Tim Connors wrote:
If it stays in D for long continuously (as opposed to intermitently and for a few seconds - eg. while accessing the disk), then there is probably a kernel bug involved somewhere. If however, the load goes away after some time, maybe it is not something to worry about. Were you waiting for slow IO from a disk or floopy, or maybe listening to music on a bad CD? Any oopsen in your syslog?
Some years ago I used to boot off a Quantum LPS 170. It had some more stuff on it, probably /tmp.
It died and managed to hang a couple of process.I manged to reconfigure the system without taking it down, and the hung processes contributed to a higher-than-normail loadaverage for weeks. Probably until the next power failure.
-- Cheers John -- spambait 1aaaaaaa@computerdatasafe.com.au Z1aaaaaaa@computerdatasafe.com.au Tourist pics http://portgeographe.environmentaldisasters.cds.merseine.nu/