zombie python

Thanks for the bug report. I can reproduce this in Precise too. Every time I press the preferences button another process entry is added and zombiefied when closing preferences. All zombie processes then go away once onboard itself exits.

I'll see if I can do anything about this, though I don't believe they can cause problems. The processes are gone and their resources have been freed, only the entries in the process table seem stuck.

No more zombies, fixed in trunk.

Hi, marmuta. zombies are still present in precise beta2 (onboard 0.97.0-0ubuntu3)

It's not released yet. Too many other bugs to tend to, though I think we're through now. If you would like to help test the snapshot at
https://launchpad.net/~onboard/+archive/snapshots

The same thing happens with Guake. It uses a python process and creates another one (the zombie process).

I've included a screenshot of the system monitor to show this.

Martin, yes, I'd imagine there a a lot of apps doing this.. It's pretty easy to create zombie process entries with python's subprocess module. I've opted to double fork with GLib.spawn_async() in onboard 0.97.1 instead. If you'd like to get Guake fixed, you would need to report the bug at their bug tracker.

You can find Onboard 0.97.1, that contains the fix to this problem in our Stable PPA for oneiric, precise and quantal:
https://launchpad.net/~onboard/+archive/stable

This bug was fixed in the package onboard - 0.97.1-0ubuntu1

---------------
onboard (0.97.1-0ubuntu1) quantal; urgency=low

  * Request for sponsorship: New bugfix release available (LP: #999185)
  * debian/control:
    - add moustetweaks (>= 3.3.90) to recommends
    - update standards-version 3.9.3
    - remove wnck dependency from depends
  * debian/patches: remove fix_encoding_mismatch.patch and update series
  * Improve auto-show:
    - unhide for combo boxes (helps in qtoctave) and date editors
    - add focused attribute to debug output
    - fix iconifying by title bar button
    - fix bad repositioning the very first time onboard pops up
    - fix non-critical backtraces for auto-show
    - fix keyboard not being hidden on startup in Metacity
  * Detect running environment to better care for its specificities
    - fix and make also window type hints environment specific
  * Add command line option to override automatic environment detection
  * Fix Onboard not being shown in taskbar (LP: #990486)
  * Prevent zombie process when launching preferences (LP: #936332)
  * Only appear in gnome-screen-saver if onboard was running (LP: #938302)
  * Don't check for running Onboard if "Typing Assistant" is on (LP: #938302)
  * Fix potential encoding mismatches in exception handlers (LP #958385)
  * Fix idle transparency kicking in while typing into firefox awesomebar
  * Change spelling of the unity property to ONSCREEN_KEYBOARD
  * Properly set up WM_CLASS to be above dash (LP: 915250, LP: #931331)
  * Switch window property to type XA_CARDINAL for compiz
  * Release all keys before quitting Onboard (LP #978430)
  * Simplify opacity transitions to fix some transparency glitches
  * Stop blocking the unity launcher icon for some seconds after each click
  * Skip transition delays on screens without compositing
  * Suppress python error messages when stdin or stderr are lost
  * Fix glitches when toggling force-to-top mode or decoration
  * Don't flash the icon palette in lightdm
  * Don't create the icon palette when embedding
  * Improve robustness of showing/hiding the icon palette on startup
  * Keep keyboard and icon palette above unity-2d dash
  * Don't get resized by compiz grid plugin
  * Try to honor rotating screens in gnome-shell
  * Use deiconify for metacity when minimized by titlebar
  * Remove wnck dependency as gtk3's window-state-event reports iconification
  * Don't save window position for maximized or iconified windows
  * Stop endless loop of auto-showing and hiding hiding onboard in dash
  * Fix visibility of active modifier keys in scanning mode
  * Make sure to remove the maximize button on recreating the keyboard window
  * Don't try to hide keyboard when turning on force-to-top while iconified
  * Switch all translated strings to unicode (LP: #933030)
  * Improve robustness against errors in translations (LP: 968044)
  * Import translations from the Ubuntu Translators team as of 6th May 2012
  * Fix geometries not being saved when exiting from the very first launch
  * Briefly present the keyboard when unhiding
  * Add middle click in hover click mode; requires mousetweaks >= 3.3.90
  * Make improvements in Onboard's...