htop does not show all processes

Question

I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 with LXDE desktop environment.

Sometimes my computer runs really slowly and the LXDE its CPU graphic shows a permanent 100% CPU usage. However, when I'm opening htop in a terminal, it says only ~10-30% of CPU is used. Why doesn't htop show all processes so I can see which process is eating my CPU?

Thanks

Solution 1

By default, htop hides kernel threads like nfsd. To show/hide kernel threads, press uppercase K to toggle. htop will save you settings when you exit.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/145707/why-doesnt-htop-display-the-same-processes-as-top

Solution 2

Run htop under an administrative account like root, you can use su - to drop in a root shell to execute htop or you can instead run sudo htop if you have sudo installed.

Comments

[Sicco]

You might want to delete this question and ask it on askubuntu.com. Also try to give more information, e.g., how often and when does this happen, also adding a screenshot of htop and the CPU graphic might be useful.

[MikeyE]

htop was acting weird, it would display a process immediately after I hit F-4 and entered a search term. But, the processes I am interested in would dissappear after a second. All of the processes are running as my local, non-root account. Not sure what was going on, but pressing K fixed it.