Weird? Daemon showing up in 'top'

[Robert Dege]

>>From a Linux listserv:


The message quoted below is from a MandrakeSoft co-worker and friend, in
a thread discussing APM's kernel thread, and how the idle function uses
CPU time. This thread was in response to yet another Bugzilla bug
report about kapm-idled using CPU time.


Several months ago, kapmd was renamed to kapm-idled in an attempt to
signal users that it was a special process, and that its CPU time wasn't
"real CPU time." This hasn't silenced the bug reports and confusion.


Is there some way to hack the scheduler statistics so that idle
processes are special cases, which do not accumulate CPU time nor
contribute to the load average?


I agree that it's not pretty to special case idle function process(es),
but those idle functions in turn are causing an incorrect picture of the
system state to be presented to userland.



-Rob


> This isn't earth shaking, but...
>
> I'm getting a  process showing up when I do a 'top' command called
> kapm-idled
>
> I wouldn't really care about it but it claims to be 94.4% CPU time, which
> seems awfully high.  Of course, I definitely could be getting the wrong
> inference while I am reading it, but it seems to be taking up a lot of the
> processor.
>
> What is this doing? (Methinks and Advanced Power Management daemon, but I'm
> looking for other, more knowledgeable guidance)  Can I safely kill it?
> Remove it?
>
> If it is APM, then I would like it gone, because this is a server I'm
> configuring.  I don't want to have to walk past it every 10 minutes and
> wiggle the mouse!
>
> Thanks!
>
> Richard A. Hubbard III
> MCSE, MCDBA, MCSD, MCT, CLI, CLP,LCI,LCP,
>  A+, Net+,I-net+
> Training Manager, New Horizons Buffalo
> richard.hubbard at nhwny.com
> phone (716) 681-8500 x2241
>            (716) 206-2241 Direct
> fax      (716) 206-2222
>
>



Dege

Inside some of us is a thin person struggling to get out, but
they can usually be sedated with a few pieces of chocolate cake.