Comment 17 for bug 55172

maybe this is also helpful:

$ ps afx
5383 ? Sl 0:23 /usr/bin/python2.5 /usr/bin/update-manager
5394 ? S 0:07 \_ gksu --desktop /usr/share/applications/update-manager.desktop -- /usr/sbin/synaptic --hide-main-window --non-interaktive --parent-window-id 39845891 --update-at-startup
5396 ? Ss 0:00 \_ /usr/bin/sudo -H -S -p GNOME_SUDO_PASS -u root -- /usr/sbin/synaptic --hide-main-window --non-interaktive --parent-window-id 39845891 --update-at-startup

$ strace -p 5383
Process 5383 attached - interrupt to quit
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {0, 36000}) = 0 (Timeout)
read(4, 0x834a80c, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
gettimeofday({1204018380, 431100}, NULL) = 0
poll([{fd=4, events=POLLIN}, {fd=3, events=POLLIN}, {fd=5, events=POLLIN}, {fd=6, events=POLLIN}, {fd=10, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}, {fd=12, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}, {fd=13, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}, {fd=14, events=POLLIN|POLLPRI}], 8, 0) = 0

$ strace - p 5394
Process 5394 attached - interrupt to quit
restart_syscall(<... resuming interrupted call ...>) = 0
waitpid(5396, 0xbf9e411c, WNOHANG) = 0
stat64("/proc/5396", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0555, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
open("/proc/5396/stat", O_RDONLY) = 24
read(24, "5396 (sudo) S 5394 5396 5396 0 -"..., 8191) = 196
close(24) = 0
nanosleep({0, 100000000}, NULL) = 0