Re: [tlug] Invisible process eating CPU time

[Alexei Anisimov <alexei.anisimov@example.com>]

-------- Original Message  --------
Subject: [tlug] Invisible process eating CPU time
From: Dave M G <dave@example.com>
To: Tokyo Linux Users Group <tlug@example.com>
Date: Sat Aug 01 2009 19:51:38 GMT+0900 (JST)
> TLUG,
>
> A while back I posted because some process was eating up 100% of my CPU
> time every now and again:
> http://lists.tlug.jp/ML/0803/msg00402.html
>
> Turned out the problem was a process called www-data, which I found by
> running top. I now have a similar problem, but it is not the same as
> last time.
>
> For the last few days, the Gnome applet that displays my CPU use has
> been showing my computer has been running at 55% CPU constantly. Since I
> have a dual-core, this might be 100% of just one CPU.
>
> I have tried rebooting, and the CPU use is always the same immediately.
>
> I tried seeing what the offending process is in top, but nothing is
> listed as being over 20% at any one time, most of the time there is
> nothing over 1% or 2%, and the total of all process listed is never more
> than about 20%.
>
> Any ideas how I can find out what this stealth process is?
>
> Any advice would be much appreciated.
>   
how come top can't see the process which uses 50% CPU time?

I think you should try to show CPU usage separately for cores:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=34443

I would also try htop, just in case it's some top bug:

http://htop.sourceforge.net/index.php?page=comparison

--
Best regards,
Alexei A. Anisimov