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some-exercises

rtkit-daemon​

  • Not a rootkit 😅 — it’s RealtimeKit, a dbus-activated service.

  • Purpose: allow user processes (like PulseAudio, PipeWire) to request temporary real-time scheduling without running as root.

  • Example: PulseAudio wants its audio mixing thread to run SCHED_RR:5 so it doesn’t underrun, but you don’t want every app able to elevate itself. rtkit-daemon mediates:

    • Checks policy (limits max prio, time, number of RT threads).
    • Grants or denies the request.

So that explains why you saw pulseaudio in your screenshot with NI=-11. It probably talked to rtkit-daemon to boost priority.