Today's article has you showing your running processes...

[KGIII]

This isn't something everyone will need - but it can be useful, especially if you want to do things like kill a process by their PID. The article is about the ps command, which has quite a few options that we didn't delve into (and probably won't ever delve into).

Show Running Processes • Linux Tips

Your Linux system will have a lot of things running and these things have their own process, so let's learn how to show running processes.

linux-tips.us

Enjoy!

 

[bob466]

Mint Cinnamon has the System Monitor which does that...Processes...Resources and File Systems...you can click on something and click End Process...I wouldn't touch anything in there myself.

 

[KGIII]

Mint Cinnamon has the System Monitor which does that...Processes...Resources and File Systems...you can click on something and click End Process...I wouldn't touch anything in there myself.

Yup. Pretty much any desktop will come with some sort of task manager - though they may not show all tasks. Compare the number of lines output from ps aux and your task manager. I'm not sure what's not shown, but I don't think it shows all of them.

Still, as mentioned in the leading paragraph, this isn't something your average desktop user is going to need. Unless you're locked out of the GUI and trying to recover from a nearly-halted state, you're not going to need this. Even then, you can usually safely just smash the power button for 10 seconds to reboot the system.

I'm a bit stubborn and might try to recover the system first. In fact, I usually do. I have an unnatural enjoyment of seeing high uptime. The server powering my Linux Tips site hasn't been rebooted for 220 days. The laptop I'm using hasn't been rebooted for 26 days. I did reboot the desktop in my study recently. That was sometime within the past couple of weeks.

 

[bob466]

Your article reminded me of the dark days of windoze...after a short time windoze would start to slow down...people suggested stopping processes which they claimed would fix the problem which it didn't.

It's been nearly 9 years of running Linux Mint and I've never had to do this...because Linux never slows down...hadn't thought of this for years...how time flies when you're having fun.

 

[KGIII]

because Linux never slows down...

You can make it slow down. Heck, you can even make it run out of resources and force it to crash.

But, if you're not putting a heavy load on it (and you don't, as far as I know), that's just not something you have to worry about.

I'm pretty wasteful, so to speak. I have a zillion tabs open across multiple browsers. I have a half dozen applications open at any given time. So, my CPU is often hitting 60% averages with spikes on single cores hitting 100%. My RAM is more than half utilized at any given time. Thunderbird has a memory leak somewhere which I should probably report.

 

[BigBadBeef]

Wait... I remember us talking about processes. I remember showing a simple gnome extension where all the running processes were just one click away!

 

[osprey]

To see the difference between the output of a GUI app that shows processes, and the ps command, a revealing test is to run a browser such as firefox, librewolf, brave etc., and then run both the GUI app, and the terminal command:

ps auxww

and check the difference in outputs. Does the GUI app output all those options commonly used by browsers? The only GUI app available to me at the moment is lxtask for the comparison, and it's output is quite terse and truncated. I may be mistaken, but I can't recall any GUI app in the past showing much more, and none with the detail of the ps command. That's why the ps command was so useful and informative.

 

[KGIII]

Wait... I remember us talking about processes. I remember showing a simple gnome extension where all the running processes were just one click away!

I dunno but there's likely such an extension. GUI process viewing seems like a no-brainer to me.Someone' bound to have done so.

but I can't recall any GUI app in the past showing much more, and none with the detail of the ps command.

Me either. They always show less - from what I've seen and can recall.

For a basic view that anyone can do, install and run screenfetch. That will show you're running like 2000 processes. Now, compare that with your GUI task manager.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

...the dark days of windoze...people suggested stopping processes which they claimed would fix the problem which it didn't.

As a recently emancipated slave of the Giant, I can say this STILL doesn't work. In fact, when Windows is REALLY slow, the Task Manager freezes, you can't shut down the PC or restart it. You either have to wait in perpetuity for an event that will never occur, or force shut down manually.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Looking at this, I feel so incredibly disappointed. Until I can get Linux on a fully functioning computer, none of this is anything I can even begin diving into!

 

[KGIII]

Looking at this, I feel so incredibly disappointed. Until I can get Linux on a fully functioning computer, none of this is anything I can even begin diving into!

Patience is key, I suppose.

You can be reasonably certain that the article will exist when you get back up and running.

Are you lacking a storage device, like an SSD? I don't normally want to take responsibility for things like this, but I feel reasonably confident regarding the OEM. So, I'll share this link with you:

https://www.newegg.com/Team-Group/BrandStore/ID-11857

Storage media doesn't have to be expensive these days - even reasonably fast storage media. You can fit Linux comfortably in 256 GB. You can go smaller than that, even. On this box, I've got just a 512 GB SSD. I have 450 GB free.

(I store important things elsewhere. The system itself requires very little space.)

So, for $20 you can get a lovely SSD that's (for you) insanely fast. This assumes SATA support and not IDE. While IDE SSDs were once possible and still exist, they're likely to be more expensive these days simply because of supply and demand.

Odds are very good that your hardware supports SSD. If you look at the drive itself, it's got much smaller connections and doesn't use the wide (40 pin) IDE connector, nor does it use the old MOLEX power cable.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Are you lacking a storage device, like an SSD? ...

Instead of installing a drive...

I don't want to invest any money into either of the two Lenovo laptops. These are both about the some age (2018 - 2020). Both have issues. The HP laptop I bought in 2006 still works, it did last year anyway.

What I'm thinking about is getting another external drive and run Linux from that instead. I bought my external drive a long time ago, 2007. (It also still works). It connects via USB port. Or I could use one of the other HDD's I have instead of buying a new one. I would need is something to put it in. Wizardfromoz said it's called a caddy. My external drive is USB mini, not micro. I don't know how much difference it would make with an older HDD, but it might worth buying a new caddy with a USB C port, preverably at least 3.0. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I can use the laptop with more features even if the hard drive fails.

$20 sounds pretty good! People keep telling me they are inexpensive. I didn't have any idea they're that "cheap!I would assume an SDD could be used as an external drive also. If I buy anything I want something I can use in the future too. These Lenovo's don't seem to be very well made!

The first Lenovo has 2 USB ports and plus one USB 3.0. I doubt it would be 3.1.
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNiio0nMLjjQ9JJu5x-u030zixunCLgBvsueIzz
It also has something I don't recognize. You probably know what it is.

The one I'm using now has less.

And since we're talking about hard drives for a Lenovo...

You probably know the answer to this, so you could confirm this if I'm right. As I understand it, any hardware component can malfunction if the HDD goes bad. Drivers are stored on the hard drive. If so, I might not have any graphics problems like I was having.

Is that correct?

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

@Kglll

Oh wait, I think picture might be for an ether net cable. I haven't looked at one in a while!

 

[KGIII]

!I would assume an SDD could be used as an external drive also

With a caddy or cable, yes. You can easily install it in place of the failing drive(s). Well, depending on the brand and model... You may need a heat gun and spudger if you're using a sealed unit like some Apple products.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

With a caddy or cable, yes. You can easily install it in place of the failing drive(s). Well, depending on the brand and model... You may need a heat gun and spudger if you're using a sealed unit like some Apple products.

I have a heat gun, but I have to locate it! I've use a hair dryer and lighter instead before. I don't think I'm willing to try that with hard drive though!

I have no idea what a spudger is, but I can find out. Is that the spatula like thing use to spread thermal paste?

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

With a caddy or cable............

Ah um...

I have cats. The like to play with cords, or anything cord-like. I have tubes around the plugs and things for my PC. A caddy would probably be best with some form of defense against the felines!