Upgraded from 8.04 to 8.10 and found a high load average and huge numbers of "polkit-read-aut" called from "hal-acl-tool" in my lastcomm logs: # lastcomm | grep "Apr 14 20:46" | wc -l 9772 # lastcomm | grep "Apr 14 20:46" | grep -c polkit-read-aut 9591 # lastcomm | grep "Apr 14 20:46" | grep -c hal-acl-tool 32 The command line is actually "hal-acl-tool --reconfigure" which calls polkit-read-auth-helper (over and over and over!). To slow this down, I replaced /usr/lib/policykit/polkit-read-auth-helper with a shell script that dumped some environment into a file and did a "sleep 1" before calling the real binary (renamed to "polkit-ian"). That sleep slowed things down and helped the load average a bit: # lastcomm | grep "Apr 15 20:40" | wc -l 539 #~[10127] lastcomm | grep "Apr 15 20:40" | grep -c 'polkit-ian' 59 # lastcomm | grep "Apr 15 20:40" | grep -c 'hal-acl-tool' 3 but now I get "X" entries beside all the hal-acl-tool calls: # lastcomm | grep hal-acl-tool | wc -l 2364 # lastcomm | grep hal-acl-tool | grep X | wc -l 2364 # lastcomm | grep hal-acl-tool | grep X | head -2 hal-acl-tool X root ?? 0.01 secs Wed Apr 15 20:44 hal-acl-tool X root ?? 0.01 secs Wed Apr 15 20:41 I modified my script to run an strace of polkit-read-auth-helper to see what it was doing 9,772 times per minute and here's one of those dumps: # grep '^open\|^stat\|^access' /tmp/idebug3.24683 access("/etc/suid-debug", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = 0 access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = 0 open("/usr/local/lib/libpolkit-dbus.so.2", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = 0 open("/lib/libpthread.so.0", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = 0 open("/lib/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = 0 open("/lib/libdbus-1.so.3", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = 0 open("/usr/local/lib/libpolkit.so.2", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = 0 open("/lib/libselinux.so.1", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = 0 open("/usr/local/lib/libexpat.so.1", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = 0 open("/lib/libdl.so.2", O_RDONLY) = 3 open("/etc/selinux/config", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) statfs64("/selinux", 84, 0xbfe85500) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/proc/mounts", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 3 open("/etc/nsswitch.conf", O_RDONLY) = 3 open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = 0 open("/lib/libnss_compat.so.2", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = 0 open("/lib/libnsl.so.1", O_RDONLY) = 3 open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = 0 open("/lib/libnss_nis.so.2", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = 0 open("/lib/libnss_files.so.2", O_RDONLY) = 3 open("/etc/group", O_RDONLY|0x80000 /* O_??? */) = 3 open("/etc/passwd", O_RDONLY|0x80000 /* O_??? */) = 3 open("/etc/passwd", O_RDONLY|0x80000 /* O_??? */) = 3 stat64("/var/run/PolicyKit/user-idallen.auths", 0xbfe85288) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/etc/passwd", O_RDONLY|0x80000 /* O_??? */) = 3 stat64("/var/lib/PolicyKit/user-idallen.auths", 0xbfe85288) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) Where do I start trying to debug this looping problem? I am *not* running Gnome or GDM. I use vtwm via "startx" after I log in. Various environment details follow: Linux idallen 2.6.27-11-generic #1 SMP Wed Apr 1 20:57:48 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux LSB Version: core-2.0-ia32:core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-ia32:core-3.0-noarch:core-3.1-ia32:core-3.1-noarch:core-3.2-ia32:core-3.2-noarch:cxx-3.0-ia32:cxx-3.0-noarch:cxx-3.1-ia32:cxx-3.1-noarch:cxx-3.2-ia32:cxx-3.2-noarch:desktop-3.1-ia32:desktop-3.1-noarch:desktop-3.2-ia32:desktop-3.2-noarch:graphics-2.0-ia32:graphics-2.0-noarch:graphics-3.0-ia32:graphics-3.0-noarch:graphics-3.1-ia32:graphics-3.1-noarch:graphics-3.2-ia32:graphics-3.2-noarch:languages-3.2-ia32:languages-3.2-noarch:multimedia-3.2-ia32:multimedia-3.2-noarch:printing-3.2-ia32:printing-3.2-noarch:qt4-3.1-ia32:qt4-3.1-noarch Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 8.10 Release: 8.10 Codename: intrepid processor : 0 vendor_id : AuthenticAMD cpu family : 6 model : 10 model name : AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3200+ stepping : 0 cpu MHz : 2204.956 cache size : 512 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 1 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow up bogomips : 4409.91 clflush size : 32 power management: ts MemTotal: 3112188 kB MemFree: 391260 kB Buffers: 55416 kB Cached: 1800424 kB SwapCached: 235992 kB Active: 1557140 kB Inactive: 1059568 kB HighTotal: 2228160 kB HighFree: 120008 kB LowTotal: 884028 kB LowFree: 271252 kB SwapTotal: 3421836 kB SwapFree: 2954456 kB Dirty: 468 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 751444 kB Mapped: 61820 kB Slab: 71360 kB SReclaimable: 37612 kB SUnreclaim: 33748 kB PageTables: 6212 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 4977928 kB Committed_AS: 1650916 kB VmallocTotal: 110584 kB VmallocUsed: 8564 kB VmallocChunk: 101456 kB HugePages_Total: 0 HugePages_Free: 0 HugePages_Rsvd: 0 HugePages_Surp: 0 Hugepagesize: 4096 kB DirectMap4k: 32768 kB DirectMap4M: 884736 kB CPU0 0: 124 IO-APIC-edge timer 1: 270972 IO-APIC-edge i8042 3: 4 IO-APIC-edge 4: 4 IO-APIC-edge 7: 0 IO-APIC-edge parport0 8: 5 IO-APIC-edge rtc0 9: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi 14: 3054864 IO-APIC-edge pata_amd 15: 2544541 IO-APIC-edge pata_amd 16: 1316215 IO-APIC-fasteoi pata_pdc2027x 17: 34844118 IO-APIC-fasteoi eth1, aic7xxx 18: 29859724 IO-APIC-fasteoi sata_sil 19: 1404 IO-APIC-fasteoi 20: 988281 IO-APIC-fasteoi ohci_hcd:usb2, NVidia nForce2 21: 844946 IO-APIC-fasteoi ohci_hcd:usb1, ohci1394 22: 31277671 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb3, eth0 NMI: 0 Non-maskable interrupts LOC: 86309518 Local timer interrupts RES: 0 Rescheduling interrupts CAL: 0 function call interrupts TLB: 0 TLB shootdowns SPU: 0 Spurious interrupts ERR: 0 MIS: 0 Module Size Used by iptable_nat 13448 0 nls_cp437 13696 0 isofs 40228 0 iptable_mangle 10880 0 af_packet 25728 0 drbd 228992 0 vboxdrv 71576 0 ipt_ULOG 15268 1 nfsd 230768 13 auth_rpcgss 42656 1 nfsd exportfs 12544 1 nfsd nf_conntrack_netlink 24320 0 nf_nat 25368 2 iptable_nat,nf_conntrack_netlink ppdev 15748 0 nf_conntrack_ipv4 21900 3 iptable_nat,nf_nat nf_conntrack 72032 4 iptable_nat,nf_conntrack_netlink,nf_nat,nf_conntrack_ipv4 nfnetlink 12184 3 nf_conntrack_netlink cpufreq_userspace 11396 0 cpufreq_powersave 9856 0 cpufreq_ondemand 14988 0 cpufreq_conservative 14600 0 cpufreq_stats 13188 0 freq_table 12672 2 cpufreq_ondemand,cpufreq_stats sbs 19464 0 sbshc 13440 1 sbs video 25232 0 output 11008 1 video pci_slot 12680 0 container 11520 0 wmi 14504 0 battery 18436 0 rfcomm 44560 0 l2cap 30464 3 rfcomm bluetooth 61924 2 rfcomm,l2cap ext2 72584 0 mga 68608 0 drm 86056 1 mga lock_dlm 22948 0 gfs2 367404 1 lock_dlm dlm 125452 1 lock_dlm configfs 33688 2 dlm nfs 269544 0 lockd 71976 2 nfsd,nfs nfs_acl 11264 2 nfsd,nfs sunrpc 197088 13 nfsd,auth_rpcgss,nfs,lockd,nfs_acl iptable_filter 10752 0 ip_tables 19600 3 iptable_nat,iptable_mangle,iptable_filter x_tables 22916 3 iptable_nat,ipt_ULOG,ip_tables ac 12292 0 sbp2 29324 0 lp 17156 0 matrox_w1 11392 0 wire 29064 1 matrox_w1 pcspkr 10624 0 evdev 17696 3 snd_intel8x0 37532 0 snd_ac97_codec 111652 1 snd_intel8x0 ac97_bus 9856 1 snd_ac97_codec snd_pcm_oss 46848 0 snd_mixer_oss 22784 1 snd_pcm_oss snd_pcm 83204 3 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss snd_seq_dummy 10884 0 parport_pc 39332 1 parport 42604 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc snd_seq_oss 38528 0 snd_seq_midi 14336 0 snd_rawmidi 29824 1 snd_seq_midi snd_seq_midi_event 15232 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi snd_seq 57776 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event snd_timer 29960 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq snd_seq_device 15116 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq button 14224 0 shpchp 38036 0 pci_hotplug 34976 1 shpchp snd 63268 10 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device soundcore 15328 1 snd i2c_nforce2 14468 0 snd_page_alloc 16136 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm nvidia_agp 14492 1 agpgart 42184 2 drm,nvidia_agp i2c_core 31892 1 i2c_nforce2 ext3 133256 5 jbd 55828 1 ext3 mbcache 16004 2 ext2,ext3 st 45212 0 pata_acpi 12160 0 pata_amd 18564 0 osst 59804 0 sr_mod 22212 0 cdrom 43168 1 sr_mod sd_mod 42392 10 crc_t10dif 9984 1 sd_mod sg 39732 0 usb_storage 82624 0 usbhid 35840 1 hid 50560 1 usbhid libusual 30356 1 usb_storage ohci1394 37936 0 pata_pdc2027x 15876 2 ata_generic 12932 0 sata_sil 15752 4 ieee1394 96324 2 sbp2,ohci1394 aic7xxx 152792 0 scsi_transport_spi 30464 1 aic7xxx libata 178208 5 pata_acpi,pata_amd,pata_pdc2027x,ata_generic,sata_sil 3c59x 48936 0 mii 13440 1 3c59x skge 48144 0 scsi_mod 155212 10 sbp2,st,osst,sr_mod,sd_mod,sg,usb_storage,aic7xxx,scsi_transport_spi,libata dock 16656 1 libata ehci_hcd 43788 0 ohci_hcd 32016 0 forcedeth 61328 0 usbcore 149488 7 usb_storage,usbhid,libusual,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd dm_mirror 27008 0 dm_log 17924 1 dm_mirror dm_snapshot 26276 0 dm_mod 63432 3 dm_mirror,dm_log,dm_snapshot thermal 23708 0 processor 42156 1 thermal fan 12548 0 nbd 18960 0 fbcon 47648 0 tileblit 10880 1 fbcon font 16512 1 fbcon bitblit 13824 1 fbcon softcursor 9984 1 bitblit fuse 60828 1