kapm-idled is not really taking that cpu.  kapm-idled has nothing to do with
KDE either, it's the kernel APM daemon, and you cannot disable it unless you
recompile your kernel without APM support.  You cannot kill it either since
it's not a userspace process.

This is a well known issue.  When a box is idle, kapm will *appear* to take
30-40% of the cpu because it is idling down your processor so it takes less
energy.  It's not really taking this CPU though.  The kernel developers
refuse to change the way it works citing that programs that report cpu usage
do it wrong, and developers who make cpu usage monitor say that kapm goes
about it wrong.  I wouldn't worry about it.  If it really bothers you, just
recompile your kernel without apm support.  It doesn't bother me anymore,
and my box is usually busy enough to where I don't see it.   

Most likely your culprit is the .kde directory.  I would log out,
ctrl-alt-f1 to get console, log in and rm -rf .kde, log out, ctrl-alt-f7 to
get back to X, and the log in again.  KDE will see that there is no
directory there and will create it with the correct settings.  You might
wanna remove .kderc also.  

Jay

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert P. Goldman [mailto:goldman at htc.honeywell.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2001 9:11 PM
To: Linux Users Group
Subject: [TCLUG] Mandrake 8.1/KDE heavy load


Some time ago, I mentioned that my celeron 500 had been acting decidedly
pokey since I installed Mandrake 8.1.  I'm still puzzled by this, but I have
a clue now:

I often see kapm-idled eating 30-40+% of CPU when the machine's been idle
for a while.  My suspicion is that this is the cause of my problem.  But I
don't have the foggiest idea what this might mean.  I see no corresponding
heavy hit on disk or network.  Any idea what this bugger does?  Any idea why
it would start to suck so much CPU now?

One thing that might, I suppose, be related, is that I installed 8.1 over an
old red hat and did not update the .kde subdirectory in my home directory.
That's all I can think of.

Any suggestions?

The opinions expressed in this email are solely those of Robert P. Goldman.
They do not represent the opinions or official positions of Honeywell
International.

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