gam_server???

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I've noticed recently (like today) that this app seems to start up at boot and sucks down some serious CPU cycles occasionally. I checked out a bunch of Google hits using the variable "what is gam_server", but none gave any definitive information. Does anyone here really know what this app does and do I need it running on my system? I seem to be able to kill it manually. I've also read that if you rename it (gam_server.inop or something like that) it will no longer start up at boot. However, before I do any of that stuff, I'd like to know what it is.Any ideas?Thanks.~Eric

[securitybreach]

Post #2 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=123132 :

gam_server is used to inform applications of whether or not a file has been altered - it is the successor to famd, the File Alteration Monitor Daemon, which also caused massive headaches when it was used.

First hit on google for "gam server" http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&amp...G=Google+SearchHope that helps....Thanks Edited August 11, 2009 by securitybreach

[mhbell]

I've noticed recently (like today) that this app seems to start up at boot and sucks down some serious CPU cycles occasionally. I checked out a bunch of Google hits using the variable "what is gam_server", but none gave any definitive information. Does anyone here really know what this app does and do I need it running on my system? I seem to be able to kill it manually. I've also read that if you rename it (gam_server.inop or something like that) it will no longer start up at boot. However, before I do any of that stuff, I'd like to know what it is.Any ideas?Thanks.~Eric

Gamin is a file and directory monitoring system defined to be a subset of the FAM (File Alteration Monitor) system. This is a service provided by a library which allows to detect when a file or a directory has been modified. http://www.gnome.org/~veillard/gamin/Hope that helps you.Mel

[Guest LilBambi]

There's more information over at LinuxQuestions too:http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/li...mserver-234318/All of these are from 2005 or 2006 though.And here's a SOLVED problem with gam_server at Ubuntu forums; might be able to make use of something like they use? http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2...ight=gam_server

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Thanks, folks. I saw all those links you posted when I did my search. They were all very old and not terribly informative. I'll keep snooping around. I may disable the app for a few days and see if it causes any problems. The funny thing is that I've never noticed it before.

[mhbell]

And here's a SOLVED problem with gam_server at Ubuntu forums; might be able to make use of something like they use? http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2...ight=gam_server

I was curious so I followed the instructions in the above thread and changed the poll interval to 10 sec on my EXT3 FS. Will see if it does anything. I am using Ubuntu 9.04 I also read most of the comments in the thread. It was pretty interesting. Thanks for the link.Mel

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Slack has no gam or gamin folder or a .gaminrc file anywhere. All it has related to gam_server in any way is /usr/libexec/gam_server.

[mhbell]

Slack has no gam or gamin folder or a .gaminrc file anywhere. All it has related to gam_server in any way is /usr/libexec/gam_server.

In my Ubuntu it is a folder called gamin /etc/gamin and it only has one file in it. it is a config file called gaminrc mine looks like this.# configuration for gamin# Can be used to override the default behaviour.# notify filepath(s) : indicate to use kernel notification# poll filepath(s) : indicate to use polling instead# fsset fsname method poll_limit : indicate what method of notification for # the filesystem# kernel - use the kernel for notification# poll - use polling for notification# none - don't use any notification# # the poll_limit is the number of seconds# that must pass before a resource is polled # again. It is optional, and if it is not # present the previous value will be used # or the default. ## Some examples: # notify /mnt/local* /mnt/pictures* # use kernel notification on these paths# poll /temp/* # use poll notification on these paths# fsset nfs poll 10 # use polling on nfs mounts and poll once # every 10 secondsfsset ext3 poll 10I have no idea what slack uses or where it would be located.Mel

[V.T. Eric Layton]

What gets me is that I've never seen this app before... and the way it was eating CPU cycles earlier tonight, I'm sure I would have noticed. I'm wondering if one of the recent Slack updates or Firefox awakened this thing and why.

[Bruno]

The gam_server is part of "gamin"an app that monitors if files are altered. ( see: http://www.gnome.org/~veillard/gamin/ )It often polls to often for changes and you can change the intervals: In the file /etc/gamin/gaminrc And this looks like it could be the solution:

There is a file called "gaminrc" in the "gamin" folder in the "etc" directory which controls how often the gam_server asks the system about changed files.You have to edit that file as a superuser.1. Press "Alt" + "F2" to get the "run Application" dialog.2. In the box type the following (without the quotes) :"gksu gedit /etc/gamin/gaminrc"(You will have to type in your administrative password when it asks you)3. You will need to know what filesystems you are using.For each filesystem type the following in a separate line replacing <filesystem> with the filesystem you are using:fsset <filesystem> poll 104. Save the fileFor example, if you are using the ext3 filesystem you would type the following:fsset ext3 poll 10What this does is tell gam_server look for changed files every 10 seconds instead of a gazillion times a second like it was doing.You can try a different interval other than 10 seconds to see what works best for you.

Bruno

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Uh... not in Slackware that ain't gonna' work.

[Bruno]

In Slackware ?? . . . Kill it and "chmod a-x" the startup file in /etc/init.dB) Bruno

[mlangdn]

I'm running Slackware64-current, and I can't find an instance of this running. Nothing in /etc or any of its subfolders anywhere. There are doc files and libs in /usr/lib64.I ain't no help!

[Guest LilBambi]

The following forum topic suggests that in Slack, if you remove the gamin package (which is required by konquerer) and then reinstall the gamin package, it apparently became a non-event for Sonneteer - see bold at bottom of the last post from here:http://www.linuxquestions.org/blog/sonnete...ware-12.2-1412/

upgrade to Slackware 12.2Posted 12-13-2008 at 02:00 PM by SonneteerUpdated 12-14-2008 at 09:56 PM by SonneteerThe upgrade from slack 12.1 to slack 12.2 went fairly well. There were only a few issues, mostly with third party packages.On the first boot, rc.serial made a lot of output complaining of nonexistant devices. But this was only a one time occurrence.fbpager no longer works with the new fluxbox, but there has been some recent development with fbpager so there may be a new release at some point that will solve this. Tried fluxter with no success. For now I have switched to ipager. My issue with ipager is that I can't see anything in the config that could make it arranged in two rows instead of one (horizontally), so I need to make it rather small if I want to keep it in the vertical slit with gkrellm. (The pager plugin for gkrellm is too plain looking to me (text with LEDs) compared to the typical graphical pager that shows where the windows are.)Slackware's Firefox had issues (symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/libgnome-2.so.0: undefined symbol: g_dgettext) with the libgnome package from dropline 2.24.1 beta, and it wouldn't start until I uninstalled the libgnome package.I also no longer seem able to access the third level shift keys from within firefox. This was annoying as I have some passwords (especially the master) that used symbols from the third level.While I was in XFCE, the gam_server process suddenly started taking the CPU up to 100% and it refused to be killed. After a hard reboot I removed the gamin package, but konqueror seems to depend on it so I reinstalled it. But it hasn't acted up again since.

[Bruno]

I had a look in Slackware ( kde 3.5 ) and indeed the gam_server is running . . . . but uses 0% CPU and 0% Mem . . . so apparently I'm good.The funny thing is that I initially thought that the gam_server was a Gnome program ( Gnome Alternation Monitor ), well so I was wrong ;) Bruno

[V.T. Eric Layton]

In Slackware ?? . . . Kill it and "chmod a-x" the startup file in /etc/init.dB) Bruno

No gam_server in init.d in Slackware, Bruno. The ONLY instance on my entire system of gam_server is in /usr/libexec/gam_server.It seems to be behaving today. I sure would love to know what process requires and initiates this app. Like I said before, I had never seen it till yesterday... and I KNOW what my normal processes are. This one has not been running on my system till recently. Anyway. I'll keep an eye on it. If it starts eating up CPU cycles again, I'll disable it and see what happens.Thanks all.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Interesting. I booted Debian to do the necessary updates, and whaddya' know... there ain't NO gam_server in Debian/Gnome.

[mhbell]

Interesting. I booted Debian to do the necessary updates, and whaddya' know... there ain't NO gam_server in Debian/Gnome.

Hi Ericlook for a directory called gamin in the /etc directory. I have it in Ubuntu.Mel

[Guest LilBambi]

I thought this was interesting ... it was a comment by Philosopher on Microsoft Watch article 10 things to give Steve B for his birthday:

After running for several weeks without rebooting, I noticed that the system's performance was becoming rather sluggish. It finally seemed to freeze the Gnome user interface. I was about ready to reboot, but on a chance decided to Google from another system. Lo and behold, I discovered that the gam_server was the likely culprit. This deamon runs around checking the filesystem and reflects any changes in the Nautilus (file browser GUI; analogous to Windows Explorer) windows. So for example, when a file is ftp'd to the system or created during a build, a file browser GUI window will automatically reflect the new or changed file.From that Google search, I also discovered that once the gam_server is killed, it automatically restarts. Cool.I telnet'd to my sluggish desktop and killed the gam_server. Now the new gam_server process took hardly any memory at all, and my desktop Gnome UI suddenly became snappy and responsive again.So I created a script to kill the gam_server (called "break-a-leg"; if you don't get it I can explain it to you) and set up a cron job to run it once a day. And from that day onward, my system and its Gnome UI never lost its snappy responsive performance. Never.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Nope. No "gamin" directory in my Debian.