Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ctbilbo!ray From: ray@ctbilbo.UUCP (Ray Ward) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Defunct process Message-ID: <37@ctbilbo.UUCP> Date: 10 Mar 90 01:49:37 GMT References: <1805@cygnet.UUCP> Reply-To: ray@ctbilbo.UUCP (Ray Ward) Organization: Communications Technology Corp Lines: 24 In article <1805@cygnet.UUCP> mark@cygnet.UUCP (Mark Quattrocchi) writes: >I occasionally get both a and process after having >tip croak on me. [...] > Even as root I can't kill these damn processes and it >leaves me with an unusable modem until I reboot the system. From the symptoms you describe, it seems that a likely explanation is that the driver you are using is sleeping, waiting for a high-level interrupt to wake him up. Unfortunately, the communications have somehow croaked, so the interrupt will never come. The driver has set the interrupt level so high that a normal signal will not be able to break him out of his sleep. Rebooting is the only general, reliable method I know of to remedy the problem. Perhaps there should be another command to allow su to interrupt sleeping beauty? (As opposed to ad hoc hacking with the kernel...) -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ray Ward Email: uunet!ctbilbo!ray Voice: (214) 991-8338x226, (800) 331-7032 Fax : (214) 991-8968 =-=-=-=- There _are_ simple answers, just no _easy_ ones. -- R.R. -=-=-=-=