Using Top versus PS AUX

[TRN]

This AM Bird and I were working with the MDK 9.1rc1. Launching the Konqueror for viewing removable media causes a problem. None of the icons are clickable. Bird immediately went for the Ctrl-Alt-Backspace combination when I stopped her and explained that she should use TOP in a Konsole, find the PID, and then issue the kill command.

Later, I thought instead of using TOP, ps aux might be a better solution.

What do you use when there is a lockup?

[Voyager]

5 pound sledge - for ms machines and miracle for linux !JK :wink:

[robbie_n]

CTRL ALT ESC brings up XKill in Desktop/LX :-)

[TRN]

Yes, she could just type xkill in the run command and then run the mouse over. I was just trying to show bird the process ids because she had never seen them before ...

And after this exercise, I thought that maybe ps aux was a better method than TOP.

i almost always use

ps aux | grep <app_name>

to find th PID to kill stuff, way faster than searching through Top

ps aux | grep <app_name>

I prefer ps aux too but have never used the grep. Great idea. Thanks..

[redoscar]

I'm a real Linux newbie. So I rely on xkill if available. I get confused about which PID to use when some programs spawn about a dozen entries. I guess I should just use the PID with the lowest number though I'm never for sure.

What I really hate is when the entire system freezes and the keyboard is useless. That's only happened to Libranet 2.0 a couple times. I'm only 4 days into Mandrake 9.0. Except for the reset key, any idea how to get out of this kind of mess?

Red

[TRN]

Which manager are you using when there is a lockup? Can you describe your hardware configuration to us ? How much memory are you using? Hopefully more than 128 MB -- because otherwise some kde apps are really slow and may appear to be locked up when they aren't... also don't forget to include the application name and version if it is a particular app locking up.

oh .. and welcome to the community. Glad you chose GNU/Linux. The learning curve may seem great but it is a good time :D

[redoscar]

Which manager are you using when there is a lockup? Can you describe your hardware configuration to us ? How much memory are you using? Hopefully more than 128 MB -- because otherwise some kde apps are really slow and may appear to be locked up when they aren't... also don't forget to include the application name and version if it is a particular app locking up.
I appreciate the comment to evaluate. I know we are off topic now but I will reply anyways.

The box which occasionally locks up is configured as follows:
AMD K6-2 500 in a Gigabyte GA-5AA mb w/256M PC100 memory,
STB Velocity 128 - 4M video,
Crystal CX-4235 based soundcard,
Eithernet card (can't recall chipset offhand),
Libranet 2.0 based Linux distribution,
Enlightenment window manager,
Mozilla 1.2.1,
Evolution 1.0.5,
etc, etc......

The last time it locked up, I was logging out of Libranet so I could boot into Win98 and run my Quicken. I had closed all open windows, selected Logout from the E menu, and when I clicked Yes, Logout.... the system froze. Other system freezes have happened on other applications. This is probably my 4th freeze in 3 or so months. Ctrl-Alt-F1, Ctrl-Alt-Bksp, etc does nothing. I hate hitting the reset button, but I seem to have no choice.

This was probably the third Linux distribution I tried. (First was Caldera 2.4, next Lycoris Amethyst, and then Libranet). I have a second box upon which I installed Mandrake 9.0 and Win4Lin about 5 days ago. This box has been extremely stable. Win4Lin lets me get to Quicken without rebooting. I am very pleased with this setup. Now to learn how to keep the packages up to date without trashing the system (I do love apt-get for package management).

Thanks for your offer to comment on my Libranet situation.

Red