236 172 S 0 1.9 0.1 2:58 wmtime 17541 hal 3 0 1036 1036 820 R 0 1.1 0.8 0:01 top 666 hal 1 0 2456 2292 1044 S 0 0.5 1.7 1:53 wmaker 1234 hal 0 0 344 204 124 D 0 0.5 0.1 1:22 wmlm 13558 hal 1 0 2020 2020 1512 S 0 0.5 1.5 0:00 Eterm 701 hal 0 0 268 148 112 S 0 0.3 0.1 3:05 asload a few seconds later CPU 1: PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT LIB %CPU %MEM TIME COMMAND 654 root 15 0 65068 52M 2664 S 0 17.5 41.5 125:29 X 708 hal 12 0 348 284 228 S 0 12.1 0.2 28:17 wmnet 10576 hal 4 0 948 948 736 S 0 3.7 0.7 8:53 wmbp6 741 hal 3 0 648 588 424 S 0 2.7 0.4 15:44 rxvt 703 hal 2 0 428 260 200 S 0 1.7 0.2 59:14 wmsysmon 706 hal 3 0 484 364 276 S 0 1.7 0.2 4:03 wmmail 4668 hal 3 0 824 824 664 S 0 1.7 0.6 16:48 wmSMPmon 17541 hal 4 0 1036 1036 820 R 0 1.7 0.8 0:02 top 1234 hal 1 0 344 204 124 S 0 1.1 0.1 1:22 wmlm 1270 hal 1 0 1208 1208 984 S 0 0.9 0.9 16:08 rxvt 666 hal 1 0 2456 2292 1044 S 0 0.5 1.7 1:54 wmaker 707 hal 1 0 480 340 272 S 0 0.3 0.2 6:12 wmWeather 472 root 0 0 512 312 228 S 0 0.1 0.2 0:02 sendmail The behavior is the same whether top is run from within X, or from a text console with X running on another tty.
Is this effecting your performance adversely in any significant way? Are you running a screensaver? Finding the problem based on these details is going to be next to impossible, and I'm not sure it's truly a problem anyway.
No screensaver. Well I am getting random lockups. Have no idea if there is a correlation or not, but since this is the only unusual behavior I can find, thought I'd persue it. At the very least, I find it quite curious indeed that xosview shows 100% CPU usage every 3.5 minutes for no apparent good reason. The same apps on my UP box, do not do this. The only other info I can add is pretty much all the offending processes match this pattern with netstat: Proto RefCnt Flags Type State I-Node PID/Program name Path unix 1 [ ] STREAM CONNECTED 18462 5893/rxvt @000000ca Any Unix Domain socket with refcnt=1, no flags showing, STREAM, etc seems to be a culprit. What that means, I have no idea since these are pretty much all X apps anyway. xfs, pump are not showing wild CPU fluctuations, for instance. unix 0 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 646 542/xfs /tmp/.font-unix/fs-1 unix 0 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 267 239/pump /var/run/pump.sock