On Saturday 14 November 2015, Nick Koretsky wrote: > On Sat, 14 Nov 2015 10:14:10 -0500 > > Gene Heskett <gheskett@...> wrote: > > Greetings; > > > > Twice in the last 2 weeks I have been forced to reboot the machine, as it > > had a locked up, unkillable session of kmail showing in htop. I had hit > > the list reply button, only to be greeted by the spinning dumbell mouse > > cursor, which would spin forever. The machine was NOT stuck in a loop > > someplace burning up cpu's, nothing, not even kmail was showing any > > great cpu activity, but the process itself was unkillable. > > > > This time I was attempting to teach Bret Busby how to construct a sig > > separator, the \r-- \r sequence and it was one of his reply messages I > > was reading & tried to reply to when it locked up. > > > > This reboot took around 30 minutes because /amandatapes-1T, a terabyte > > drive, had not been fsck'd in 181 days, and fscking a terabyte drive, > > even if no errors other than severe fragmentation (62%) exist is a 30 to > > 45 minute process. Amanda, the backup program, /thinks/ the drive is a > > 30 tape, changer equiped library. (except its 10,0000% more dependable > > that such a mechanical monster would be, and 2% of the cost) I'd hate to > > think how long it will take to do a 2 terabyte drive as there is now 4 > > of them here at the Heskett mini-ranchette. Its difficult to buy > > anything smaller. > > > > I deleted the last 4 messages from him from ~/Mail/kubuntu-users/cur > > before I restarted kmail, knowing I'd be going thru the same hung > > machine procedure if I didn't. Last time I made 3 reboots trying, and > > finally just cleaned out the folder (a different one) before trying a > > 4th reboot & kmail restart. That, like this, complained about the index > > file being corrupted on the launch of kmail but normal operation was > > able to be resumed. > > > > Has anyone a clue just what gmail is doing now? Or how to fix kmail so > > it tolerates a message posted from their (IMNSHO) busted webmail app? > > > > This is R14.0.0.2 I believe. Last updated from Slavics? server a day > > back. > > Looks like I'll need to reboot again, I have a net caused ooops in the > > log, and my local network is dead although I can ping yahell. > > Thats weird. Generally speaking the process cannot become unkillable due > to error in a program itself, thats only happens if it stuck in the system > call. So i suspect problems with disk/fs or maybe a faulty network > card driver. That makes sense. I'd do an HD check with the maker's tool CD. Make sure to run a SMART check as, silent HD hang ups are often electronic rather than mechanical. If it's a desktop, swap out the nic. Good luck Kate