Re: Unkillable process with firefox

[Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com>]

On Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:32:35 -0500, Harry Putnam wrote:

> Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com> writes:

(...)

>>> How does one go about kill a process that even root cannot kill with a
>>> signal 9?
>>
>> This is what Google gives:
>>
>> Processes in an Uninterruptible Sleep (D) State
>> http://www.novell.com/support/viewContent.do?externalId=7002725&sliceId=1
> 
> OK, whats the trick?  How do you find this stuff so quick...?

I made a deal with a daemon (a "linux" daemon, I mean) }:-)

No, seriously, when a process cannot be terminated with a kill signal is 
because something unusual happens... so it's time to look at the process 
state, read "man ps" and perform a search. That's all.

> According to Novell, that means it is unkillable short of a reboot. But
> maybe I can supply the i/o it is waiting for... trouble is I cannot find
> it.  Doesn't show up in top at all.  I see no instances of firefox at
> all.  Allegedly it is in the foreground, so shouldn't I be able to see
> it?

How did you run the firefox process, from a console?

> Its hard to believe that on linux there can be a process that will
> prevent user from accessing the web browser, and that it cannot be
> killed short of a reboot.

Yep, that things can happen and sometimes there is no other way but a  
reboot.

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón