got load > 1 but no CPU state is showing?

[Stijn Hoop]

On Mon, Jun 16, 2003 at 01:19:59PM -0400, Chuck Swiger wrote:
> Stijn Hoop wrote:
> > On a lightly loaded server top is misbehaving: it continuously shows all
> > CPU states at 0.0% yet my load varies from 0.50 to about 3. Is there
> > any explanation for this?
> 
> Maybe.  :-)  I was going to say that on fast machines, it's not unusual for 
> processes which start up and then finish quickly to go away before top 
> "sees" them, but you still see the effect in the aggregate system load.  

Yes, that was wat I was babbling about wrt "syncing".

> However, that doesn't explain this line:
> 
> > CPU states:  0.0% user,  0.0% nice,  0.0% system,  0.0% interrupt,  0.0% 
> idle
> 
> Clutching at straws, maybe top can't read /dev/kmem or something?
> Try doing a "MAKEDEV all" in /dev...

A reboot solved my problems -- while examining this phenomenon PostgreSQL
came to a halt and wouldn't restart due to a lack of available shared memory,
although ipcs(1) didn't show any active handles. Since I needed the database
server, I had to reboot.

I suspect something hardwarish though, I've never seen this kind of weird
behaviour before.

--Stijn

-- 
The rain it raineth on the just
	And also on the unjust fella,
But chiefly on the just, because
	The unjust steals the just's umbrella.
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