I recently ran ps -ax and found over 20 gnome-pty-helper processes running, none of which doesn't seem to be in use. Sending the process a TERM signal has no affect on the process. Not sure what called these specific processes (The ones that don't exit) but I'm guessing it's Totem or Mplayer. I checked and I'm able to run Totem and Mplayer normally and it's gnome-pty-helper helper processes quit when Totem/Mplayer is closed. Where's a process listing: UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD dustix 21375 1 0 Sep20 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 22010 1 0 Sep20 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 22383 1 0 Sep20 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 22589 1 0 Sep20 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 1617 1 0 Sep20 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 1661 1 0 Sep20 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 24836 1 0 09:49 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 26151 1 0 10:41 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 6174 1 0 12:17 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 6555 1 0 12:41 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 6687 1 0 12:49 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 6902 1 0 12:52 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 7786 1 0 12:53 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 7877 1 0 12:55 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 10051 1 0 15:28 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 10465 1 0 15:47 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 10723 1 0 15:58 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 12079 1 0 17:15 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 14083 1 0 18:25 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 29231 1 0 18:42 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 29302 1 0 18:43 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 29954 1 0 20:04 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 30809 1 0 20:07 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 30833 1 0 20:07 ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-helper dshanker 30856 30854 0 20:08 ? 00:00:00 [gnome-pty-helpe] <defunct> dshanker 31984 31071 0 20:26 pts/1 00:00:00 ps -afC gnome-pty-helper Reproducible: Couldn't Reproduce Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3. Expected Results: gnome-pty-helper should quit after sub process quits. gnome = 2.12.0 gnome-libs = 1.4.2 totem = 1.2.0 mplayer = 1.0_pre7-r1 gstreamer = 0.8.11
have you been able to reproduce this?
(In reply to comment #1) > have you been able to reproduce this? No and Yes; while I'm unsure exactly what's calling the process, After a days worth of work, I've found 7 or so gnome-pty-helper running. Not sure exactly what called them, but I'm wondering if it has anything to do with suspending my laptop. I'm going to start shutting down my laptop over the weekend and stop using apm suspend to see if the problem persist.
I noticed this with vte-0.11.15. running su in a gnome-terminal spawns a gnome-pty-helper process which usually terminates when you exit. But with vte-0.11.15 it doesn't. I don't know if this has been reported upstream. Judging from gnome bugzilla vte seems a tad undermaintained. Cheers, Peter
reporter: how did that testing go?
(In reply to comment #4) > reporter: how did that testing go? Sorry, for the delay. The problem is definitely not related to suspending the machine. It looks as though when mplayer is called from the browser (I'm using epiphany), and the player is stopped, the process hangs. While I'm able to reproduce this occasionally, I'm not sure exactly what's causing it. Anyone else able to reproduce? steps to reproduce: 1) install mplayerplug-in 2) launch epiphany/firefox and go to somewhere with large file 3) stop player while playing file 4) close firefox/epiphany and check if gnome-pty-helper is still present
I don't think this bug is related to gnome 2.12 as I have the same problem on gnome 2.10.2 When I work on a gnome-terminal for a while and then close it, I get one or more orphaned gnome-pty-helper processes. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen frequently. I tested mplayer and mplayerplugin but it doesn't cause this problem. At least on my system it's gnome-terminal that causes it. In reply to <a href="http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=106852#c3">comment #3</a>, I think this problem started around the time I upgraded to vte-0.11.15 but I can't tell for sure. I also had this problem without running su, but after running a few sudo. I'm going to downgrade vte, test for a day and report back if this solves it.
Confirmed. x11-libs/vte-0.11.15 causes the problem. I downgraded to x11-libs/vte-0.11.13-r2 and rebuilt gnome-terminal (not sure if this was necessary). Tested for a day and the problem is gone. No more gnome-pty-helper processes.
Has this been reported upstream? Does the problem still exist with vte-0.11.16?
I haven't been able to reproduce this with vte-0.11.16. So it seems to be resolved. I don't think it was ever reported upstream, though I've seen the problem mentioned on gnome-devel-list. http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-devel-list/2005-November/msg00013.html It's probably safe to close this bug as soon as vte-0.11.16 is in stable.
Ok sounds good. Hopefully the latest vte will be moving into stable shortly, for now anybody with this problem should use 0.11.16
I'm able to reproduce the issue with 0.11.16
Same here with 0.11.16-r1. I'm going back to 0.11.13-r2
found 2 references to this on the web: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnome.general/5720 and http://archives.free.net.ph/message/20051214.092245.bc60479e.en.html this redhat bug is somewhat similar, but has already been applied and released: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=159363 This makes it seem that this is not a gentoo only issue, since those are debian and ubuntu people. i tried to reproduce using mplayerplug-in but could not reproduce it. Can anyone else reliably reproduce this? If so, please reply with step-by-step instructions to reproduce. Thanks
(In reply to comment #13) > found 2 references to this on the web: > > http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnome.general/5720 > and > http://archives.free.net.ph/message/20051214.092245.bc60479e.en.html > > this redhat bug is somewhat similar, but has already been applied and released: > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=159363 > What they describe is exactly the same problem. I also run gkrellm and I noticed that the user counter(which probably reads from utmp) was not updated whenever I had one or more gnome-pty-helper processes hanging. So whenever I opened gnome-terminal, the user count would go to 2, but when I closed the terminal, the user count stayed at 2. And if I started another terminal session for a different user(like su -) it'll increase to 3. It'd only drop when I would killall -s 9 gnome-pty-helper. > > i tried to reproduce using mplayerplug-in but could not reproduce it. > > Can anyone else reliably reproduce this? > If so, please reply with step-by-step instructions to reproduce. Yes. 1. emerge >=vte-0.11.15 2. rebuild gnome-terminal 3. run gnome-terminal 4. close gnome-terminal. you just got an orphaned gnome-pty-helper process 6. rinse and repeat steps 3 and 4 for more gnome-pty-helpers
not a blocker for 2.12
Fixed in GNOME 2.14. Closing bug.
