USB file copy very slow

Alethos · 2009-08-17 21:23:00

Dheart wrote:

This is not kernel problem, nor usb problem. Just USB flash drives are SLOW. And by SLOW I mean SLOW. My 8 GB Maxwell got practically useless after filling it up with anime series twice. It now takes about an hour to copy 700 mb file, and About a day to copy 10000+ files, worth total 15 mb...

It IS a kernel problem, or *hci problem, or hal problem or SOMETHING. I don't recall WHEN I first noticed it but I too have the same problem. We all know that mass smaller files will take longer to copy. That's not the problem. The problem is sustained writing to the flash device. It will have normal speeds initially then slow to a crawl and become almost impossible (within *normal* limits) to unmount.

k_ibou · 2009-08-24 04:06:45

Hi everyone, my apologies I was lost for a time ROOKIE thanks for the tip but it was useless (je je sorry, I tried but I can't post the results).
Wow there are a lot of people with this problem, I join to soylent_green_is_hamster congratulations flamelab. I update the system today and it was a kernel update... I though that maybe the problem was solved in this update but it wasn't.

Thanks to all

esdrasbeleza · 2009-09-01 23:45:13

I'm also having problems with USB that I wasn't having before. Nautilus becomes slower after copying some megabytes, and then it stops, shows something like input/output error, and umounts automatically my USB flash disk. When I remount it, the FAT is corrupted, Nautilus shows less free disk space, but no file in the disk.

I tried the following systems:

- Windows Vista on my machine: worked ok
- Arch Linux up-to-date on a friend's machine: same error
- Ubuntu on another machine: worked ok
- Windows XP on another machine: worked ok

esdrasbeleza · 2009-09-02 01:37:18

Just for help anyone having this problem too, seems that there's a solution for this problem, but I haven't tried it yet. Look: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 44#p610544

lilsirecho · 2009-09-02 01:51:29

Perhaps the USB transfer is causing excessive CPU activity ...this often causes a severe slowdown in transfers.

If you are using dual core, perhaps one core is saturating and the other is not accessible for some reason...busy.

Slow downs are usually related to CPU saturation.

Look at system performance data during the transfers for clues...mebbe?

k_ibou · 2009-09-03 16:17:41

Hi, you're right I use LXDE and it have a cpu-monitor and when I'm copying files to the usb key the the activity goes up almost a 100%.

ok for been exactly it consumes all the cpu, in base of the cpu monitor.

oh, I newbie; it could be a problem compiling that new kernel for the machine.
that package is in the AUR, when the final version come out the update process will be the same?

Thanks!!!

york824 · 2009-09-17 19:10:34

I have the same problem with the usb device copying.
At first I thought it might be related to the ntfs-3g so I tried to copy something from ext3 to fat32, and met the same problem.
Now when I need to copy something big, I simply switch to windows and after copying I switch to Archlinux back.
I hope the next kernel will fix this bug. I don't want to go back to the older kernel now.

Solid1986Snake · 2009-09-18 06:28:34

Kernel 2.6.31 solved that for me....

york824 · 2009-09-21 18:58:48

Solid1986Snake wrote:

Kernel 2.6.31 solved that for me....

I tried to compile and install kernel 2.6.31, didn't work out in my case...
too bad...

mechmg93 · 2009-09-26 10:23:56

i have also this very serious problem with usb disk copying.

At first i thought that my disk broke down and i was ready to buy a new one.

the disk performs as it was usb 1.

I upgraded to 2.6.31.1 from testing but it did not solve any problem.

Garret · 2009-10-12 11:29:09

I have this annoying issue too, even with the new 2.6.31 kernel.

Linux desktop 2.6.31-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Oct 8 11:32:00 CEST 2009 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

The description given by soylent_green_is_hamster is perfect:

The data transfers rapidly at first, but then becomes very slow. Unmounting the stick afterwards takes ages!
This has only started very recently, but only with memory sticks, my external USB HD still performs well

Solid1986Snake · 2009-10-12 11:39:04

Yep, but I recentl tested the speed of my usb stick on windows... on the same files there were less then 10 sec. difference and it was very slow, too!

For me I can say that my usb stick is very slow and it doesn't seem to be a bug, even when it feels like one...

york824 · 2009-10-16 15:18:04

I performed a "pacman -Syu" a few days ago, and the problem magically disappeared!
maybe there are some patches added to the 31 kernel. everybody should have a try.

k_ibou · 2009-10-19 01:25:06

Hi everyone, the problem is still with me, the only change since I updated the system was the cpu use, now it is low but as I said the problem persist.
Any idea?? I have my system up to date.

elocal · 2009-10-21 21:12:42

sudo dd if=FILE.iso of=/dev/sdd bs=2048
1835504+0 records in                                                     
1835504+0 records out                                                    
3759112192 bytes (3.8 GB) copied, 2047.91 s, 1.8 MB/s

This is really slow... If I use KDE to transfer the files, it is as described above, transfer starts fast, then drops down and becomes extremely slow.

servilvo · 2009-10-21 21:29:28

Try io scheduler anticipatory

echo anticipatory > /sys/block/sdb/queue/scheduler
cat /sys/block/sdX/queue/scheduler
noop [anticipatory] deadline

k_ibou · 2009-10-22 00:55:20

what "io scheduler anticipatory" is for

elocal · 2009-10-22 01:32:45

Changing the scheduler produces a very minor change in performance, it's still at around 2 MB/s.

Wonder if there is any change in 2.6.32...

EDIT: I booted Ubuntu 9.10 liveCD and tried the transfer over there. Same results as archlinux. This might be an issue with the kernel, or it might be that actually the thumbdrive (Corsair Flash Voyager 16G) is that slow... What usb devices are you guys experiencing the slowness on?

Last edited by elocal (2009-10-22 04:27:35)

Solid1986Snake · 2009-10-22 06:38:51

All devices... it took me 6 hours and plasma lockups every ~10 sec. to transfer 4 Gb to Stick....

MattSmith · 2009-10-24 10:32:41

I have this problem as well and didn't realize it for the longest time because mine only occurs when I transfer for than 700 megs of data. Everything is pretty normal when data (combined) is smaller than 700, but anything over that I get the same symptoms everyone else gets. Even when just using command line. Tho my symptoms seem to be more mild, I only have to wait for a half an hour for it to transfer when it normally takes couple a minutes.

Interesting side note, I use windows 7 in a virtual machine for some of my classes and it's not affected by this problem.

EDIT: as soon as my transfer gets done from testing the command line transfer I will try manually mounting and transferring the same two file... might as well trouble shoot!
Re-EDIT: Yep, manually makes no difference.

How do I find what driver my pen drive is using... ie usb 1.0 or 2.0?

Last edited by MattSmith (2009-10-24 10:54:34)

Zaxariadis · 2009-11-02 22:07:41

I noted this problem some time ago,
today I almost got crazy trying to copy a ~1GB .7z into my SONY 8GB USB stick.

I am getting exactly the same behavior when I am trying to copy allot small files as well.
CPU usage goes to 100% and the system almost freezes.

Do anyone have any solution yet?
Even a temporally one...

Zaxariadis · 2009-11-02 22:14:00

I noted this problem some time ago,
today I almost got crazy trying to copy a ~1GB .7z into my SONY 8GB USB stick.

I am getting exactly the same behavior when I am trying to copy allot small files as well.
CPU usage goes to 100% and the system almost freezes.

Do anyone have any solution yet?
Even a temporally one...

Solid1986Snake · 2009-11-03 09:05:16

Not really, I got better results when I format the usb stick directly....

 mkfs.vfat -I -F 32 /dev/sdb

NOT /dev/sdb1...

Ranguvar · 2009-11-03 12:12:58

Does using kernel26-bfs help?

york824 · 2009-11-03 12:49:36

the bfs kernel doesn't help
I tried another USB disk rather than the previous one, and the copying goes well

So I think maybe some certain chips are just not fine supported by these recent kernels

Arch Linux

#26 2009-08-17 21:23:00

Re: USB file copy very slow

#27 2009-08-24 04:06:45

Re: USB file copy very slow

#28 2009-09-01 23:45:13

Re: USB file copy very slow

#29 2009-09-02 01:37:18

Re: USB file copy very slow

#30 2009-09-02 01:51:29

Re: USB file copy very slow

#31 2009-09-03 16:17:41

Re: USB file copy very slow

#32 2009-09-17 19:10:34

Re: USB file copy very slow

#33 2009-09-18 06:28:34

Re: USB file copy very slow

#34 2009-09-21 18:58:48

Re: USB file copy very slow

#35 2009-09-26 10:23:56

Re: USB file copy very slow

#36 2009-10-12 11:29:09

Re: USB file copy very slow

#37 2009-10-12 11:39:04

Re: USB file copy very slow

#38 2009-10-16 15:18:04

Re: USB file copy very slow

#39 2009-10-19 01:25:06

Re: USB file copy very slow

#40 2009-10-21 21:12:42

Re: USB file copy very slow

#41 2009-10-21 21:29:28

Re: USB file copy very slow

#42 2009-10-22 00:55:20

Re: USB file copy very slow

#43 2009-10-22 01:32:45

Re: USB file copy very slow

#44 2009-10-22 06:38:51

Re: USB file copy very slow

#45 2009-10-24 10:32:41

Re: USB file copy very slow

#46 2009-11-02 22:07:41

Re: USB file copy very slow

#47 2009-11-02 22:14:00

Re: USB file copy very slow

#48 2009-11-03 09:05:16

Re: USB file copy very slow

#49 2009-11-03 12:12:58

Re: USB file copy very slow

#50 2009-11-03 12:49:36

Re: USB file copy very slow

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