Preload hogging CPU

English Install/Boot/Login
1

SUSE 11.2 KDE 4.3.5 - When I booted this morning my computer was VERY slow responding to CLI commands. “top” revealed that two processes, “preload” and “process_preload” were taking 97% of my CPU usage. Even worse, my hard drive light was constantly flashing and stayed that way until I rebooted, only to repeat the process. Killing the running “preload” only helped until the next reboot.

I read what I could find on these services which are meant to reduce startup times. I could not find the configuration files under /etc/init.d. What puzzles me most is that this started on its own. I did not update anything yesterday or remove or add any new software. Or even run any software that I don’t use on a regular basis.

It wouldn’t stop, so I uninstalled the two packages showing in Yast. Now I am concerned that some new problem will show up. I notice that my eth0 does not connect as quickly as it used to during the bootup sequence.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? If so please direct me to a howto instruction.

Thanks.

2

Never had this
Not sure why you have had it happen
Preload can be removed without causing problems

3

I think I may have a clue to the problem.

If I try to reinstall “preload” with Yast it wants to install “kernel-default 2.6.31.12-0.2.1” whereas…

~> uname -rv
2.6.31.12-0.2-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2010-03-16 21:25:39 +0100

…and Yast tells me I have…

kernel-desktop 2.6.31.12-0.2.1-1586

…three differently (?) named kernels?

Should I let Yast replace the “desktop” kernel with the “default” kernel? Are they all the same?

I have noticed that booting does take a lot longer.

4

You can try different kernels if you like. I use kernel-default.

But either way the same applies to preload, there are matching packages for the respective kernels

So it would look like this:
kernel-default
preload-kmp-default

or

kernel-desktop
preload-kmp-desktop

Not sure why when you try and install the preload for your kernel it’s trying to add kernel-default. I have to assume you are trying to add the correct preload for your installed kernel!?
But I have had funny behaviour when juggling kernels and I usually have to play hard ball with yast.

5

Thanks for the advice.

I went ahead and re-installed “preload” updating to Kernel-default. I rebooted. “prepare_preload” ran for about 15 seconds at 97% CPU usage then stopped. My HD took a rest and things seems to have returned to normal.

I later found this link https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=544886#c3 which I don’t understand. I include it for your information as I see you answer a LOT of questions.

I also found a link to a message from a user that encountered a similar problem after viewing a lot of Flash videos. I was doing that yesterday on Youtube. I then recalled similar slowdowns with heavy Flash usage under 10.3.

Thanks again.

6

That’s an old bug report pre 11.2 release.

And you changed kernel, not updated it. Or at least I assume it wasn’t an update, that you were already using the latest kernel with kernel-desktop.

So did you delete kernel-desktop or just add kernel-default as well. Keeping both would offer the option to select at grub boot menu?!

7

At the time I thought I was replacing desktop with default. But on the next boot it offered me both. Pretty smart. Now all I need is to connect to the electrode that sticks out of my ear so Suse can tell which one I want without asking. Coming soon to your desktop!