So aslmanager taking 99% and Console.app hangs when started

delete the file /var/log/asl.db and restart. to delete the file enter command shiftg in finder and in the resulting popup enter /var/log

This will open directory /var/log (it is normally hidden) and you can delete that file.

I was having a similar problem. aslmanager was at 30 to 99% in the processes menu (in iStat Pro). So I tried your suggestion and it worked... temporarily. A few days later, the problem is back, yet the asl.db file is not there. How do I fix this problem? Restarting did nothing.

(what is aslmanager anyways?)

Similar problem here. Almost daily aslmanager starts up taking over my MacBook (99% of CPU and almost 1GB of RAM). This happens even if I'm running on battery and of course it drains it very quickly. Another side effect is heat. Fan is constantly on and the case get pretty hot.
Temporary solution would be to simply stop aslmanager from Activity Monitor or Terminal.
I still don't know what is causing this.
Some info on the process here: http://www.stat.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/man-cgi?aslmanager+8

I am having the same problem here. /var/log/asl.db does not exist. However aslmanager seems to constantly work on a file LongTTL.new in /var/log/asl. The file is binary so I have no clue as to what is going on. This file grows insanely large 100s of MB. I am running Leopard 10.5.6 on an Intel MBP.

Any suggestion on how to fix this are highly welcome as battery life has gone to **** and my lap gets fried when I use my machine.

Thanks.

so, maybe I am just impatient. After running for a full hour, LongTTL.new had a size of 500 MB and was renamed to LongTTL.U0.asl. Not sure whether this will repeat when I reboot. However, restarting while the process was active seemed to start the activity all over.

Having the same problem here. aslmanager takes 97% CPU. I'm on 10.5.6.

It would be nice to have a fix or reason.

Greets

Alright, more diagnostics: after shutting up for an hour, aslmanager is active again at 99% cpu usage. It s working on a new LongTTL.new file, currently at 300 MB. The previous file, which was renamed to LongTTL.U0.asl after completion still exists. Anyone any input? Apple? Where are the geniuses?

Cheers,
Haje

Final report: again one hour later aslmanager has finished and an updated file LongTTL.U0.asl was created.

So what is happening apparently is that aslmanager creates the file LongTTL.U0.asl every two hours and it takes one hour to generate the file. The results in the 100% cpu usage occurring 50% of the time.

This must be a bug. I already filed a report, so if you have the same issue, please tell apple!

Cheers,
Haje

It's also using a gig of ram and the machine is slower than my 4 year old desktop PC. Thinking about it, this is basically a $2000 toaster. 😟

Most of the time, restarting my iBook takes care of the problem for a few hours to a day. It came back in the middle of the night last night; It made the computer hot enough to turn the fan on and wake me up at 4 am. It took a while for the iBook to respond to me so that I could shut the computer down. I guess the best we can do now is just inform apple of the issue and wait for an update. I haven't been able to find a fix for this anywhere. Until a fix is found, I'll just restart as soon as I see aslmanager show up in iStat Pro.

ok, i found a solution that worked for me. this may or may not be the problem you are having but give this a shoot. i think in my case the asl database got corrupted. unline tiger and below this database is not stored in asl.db in leopard. in leopard, the entire /var/log/asl directory is the database. so to remove the database and start from scratch, you need to

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.syslogd
sudo launchctl stop com.apple.aslmanager
sudo mv /var/log/asl/* ~/tmp (you might as well use rm but i wanted to be safe)
sudo launchctl start com.apple.syslogd

For good measure I also ran the maintenance scripts:

sudo periodic daily weekly monthly

My machine has been dead quiet for hours now. darn, it's back to the kitchen for making my toast. 🙂

so, what did we learn? Mac, PC - same thing; both are great until you have problems. only with pc's you have a lot more resources to tap into...

Cheers,
Haje

same issue. super high cpu, super hot, huge and growing log files. started around midnight; totally made WoW unplayable. 🙂

thanks, this seems to have worked.

I have come across another possible cause. Had the same issue and tried the fix by Haje. That cured the runaway aslmanager problem but then noticed the same issue with a another file named iavd. It was all over, from 20% to 100% and moving up and down very rapidly. I determined this file was part of iAntivirus that I had recently installed. I went to their website and found others are having issues with v. 1.3. They recommended upgrading to v. 1.32 which I did and the problem is gone.

I have a gut feeling that this is a separate issue. In any case I do not use that particular antivirus proggy. Glad your problems are solved though.

When I enter: sudo mv /var/log/asl/* ~/tmp
I get the usage response below. How should I be using this command?
This is new to me so pardon my ignorance.
thanks
Marty

usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target
mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory