[TriLUG] kapm-idled

[Marc Johnson]

>Hi,
>
>I recently upgraded (re-installed) from Mandrake 7.2 (kernel 2.2.17) to 
>Mandrake 8.0 running the stock kernel 2.4.3-20mdk, then upgraded to kernel 
>2.4.8-26mdk.  I've now noticed that I have "kapm-idled" running as a 
>process all the time, hogging up 90%+ of the cpu.  This has happened on 
>more than one box, from pentium-233mmx to PII-266 and amd300, I haven't 
>checked the P3 yet...
>
>This is new to me.  So far I haven't been able to figure out even where to 
>look for docs.  Nothing in man pages.
>
>What is it?

I've wondered the same thing (I see this on my AMD desktop) and just did 
some rooting around in various Linux archives. Apparently it's a 
power-management process and a work-around for buggy BIOS's that could 
otherwise take the kernel down (this way, whatever bug it is just kills this 
process instead).

Some people claim it does nothing at all and that its alarming image as a 
CPU memory hog is an illusion; others claim they've watch the CPU temperatur 
go up 20 degrees while this process is commanding the nearly undivided 
attention of your system.

>Do I need it?

Probably not, unless you're running a laptop.

>How do I get rid of it? (Kill hasn't worked)

One suggestion I saw was to put apm=off in your lilo.conf append line. 
Haven't tried it myself.

>chkconfig - not obviously helpful
>
>Thanks,
>--Henry
>--
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