Subject: sysmon uses more power
To: None <tech-kern@netbsd.org>
From: Iain Hibbert <plunky@rya-online.net>
List: tech-kern
Date: 09/23/2007 10:50:19
Hi,
   I noticed after updating kernel recently that when my laptop is
otherwise quiescent (eg left on overnight), the fan is coming on every 20
seconds or so as if there is some CPU intensive task running. previously I
could tell when a build had finished by the lack of noise..

looking at the output from 'top -tSd1':

load averages:  0.01,  0.01,  0.05    up 0 days, 17:24   09:04:40
59 threads:    1 idle, 57 sleeping, 1 on processor
CPU states:     % user,     % nice,     % system,     % interrupt,     % idle
Memory: 112M Act, 71M Inact, 708K Wired, 15M Exec, 130M File, 41M Free
Swap: 256M Total, 3256K Used, 253M Free

  PID   LID USERNAME PRI STATE      TIME   WCPU    CPU COMMAND      NAME
    0     3 root      27 smtaskq    3:00  1.12%  1.12% [system]     sysmon
  246     1 root     -14 select    19:46  0.00%  0.00% XFree86      -
  408     1 plunky   -14 select     1:46  0.00%  0.00% icewm        -
    0    20 root      18 syncer     0:10  0.00%  0.00% [system]     ioflush
 1866     1 plunky   -14 select     0:06  0.00%  0.00% gnome-vfs-da -
    0    14 root     -22 envsysev   0:05  0.00%  0.00% [system]     envsysev
  493     1 plunky   -14 select     0:04  0.00%  0.00% screen-4.0.3 -
 3550     1 plunky   -14 select     0:03  0.00%  0.00% xterm        -
    0    23 root      -6 physiod    0:01  0.00%  0.00% [system]     physiod
  802     1 plunky   -14 select     0:01  0.00%  0.00% gconfd-2     -
 2332     1 plunky   -14 select     0:01  0.00%  0.00% screen-4.0.3 -
    0     2 root     106 IDLE       0:00  0.00%  0.00% [system]     idle/0
 4343     1 plunky    28 CPU        0:00  0.00%  0.00% top          -
    0    15 root      10 usbevt     0:00  0.00%  0.00% [system]     usb1
    0    17 root      10 usbevt     0:00  0.00%  0.00% [system]     usb2
    0    13 root      10 cardslot   0:00  0.00%  0.00% [system]     cardslot1
    0    12 root      10 cardslot   0:00  0.00%  0.00% [system]     cardslot0
    0    11 root      10 pmsreset   0:00  0.00%  0.00% [system]     pms0

I see that the [sysmon] task is using significant amounts of cpu time; is
this proper?

iain