On Sun, 21 Nov 2010, François TOURDE wrote:
The zombie process don't use any resources in general. No need to reboot at this point, because nothing is wrong.
Right. I can't see how the OP's process is a zombie as a zombie won't consume CPU (or any other resource). It exists solely to hand back the exit code to the parent when it can.
On some case, nevertheless, I remember that there can be a kernel problem, or a device driver one. The process was killed during a blocking IO, so it is marked as Z until IO finished. If the IO could not stop, or is on a CPU consuming loop, there is no other way than reboot.
I think you'll find such a process would be in state 'D'. Sometimes processes in state D can get stuck and indeed be unkillable.
Cheers, Rob -- Email: robert@timetraveller.org Linux counter ID #16440 IRC: Solver (OFTC & Freenode) Web: http://www.practicalsysadmin.com Contributing member of Software in the Public Interest (http://spi-inc.org/) Open Source: The revolution that silently changed the world