Tired of freezing laptop

[Pat Brown]

Bart Silverstrim wrote:
> Pat Brown wrote:
>
>   
>> Okay, I guess I'm restarting the X system. I have some keyboard ability, 
>> but that's all. If I knew some commands to run a terminal that way since 
>> I can't access it through the GUI, I could check processes and see if 
>> something was hogging the system, but I don't know the commands.
>>     
>
> Someone said it sounded like you're running Kubuntu, and I don't know 
> where in the menus to look for that offhand. In Hardy with the GNOME 
> interface, click applications, accessories, and Terminal is in there to 
> give you shell access.
>
>  From there, type "top" and hit enter.
>
> To exit, hit control-c.
>
> More information: "man top"
>
> There are also some graphical system monitors but I don't know the names 
> off the top of my head. In the GNOME Hardy, there's one by clicking 
> system->administration->system monitor, but others may need to chime in 
> with alternatives for kubuntu or if others from the repos are better in 
> their opinion.
>
>   
>> I have 
>> the output from dmesg, but it's after restarting X. 
>>     
>
> If the system didn't do a full reboot, it should be a running log that 
> is appended to.
>
>   
>> I would love to know 
>> how to get to a place to kill a process - and know the name of the 
>> process. I'm assuming it's Konquerer that's doing the CPU hogging since 
>> it's always Konquerer that freezes X.
>>     
>
> top lists process ID's. Also from the terminal, you can run "ps" to just 
> list processes running. I'll often use "ps -ax" to get full command 
> lines of what is running. "man ps" should give information.
>
> To kill a process you issue "kill <process id>". If it won't respond, 
> you can do "sudo kill -9 <process id>". the "killall <process name>" 
> lets you kill all processes with the name "process name", i.e., "killall 
> bash" will probably kill your terminal session since it'll kill all 
> shells using bash.
>
> the System Monitor I named in the graphical bit above should also give 
> process IDs, and kill items, if I recall correctly.
>
>   
>> When I have full keyboard access I can see Konquerer in the system 
>> monitor. It's called konquerer [kdeinit] --si which means nothing to me, 
>> I'm afraid. I'm doing my best to learn Linux/Ubuntu but I'm still very 
>> green.
>>     
>
> We all were at some point :-) The rewards come from continuing to slog 
> through the basics until they're somewhat familiar.
>
> If you google for something like "basic linux commands" or "linux new 
> user command line" you will probably find a good list of basic commands 
> new users should become familiar with...Anyone on the list have a few 
> good sites that are up-to-date for Ubuntu users who are new?? If not let 
> me know and I'll try googling a guide or two for you to use.
>
> Some basics on your own system, from the terminal, are man for the 
> MAN(ual) pages, and apropos to find commands (like "apropos net" to get 
> mostly network-related commands).
>
>   
>> The flashplugin-nonfree appears to be installed already.
>>     
>
> Okay; next question; are you using Firefox and the same thing happens? I 
> don't know if Konqueror users the Mozilla base; FF does, and the plugin 
> there I *think* defaults to install under Mozilla browsers.
>
> Please check if your system has FF in it and if so whether YouTube works 
> under FireFox. If so, I'll see if I can find info on Konqueror and flash 
> for you, but it'll have to be done by proxy or other list members as 
> well because I'm not running Kubuntu/Konqueror...
>
>   
>> How do I get to a terminal when my X is frozen? I'll try that next time 
>> it freezes.
>>     
>
> See if you can find the Kubuntu instructions for getting the terminal up 
> and leave it running in the background.
>
> If you have another computer, you can log in and run top constantly from 
> that second machine, if you have sshd...I don't know what your 
> configuration is at home. Do you have a home network? If so we can try 
> teaching you a few neat tricks with a second system logging into the 
> Linux one, both because it can be handy and for troubleshooting :-)
>
>
>
>   
Under system monitor it says Ubuntu, Release 8.04 (hardy) Kernel Linux 
2.6.24-19-generic GNOME 2.22.3

As well, I just downloaded Opera and it looks like I can play YouTube 
videos and see the street scenes in Google Maps, none of which I could 
do in FF or Konquerer.

Pat Brown
pat.mysterywriter at gmail.com
http://www.pabrown.ca/

L.A. Heat, now hotter than ever!