Sorry for the stuff without reproduction details, writing software for a living I know how annoying these low-frequency glitches are to track down, so I browsed the logs a bit more for further forensic hints: Exhibit 1: It does not seem to be a memory leak top - 20:16:30 up 20 min, 3 users, load average: 1.31, 1.61, 1.12 Cpu(s): 40.3% us, 2.3% sy, 0.0% ni, 56.3% id, 0.0% wa, 0.3% hi, 0.7% si Mem: 256796k total, 233132k used, 23664k free, 5176k buffers 7548 annelies 15 0 166m 41m 25m S 26.3 16.7 3:59.34 kaffeine top - 21:44:47 up 1:48, 3 users, load average: 1.26, 1.12, 1.22 Cpu(s): 99.0% us, 0.3% sy, 0.0% ni, 0.0% id, 0.0% wa, 0.3% hi, 0.3% si Mem: 256796k total, 250284k used, 6512k free, 4200k buffers 7548 annelies 15 0 166m 42m 25m S 97.1 16.9 52:38.15 kaffeine Exhibit 2: The file was modified half an hour after the usable stream ends, but half an hour before I interrupted the hanging process. ls -l done at different times, note how the file grows at the beginning but ceases to grow later. The first two entries were done in "real time" (date stamp current), but the last two entries were done at 21:44, according to top, so the last write was half an hour ago. When played back in Xine, the playback ends at 00:29:05. -rw-r--r-- 1 anneliese anneliese 10190848 2005-10-19 20:17 Das Erste-05.10.19-20:16:53.mpg -rw-r--r-- 1 anneliese anneliese 26664960 2005-10-19 20:17 Das Erste-05.10.19-20:16:53.mpg -rw-r--r-- 1 anneliese anneliese 1567719424 2005-10-19 21:14 Das Erste-05.10.19-20:16:53.mpg -rw-r--r-- 1 anneliese anneliese 1567719424 2005-10-19 21:14 Das Erste-05.10.19-20:16:53.mpg Exhibit 3: Nothing obvious in the syslog (syslogd has a rather high pid?!), but what's knotify doing in there? Trying to use arts? Causing trouble? (I did not even enter the room with the machine between 20:20 and 21:40) 7548 pts/1 Sl 52:13 kaffeine 7552 ? Ss 0:00 kdeinit Running... 7555 ? S 0:00 dcopserver [kdeinit] --nosid --suicide 7557 ? S 0:00 klauncher [kdeinit] 7559 ? S 0:13 kded [kdeinit] 7572 ? S 0:00 kio_file [kdeinit] file /tmp/ksocket-anneliese/klauncheradlnMa.slave-socket /tmp/ 7575 ? S 0:00 [kdvb-fe-0] 7725 ? SNs 0:04 /usr/sbin/cupsd -F 8116 ? SNs 0:00 /sbin/syslogd -u syslog 8429 ? S 0:05 knotify [kdeinit] 8432 ? S 0:01 /usr/bin/artsd -F 10 -S 4096 -s 60 -m artsmessage -l 3 -f Oct 19 20:04:42 localhost syslogd 1.4.1#17ubuntu3: restart. Oct 19 20:04:42 localhost anacron[7093]: Job `cron.daily' terminated (mailing output) Oct 19 20:04:42 localhost anacron[7093]: Can't find sendmail at /usr/sbin/sendmail, not mailing output Oct 19 20:04:42 localhost anacron[7093]: Normal exit (1 job run) Oct 19 20:17:01 localhost /USR/SBIN/CRON[8436]: (root) CMD ( run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly) Oct 19 20:22:23 localhost dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 192.168.2.1 port 67 Oct 19 20:22:29 localhost dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 192.168.2.1 port 67 Oct 19 20:22:29 localhost dhclient: DHCPACK from 192.168.2.1 Oct 19 20:22:29 localhost dhclient: bound to 192.168.2.5 -- renewal in 1732 seconds. Oct 19 20:44:43 localhost -- MARK -- Oct 19 20:51:21 localhost dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 192.168.2.1 port 67 Oct 19 20:51:30 localhost last message repeated 2 times Oct 19 20:51:30 localhost dhclient: DHCPACK from 192.168.2.1 Oct 19 20:51:30 localhost dhclient: bound to 192.168.2.5 -- renewal in 1536 seconds. Oct 19 21:04:43 localhost -- MARK -- Oct 19 21:17:02 localhost /USR/SBIN/CRON[9815]: (root) CMD ( run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly) Oct 19 21:17:06 localhost dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 192.168.2.1 port 67 Oct 19 21:17:13 localhost dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 192.168.2.1 port 67 Oct 19 21:17:13 localhost dhclient: DHCPACK from 192.168.2.1 Oct 19 21:17:13 localhost dhclient: bound to 192.168.2.5 -- renewal in 1555 seconds. Oct 19 21:43:08 localhost dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 192.168.2.1 port 67 Oct 19 21:43:13 localhost dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 192.168.2.1 port 67 Oct 19 21:43:13 localhost dhclient: DHCPACK from 192.168.2.1 Oct 19 21:43:13 localhost dhclient: bound to 192.168.2.5 -- renewal in 1458 seconds. Oct 19 22:04:47 localhost -- MARK -- Exhibit 4: Kaffeine works "fine" again when restarted. The overall system health has not suffered. I write this from the same session where the glitch occured.