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#1 2010-01-20 17:47:02

lagagnon
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From: an Island in the Pacific...
Registered: 2009-12-10
Posts: 1,087
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[Solved] Why continual disk access?

Just installed ArchLinux on an ASRock S330 nettop. Works great. My only concern at the moment is what appears to be intermittent but continuous disk activity every 2 seconds or so. At first I thought this might be gamin, but I killed that process and it made no difference.

Is there any way to determine what process is doing this and why? Below is a snapshot of running processes from "ps aux"

USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root         1  0.0  0.0   1688   572 ?        Ss   08:36   0:00 ini 
root         2  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [kthreadd]
root         3  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [migration/0]
root         4  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
root         5  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [watchdog/0]
root         6  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [migration/1]
root         7  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ksoftirqd/1]
root         8  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [watchdog/1]
root         9  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [migration/2]
root        10  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ksoftirqd/2]
root        11  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [watchdog/2]
root        12  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [migration/3]
root        13  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ksoftirqd/3]
root        14  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [watchdog/3]
root        15  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [events/0]
root        16  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [events/1]
root        17  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [events/2]
root        18  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [events/3]
root        19  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [khelper]
root        20  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [async/mgr]
root        21  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [pm]
root        22  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [sync_supers]
root        23  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [bdi-default]
root        24  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [kblockd/0]
root        25  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [kblockd/1]
root        26  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [kblockd/2]
root        27  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [kblockd/3]
root        28  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [kacpid]
root        29  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [kacpi_notify]
root        30  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [kacpi_hotplug]
root        31  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [kseriod]
root        36  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [khungtaskd]
root        37  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [kswapd0]
root        38  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        SN   08:36   0:00 [ksmd]
root        39  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [aio/0]
root        40  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [aio/1]
root        41  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [aio/2]
root        42  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [aio/3]
root        43  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [crypto/0]
root        44  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [crypto/1]
root        45  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [crypto/2]
root        46  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [crypto/3]
root       524  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ata/0]
root       525  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ata/1]
root       527  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ata/2]
root       528  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ata/3]
root       529  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ata_aux]
root       533  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:01 [scsi_eh_0]
root       534  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [scsi_eh_1]
root       610  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [jbd2/sda1-8]
root       611  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root       612  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root       613  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root       614  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root       639  0.0  0.0   2152   896 ?        S<s  08:36   0:00 /sbin/udevd --daemon
root       842  0.0  0.0   2148   900 ?        S<   08:36   0:00 /sbin/udevd --daemon
root       845  0.0  0.0   2148   900 ?        S<   08:36   0:00 /sbin/udevd --daemon
root       892  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ksuspend_usbd]
root       893  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [khubd]
root       955  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [i915/0]
root       956  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [i915/1]
root       957  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [i915/2]
root       958  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [i915/3]
root      1005  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [hd-audio0]
root      1006  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [usbhid_resumer]
root      1175  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [flush-8:0]
root      1178  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [jbd2/sda3-8]
root      1179  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root      1180  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root      1181  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root      1182  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root      1183  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [jbd2/sda4-8]
root      1184  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root      1185  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root      1186  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root      1187  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    08:36   0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
root      1303  0.0  0.0   4672   492 ?        S    08:36   0:00 supervising syslog-ng
root      1304  0.0  0.1   4852  1768 ?        Ss   08:36   0:00 /usr/sbin/syslog-ng
dbus      1322  0.0  0.0   2352   956 ?        Ss   08:36   0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system
hal       1325  0.0  0.4   6196  4192 ?        Ss   08:36   0:00 /usr/sbin/hald
root      1326  0.0  0.1   3308  1124 ?        S    08:36   0:00 hald-runner
root      1354  0.0  0.1   3372  1088 ?        S    08:36   0:00 hald-addon-input: Listening on /dev/input/event4 /dev/input/
hal       1368  0.0  0.0   3068   988 ?        S    08:36   0:00 hald-addon-acpi: listening on acpi kernel interface /proc/ac
root      1369  0.0  0.1   3372  1088 ?        S    08:36   0:02 hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/sr0 (every 2 sec)
root      1389  0.0  0.0   1688   532 tty1     Ss+  08:36   0:00 /sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty1 linux
root      1390  0.0  0.0   1688   532 tty2     Ss+  08:36   0:00 /sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty2 linux
root      1391  0.0  0.5   9788  5888 ?        Ss   08:36   0:01 /usr/bin/slim
root      1392  0.0  0.0   1724   572 ?        S    08:36   0:00 /usr/sbin/crond
root      1422  0.0  0.0   1872   340 ?        Ss   08:36   0:00 /sbin/dhcpcd -q eth0
root      1431  2.7  2.4  33128 25252 tty7     Ss+  08:37   1:57 /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp vt07 -auth /var/run/slim.auth
andrea    1435  0.0  0.0   2044   716 ?        S    08:37   0:00 ck-launch-session startlxde
root      1442  0.0  0.2  18012  2780 ?        Sl   08:37   0:00 /usr/sbin/console-kit-daemon --no-daemon
andrea    1513  0.0  0.0   2580   960 ?        S    08:37   0:00 /usr/bin/lxsession -s LXDE
andrea    1514  0.0  0.5  11664  6152 ?        S    08:37   0:02 openbox --config-file /home/andrea/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.x
andrea    1515  0.0  0.1   5596  1272 ?        S    08:37   0:00 lxde-settings-daemon
andrea    1516  0.0  0.1   4372  2036 ?        S    08:37   0:01 xscreensaver -no-splash
andrea    1519  0.4  1.2  37452 12716 ?        S    08:37   0:18 lxpanel --profile LXDE
andrea    1521  0.0  1.1  45544 11856 ?        S    08:37   0:03 pcmanfm -d
andrea    1526  0.0  0.1   3688  1480 ?        S    08:37   0:00 /usr/lib/menu-cache/menu-cached
andrea    1537  0.0  0.0   3104   676 ?        S    08:37   0:00 dbus-launch --autolaunch e86a792e0168dc845149b03d4b5653d3 --
andrea    1538  0.0  0.0   2244   908 ?        Ss   08:37   0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-address 7
andrea    1572  0.0  0.1   2828  1200 ?        S    08:43   0:00 /usr/lib/gamin/gam_server
andrea    1627  0.3  7.0 198024 71976 ?        Sl   08:48   0:11 /usr/lib/go-openoffice/program/soffice.bin -calc -splash-pip
andrea    1712  0.0  2.3 1625228 23908 ?       S    08:55   0:01 C:\Program Files\Learn to Play Bridge\ltpb.exe             
andrea    1715  0.0  0.2   4888  2416 ?        Ss   08:55   0:00 /usr/bin/wineserver
andrea    1719  0.0  0.2 1594856 2888 ?        Sl   08:55   0:00 C:\windows\system32\services.exe                           
andrea    1721  0.0  0.2 1595140 2904 ?        Sl   08:55   0:00 C:\windows\system32\winedevice.exe MountMgr                
andrea    1727  0.0  0.7 1606492 8192 ?        Ss   08:56   0:00 C:\windows\explorer.exe /desktop                           
andrea    1732  7.1  7.2 265400 74820 ?        Sl   08:56   3:39 firefox
andrea    1739  0.0  0.2   5760  2276 ?        S    08:56   0:00 /usr/lib/GConf/gconfd-2
andrea    1987  2.9  0.9  18884  9452 ?        R    09:46   0:01 lxterminal
andrea    1988  0.0  0.0   1732   592 ?        S    09:46   0:00 gnome-pty-helper
andrea    1990  0.0  0.1   4984  1728 pts/0    Ss   09:46   0:00 /bin/bash

Any assistance greatly appreciated....Larry

Last edited by lagagnon (2010-07-31 05:27:24)

Philosophy is looking for a black cat in a dark room. Metaphysics is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there. Religion is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there and shouting "I found it!". Science is looking for a black cat in a dark room with a flashlight.

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#2 2010-01-20 18:02:20

tavianator
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From: Waterloo, ON, Canada
Registered: 2007-08-21
Posts: 859
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Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

Could be any number of things.  If it's a userspace process you may see it with "iotop".  It could also be the kernel committing the filesystem journal, or many other things.

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#3 2010-01-20 18:09:58

panuh
Member
From: X :ɯoɹℲ
Registered: 2009-11-24
Posts: 144

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

have you tried if it also happens before you start X?

I have had a similar problem but  I don't know what I did exactly. Still trying to remember.
But I do remember it only happened inside of X. If this is the case this would at least reduce the number of probable causes.

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#4 2010-01-20 18:34:07

fphillips
Member
From: Austin, TX
Registered: 2009-01-24
Posts: 202

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

You may have a device whose driver is spamming the logs, causing frequent flushes to disk.

Also run vmstat 1 and watch the bo (buffer out) column. After your hard drive light flashes it will show a write there.  Mine flushes every 6 seconds. I think 5 seconds is a normal flush time. 2 seconds is excessive.

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#5 2010-01-20 19:04:52

rwd
Member
Registered: 2009-02-08
Posts: 664

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

I experienced the same thing on my Intel atom system (Intel D945GSEJT) after upgrading the kernel from 2.6.31.6-1 to 2.6.32. In my case it was write activity by 'kjournald' every few seconds.

Last edited by rwd (2010-01-20 19:06:04)

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#6 2010-01-21 01:22:29

lagagnon
Member
From: an Island in the Pacific...
Registered: 2009-12-10
Posts: 1,087
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Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

More info: using "iotop" the culprit appears to be "jbd2/sda1-8", which appears to be a kernel process associated with journaling on the ext4 filesystem, if my googling around is correct. And yes it is an Atom processor here also. Strange, guess will just have to wait and see if future updates fixes it. Does not seem correct that it has to access the disc so often.

Philosophy is looking for a black cat in a dark room. Metaphysics is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there. Religion is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there and shouting "I found it!". Science is looking for a black cat in a dark room with a flashlight.

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#7 2010-02-14 09:53:36

bharani
Member
From: Karaikudi, India
Registered: 2009-07-12
Posts: 202

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

Almost the same here. Only difference is that the process is named
"jbd2/sda5-8" instead of "jbd2/sda1-8". My processor is intel core 2 duo.
It is accessing the disk for about every 3 seconds.

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#8 2010-02-14 10:45:59

graysky
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From: :wq
Registered: 2008-12-01
Posts: 10,643
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Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

iotop is great.  I see "jbd2/sda2-8" appearing here every now and then, but certainly not every 3 seconds.. when idle, it appears about 1 or 2 times per minute.  When I'm using the system, it appears more frequently.

Last edited by graysky (2010-02-14 11:08:12)

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#9 2010-02-25 04:31:27

sahilm
Member
From: Noida, India
Registered: 2010-01-01
Posts: 12

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

I have a similar issue with jdb2 making writes every second. Can someone shed some light on the cause?


iotop -obt

Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
10:39:43  3472 be/4 sahilm      0.00 B/s    3.94 K/s  0.00 %  0.00 % python /usr/bin/iotop -obt
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 43.34 K/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
10:39:47  2069 be/3 root        0.00 B/s    3.94 K/s  0.00 %  7.47 % [jbd2/sda2-8]
10:39:47   681 be/3 root        0.00 B/s    3.94 K/s  0.00 %  6.06 % [jbd2/sda1-8]
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 11.81 K/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
10:39:53  2069 be/3 root        0.00 B/s    0.00 B/s  0.00 %  1.69 % [jbd2/sda2-8]
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
    TIME  TID  PRIO  USER     DISK READ  DISK WRITE  SWAPIN      IO    COMMAND

uname -a

Linux glaive 2.6.32-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Feb 23 19:43:46 CET 2010 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system>        <dir>         <type>    <options>          <dump> <pass>
devpts                 /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
shm                    /dev/shm      tmpfs     nodev,nosuid        0      0

#/dev/cdrom             /media/cd   auto    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
#/dev/dvd               /media/dvd  auto    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
#/dev/fd0               /media/fl   auto    user,noauto             0      0

/dev/disk/by-label/root /           ext4    defaults,noatime        0       1
/dev/disk/by-label/home /home       ext4    defaults,noatime        0       1

Last edited by sahilm (2010-02-25 05:11:44)

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#10 2010-02-25 08:07:59

toad
Member
From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
Website

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

64-bit on a desktop here with about eight or nine partitions spread over two disks. I get jbd2/sda7-8 (which is /) every three seconds, too.

Possible approach that comes to mind: edit your fstab to stop constant journalling...

never trust a toad...
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#11 2010-02-25 09:40:40

bharani
Member
From: Karaikudi, India
Registered: 2009-07-12
Posts: 202

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

toad wrote:

64-bit on a desktop here with about eight or nine partitions spread over two disks. I get jbd2/sda7-8 (which is /) every three seconds, too.

Possible approach that comes to mind: edit your fstab to stop constant journalling...

How to disable journalling?

Tamil is my mother tongue.

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#12 2010-02-25 09:44:41

toad
Member
From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
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Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fstab#atime_options

HTH

EDIT:
Actually, you want to cruise up the wiki page, explanations for atime is given at the top...

Last edited by toad (2010-02-25 09:46:36)

never trust a toad...
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#13 2010-02-25 11:33:36

bharani
Member
From: Karaikudi, India
Registered: 2009-07-12
Posts: 202

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

toad wrote:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fstab#atime_options

HTH

EDIT:
Actually, you want to cruise up the wiki page, explanations for atime is given at the top...

I have already set all my drives to noatime.
Yet my disk is used almost continiously.

My fstab

/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/sda10 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda2 / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/sda3 /var reiserfs defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/sda5 /home ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/sda6 /home/bharani/Downloads ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/sda7 /home/bharani/Data ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/sda8 /home/bharani/Music ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/sda9 /home/bharani/Backup ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1

Last edited by bharani (2010-02-25 11:34:50)

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#14 2010-03-17 01:11:24

ngoonee
Forum Fellow
From: Between Thailand and Singapore
Registered: 2009-03-17
Posts: 7,358

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

Hmm, I've also used noatime but notice jbd2 regularly. Didn't use to bother me, but I'm trying to reduce power consumption (less I/O more RAM-usage please), so would like to know about this. Would converting ext4 to something else (say.... btrfs) help?

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#15 2010-05-28 05:01:56

lagagnon
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From: an Island in the Pacific...
Registered: 2009-12-10
Posts: 1,087
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Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

I am going to bump this thread because I am now noticing this continual, about every 3 seconds disk access LED light flickering on totally different hardware than my original post (Zotac GF-8200-C-E minITX mobo and Athlon II X2 240 CPU, with latest Arch 64 system. I too am trying to use this machine as a low power unit so want to reduce disk access as much as possible.

Further looking in to output of "iotop -obt follow IO patterns but most of these disk access times show no actual reads/writes to disk. I wonder whether some CPU state is triggering the hard disk LED while not actually reading writing anything? Is this even possible.

At any rate when I do see disk access it is the jdb2 journalling process the majority of the time.

Any further ideas most welcome...

Philosophy is looking for a black cat in a dark room. Metaphysics is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there. Religion is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there and shouting "I found it!". Science is looking for a black cat in a dark room with a flashlight.

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#16 2010-05-28 05:35:44

brebs
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Registered: 2007-04-03
Posts: 3,742

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

I've been using commit=60 for years.

Check whether your syslogger is set to sync to disk, thereby forcing a write rather than caching it.

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#17 2010-05-28 15:57:35

lagagnon
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From: an Island in the Pacific...
Registered: 2009-12-10
Posts: 1,087
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Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

I have added "commit=60" to all my mounted filesystems (except swap of course) with no difference to the disk access whatsoever. I have also removed almost every daemon I could (cups, cron, syslog) plus all else except a basic wmii desktop and nothing running except the kernel and am still getting the flashing hard drive LED about every 3-4 seconds. Weird.

Philosophy is looking for a black cat in a dark room. Metaphysics is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there. Religion is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there and shouting "I found it!". Science is looking for a black cat in a dark room with a flashlight.

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#18 2010-07-20 04:02:26

rCX
Member
Registered: 2010-07-20
Posts: 1

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

I am a Ubuntu (sorry wink ) user and registered because I have been experiencing the same issue.  I filed a bug report.  If possible, Could you please comment on it?

Last edited by rCX (2010-07-20 04:11:22)

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#19 2010-07-31 05:26:52

lagagnon
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From: an Island in the Pacific...
Registered: 2009-12-10
Posts: 1,087
Website

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

I finally seem to have discovered the culprit to continual hard drive access light flashing. Killing the HAL daemon stops the access. As yet, I do not know why it is doing this so frequently. So, as I understand it HAL is about to be deprecated anyways, so I am removing it and will either add udev rules for auto-mounting or write some bash functions to do my mounting for me.

Philosophy is looking for a black cat in a dark room. Metaphysics is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there. Religion is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there and shouting "I found it!". Science is looking for a black cat in a dark room with a flashlight.

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#20 2010-07-31 14:40:27

nixpunk
Member
Registered: 2009-11-23
Posts: 271

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

So it was HAL polling the HDD?

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#21 2010-07-31 23:23:04

lagagnon
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From: an Island in the Pacific...
Registered: 2009-12-10
Posts: 1,087
Website

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

nixpunk wrote:

So it was HAL polling the HDD?

Well put it this way, when I killed the HAL daemon the continual 2-3 second pulsing of the HDD light stopped immediately.

Philosophy is looking for a black cat in a dark room. Metaphysics is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there. Religion is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there and shouting "I found it!". Science is looking for a black cat in a dark room with a flashlight.

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#22 2010-07-31 23:38:25

karol
Archivist
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

lagagnon wrote:
nixpunk wrote:

So it was HAL polling the HDD?

Well put it this way, when I killed the HAL daemon the continual 2-3 second pulsing of the HDD light stopped immediately.

You need to instruct HAL not to poll on /dev/sda (or whatever). How to do it and whether it's possible - I don't know.

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#23 2010-08-01 01:12:47

stqn
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Registered: 2010-03-19
Posts: 1,191
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Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

hal-disable-polling?

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#24 2010-08-01 10:04:12

nixpunk
Member
Registered: 2009-11-23
Posts: 271

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

stqn wrote:

hal-disable-polling?

That's what I was thinking. 

lagagnon, check hal-disable-polling's manpage for details.

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#25 2010-08-01 13:05:32

karol
Archivist
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: [Solved] Why continual disk access?

nixpunk wrote:
stqn wrote:

hal-disable-polling?

That's what I was thinking. 

lagagnon, check hal-disable-polling's manpage for details.

OP seems to have decided to ditch HAL, so our advice may not matter.


[OT]
I can't find neither hal-do-the-ironing nor hal-wash-the-car - I think I'm opening a bug report upstream ;-)
[/OT]

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