suddenly >88 processes

[Jeff Mitchell]

Quoting paulc2 at optonline.net:

> Jeff,
>
> I tried what you describe below, and while I will definitely concede  
>  that seek
> is not entirely reliable (especially with the alsa device using RP10), I dont
> observe this behavior.  I can get skipping (even if I stop the back and forth
> seeking), the visuals to hang up, and the progress bar to stop updating.  I
> dont see any more processes or threads created.

Okay, I don't see that behavior any more either.  I know in the past I  
saw forked processes, but maybe that was related to some other bug.   
However, here's my experience, from having just tried rapid seeking  
around on Helix twice.

Try #1:
Amarok locked up.  I pressed Ctrl+Alt+T to open Konsole, and the  
hotkey got stuck, causing several hundred Konsoles to start opening,  
while I had trouble closing them because my computer was being so  
unresponsive.  I eventually managed to switch VTs to a console,  
killall amarokapp, and that stopped the craziness.

Try #2:
This time, I had a Konsole window running already, with top running.   
Tried the rapid seeking; Amarok locked up again.  Computer became all  
but unresponsive.  I could sometimes get a quick top command in, but  
that's all.  Load average climbed to 13, then 17, then 20, then 27.  I  
couldn't Ctrl+Alt+Escape to kill Amarok, Ctrl+Alt+Fx did not switch to  
the specified VT, and Ctrl+Alt+Backspace wouldn't work either.  The  
only thing I could do was a hard reset.

I'm using the default ALSA device.  I do have a pcm.dsp0 defined in  
asoundrc to use dmix, but I'm not sure if that's actually doing  
anything or not.  Using Gentoo, x11-base/xorg-x11 version 7.1.   
RealPlayer 10.0.7.  Alsa 1.0.11, device is motherboard-based, using  
snd-intel8x0 driver.

--Jeff