Status window The status window presents a snapshot of some operation parameters. The view is updated every 3 seconds. This should give you a quick idea about the health of your computer. 11.. DDeessccrriippttiioonn Here is a list of all the information presented. 11..11.. HHoosstt nnaammee The computer name is presented using large letters. If you maintain several servers, this might help you identify Linuxconf session quickly. 11..22.. PPrrooffiillee The system profile version is shown. On servers, you do not switch that often between profiles, but this feature is often used on notebook (check it out) and it is always handy to know which profile is active. 11..33.. AAnn iimmaaggee A small bitmap is presented. You can select a new one from the _f_e_a_t_u_r_e dialog of the _c_o_n_t_r_o_l section of the main menu. This image may help you differentiate your numerous servers. 11..44.. UUpp ttiimmee A text field presents the time elapsed since the last boot. 11..55.. LLooaadd aavveerraaggee The load average is presented in 3 text fields. You are getting the average since 5, 10 and 15 minutes. The load average is computed by the kernel. The kernel keeps track of the number of processes _r_e_a_d_y _t_o _r_u_n at any given time. In general, most processes on a server or workstation are _s_l_e_e_p_i_n_g, waiting for some event. For example, while you read this help screen, linuxconf is doing nothing. It is waiting for a keyboard or mouse input. So Linuxconf is not in the _r_e_a_d_y state. The kernel compute an average. In general, on a workstation, the load average is close to 0 most of the time. A load average of 1 means there is always one process willing to run. A load average of 2 means that most of the time, 2 processes are competing for the CPU. So in general a high load average (for several minutes) means that either your computer is overloaded. Here are some reasons: +o The CPU is too slow. +o Not enough RAM. Many processes are willing to run, but they all compete for the memory. So the kernel spends most of its time swapping memory chunk. This situation is easily visible if the load average is high and the CPU usage is low (See next field) +o Something abnormal is going on. For example, some programs may go wild and loop forever. They take most of the CPU time, but achieve nothing. Using a process manager (such as the top command you will easily spot the guilty ones). 11..66.. CCPPUU uussaaggee This shows how much time the CPU is spending doing nothing. On a workstation, unless you do batched jobs (compiling for one), CPU usage is generally close to 0. 11..77.. UUsseerrss This numbers shows how many users are currently logged in. 11..88.. MMeemmoorryy uusseedd A gradation bars show the amount of memory used. The value presented ignore memory used for caching and buffering, since this memory is readily available to applications. 11..99.. SSwwaapp uusseedd A gradation bar presented the usage of the disk swap area. In general this is be relatively low. If the swap is heavily used, performance will be low and some problems may arise. The load average field above provides some explanations. 11..1100.. OOppeenn ffiilleess A gradation bar presents the amount of files currently opened. By default, Linux allows a maximum of 4096 files opened at once. This limit is configurable in the _m_i_s_c_e_l_l_a_n_e_o_u_s_/_k_e_r_n_e_l _c_o_n_f_i_g_u_r_a_t_i_o_n dialog. But it won't grow by itself. So if you reach the configured limit, some programs may start to fail. 11..1111.. DDiisskk uussaaggee A gradation bar is presented for every disk partition currently mounted. It shows the disk usage.