100-200 load average on an idle system: Help!

[Thorne Lawler]

All,

The load has dropped away again to zero (with no other perceptible 
change in the system). It did this last time I rebooted the box, but was 
back at 100+ 24 hours later. I will keep watching it and try to gather 
more information next time this happens.

Rilindo,

Rilindo Foster wrote:
> You can try this:
> 
> ps -auxwww | sort -k2 | tail -10
> 
> This will give you a process list and sort them by CPU usage, then  
> the last 10 (which should hae the highest usage).
> 
> Forward that info back to the list so that we can see what we can  
> make up of it.

The 'top' output I sent through was sorted by %CPU, and showed clearly 
that the top process was using 1.9% and nothing else was using more than 
0.1%.

If you mean cumulative CPU time, I have tried sorting on that too, and 
found similar results. Nothing has been working particularly hard 
cpu-time-wise, according to ps.

The machine isn't a big box, and it has been handling just fine 
throughout the period when its load average was high. Still is.

I will gather detailed output from ps, both in terms of momentary CPU 
usage and cumulative CPU time, next time the problem arises, and I will 
post it.

Sorry not to be able to answer your request immediately.

-- 
Thorne Huw Lawler         trouble.net.au
"Croup and Vandermar, the Old Firm. Obstacles
obliterated, nuisances eradicated, bothersome
limbs removed and tutelary dentistry undertaken"