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Date:      Sun, 11 Mar 2001 21:52:45 -0500 (EST)
From:      Mikhail Teterin <mi@mail.virtual-estates.net>
To:        Stephen McKay <mckay@thehub.com.au>
Cc:        stable@freebsd.org, mvh@ix.netcom.com, bde@zeta.org.au, mi@aldan.algebra.com
Subject:   Re: load stays at 1 on an idle machine
Message-ID:  <200103120252.VAA06440@mail.virtual-estates.net>
In-Reply-To: <200103111029.f2BATj518491@dungeon.home> from Stephen McKay at "Mar 11, 2001 08:29:45 pm"

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> >I have seen this behavior a number of times over the years, but never
> >tracked it down.
>
> Me too.  This happens  to me several  times a year,  and has  done for
> years.  Generally, very  soon  after  noticing it,  whatever  I do  to
> examine it  causes it to return  to normal (ie load-average  very near
> zero).
>
> >I  have noticed  that  when  this happes,  the  load  is basically  a
> >completely stable value of 1.0 or very close to it, almost like it is
> >in a locally stable state.
>
> I have xload always running and it will be perfectly flat at 1.0 load.
> Other commands will confirm this  (top, uptime). Then the load average
> mysteriously returns to normal with no real intervention.

Well, I  noticed it being flat  at 2, with SETI@Home  running. I stopped
the  seti and  it went  down to  1 and  stayed there  (flat at  1). This
happened through a  couple of reboots. I then disabled  the seti startup
and rebooted again. It is at flat 0 now, which is right.

So, whatever it is, in my case it triggered by an always on low priority
process -- just like SETI's number cruncher...

	-mi

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