I solved the problem.  Stephen put me on the right track.  Turns out my PATH got messed up and was calling the wrong ps.
I will go hang my head in shame.



-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stephen John Smoogen
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2012 12:58 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: ps and IPC

On 13 September 2012 10:52, David Fitzgerald <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hello,
>
>
>
> I am running Scientific Linux 6.2 and am getting a semget error when I 
> run ps as any user, including root.
>
> The full message is:
>
>
>
> semget: No such file or directory
>
> semop: Invalid argument
>
> [DEVICE -1]  The requested IPC message queue is locked.
>
> Error in message send = 22
>
> itype, ichan, nwords,2,-1,2
>
>
>
> Could someone explain what this error means, and show me how to 
> troubleshoot it?
>
>

Well that error is not a basic one.. which ps are you running (you can find out by typing which ps). Something is locking your access to the kernels memory so something has changed on the system from a default install. I guess I need a lot more questions answered:

Type of system (x86_64, i386)
Type of hardware
The output of the following commands

df -a
ls -l /proc/

>
> Sorry if this is a basic question, but I am stumped.
>
>
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
> Dave
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> David Fitzgerald
>
> Department of Earth Sciences
>
> Millersville University
>
> Millersville, PA 17551
>
>
>
> Phone: 717-871-2394
>
>



--
Stephen J Smoogen.
"Don't derail a useful feature for the 99% because you're not in it."
Linus Torvalds
"Years ago my mother used to say to me,... Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."  -James Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd