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Doug Hurd · Jul 23, 2003, 03:35 PM

Our Xserver 10.2.6 (1Gb RAM) is showing 1 stuck process in the Terminal Window (sudo TOP) out of 56 total processes. How do I find which process is stuck and is it something that show be addressed? It doesn't appear to be eating up memory, still have 800Mbs left.

Also this following message appears in the Server Status log:

XSERVER lookupd[303]: msg_send failed ((ipc/send) invalid destination port)

Could it be related?

Drizzt · Jul 24, 2003, 08:10 AM

First, do a 'man ps' and go read the values for process status.

Than.. 'ps -auxcw' will show all running processes.. and you should find the one that is stuck.

Doug Hurd · Jul 24, 2003, 10:54 AM

I have done as you suggested. Please correct me if my assumption is wrong. I look under Stat to check the state of a process. All letters under "state" are either S, Ss S+, R, or R+. In the description it states a 'T" marks a stopped process, and there are none visible so I don't see any stuck processes. What should I look for. I'm somewhat new at this.

thanks for your help.

Drizzt · Jul 24, 2003, 11:37 AM

Originally posted by Doug Hurd:
I have done as you suggested. Please correct me if my assumption is wrong. I look under Stat to check the state of a process. All letters under "state" are either S, Ss S+, R, or R+. In the description it states a 'T" marks a stopped process, and there are none visible so I don't see any stuck processes. What should I look for. I'm somewhat new at this.

thanks for your help.

Should be Z for zombie.. it's not a job that got stopped but a process that got hanged, like when you start a program over a share and pull the plug.

Otherwise, try to take a look at top and see which process is stuck.

Doug Hurd · Jul 24, 2003, 12:53 PM

I have stared at TOP for the longest time and I see 5 or 6 processes running; TOP, Applefileshare, hwmond (has a time of 37.54.25-somewhat suspect), cupsd (very infrequent) and Printservice (also very infrequent) and 1 or 2 more that will click on on and off. Nothing stands out as being stuck. The 1-stuck message only appears every 60 -65 seconds so I don't think its a process that is critical, although frustrating. If something crashes my server I'll certainly let you know. All in all I have been extremely happy with the Xserver, running 7-1/2 months, no serious problems (knock wood).

I will reboot the server when no publishers are working and see if that clears it up. It does not seem to have had an effect on productivity.

thanks again.

Drizzt · Jul 24, 2003, 12:55 PM

Originally posted by Doug Hurd:
I have stared at TOP for the longest time and I see 5 or 6 processes running; TOP, Applefileshare, hwmond (has a time of 37.54.25-somewhat suspect), cupsd (very infrequent) and Printservice (also very infrequent) and 1 or 2 more that will click on on and off. Nothing stands out as being stuck. The 1-stuck message only appears every 60 -65 seconds so I don't think its a process that is critical, although frustrating. If something crashes my server I'll certainly let you know. All in all I have been extremely happy with the Xserver, running 7-1/2 months, no serious problems (knock wood).

I will reboot the server when no publishers are working and see if that clears it up. It does not seem to have had an effect on productivity.

thanks again.

If it pops up every 60/65 sec and vanishes, it's probably a background job waiting for data than. You can probably ignore it and rebooting won't solve anything.

It would be alarming in the case where the process is there and stays there..