awesome slow harddisk

Vamp898 · 2010-09-05 06:57:24

i dont know why but my harddisk is getting slower and slower

first i thought its just a feeling but its really horrible... i checked the I/O and seen that applications access the harddisk only with 300-600 (maybe sometimes 900) KB/s !

even my Internet Connection is 3times faster!

i already tried a lot of things incl. switching to btrfs and nothing, really nothing helped.

It doesnt seems to be a hardware issue so i really want to get this solved

Ok i did some testing and fout out the following

A plain copy command can use the full Harddisk speed (you know, just cp via terminal)

only stuff like KDE, GNOME, Firefox, Pidgin and every other application on my computer are limited to 600kb/s (who knows why)

i mean, nobody needs a GUI or a Instant Messenger or... anything else than cp but.... i need+want it

Last edited by Vamp898 (2010-09-05 07:10:22)

Vamp898 · 2010-09-05 11:57:03

Some people think i have just no knowledge about this so here some more informations that maybe are usefull in any kind

Its a Western Digital with 320 GB and 5200 RPM

its connected via SATA

the Harddisk is, again, not broken or damaged or something like that

i alredy run all SMART test

i alredy used hdparm to adjust the Harddisk

no im not stupid just becease people can´t image that something happens cause it doesnt happen on them..#

oh and i forgot

its not related to KDE cause it happens on GNOME and XFCE too

[vamp898@VampLap vamp898]$ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   2204 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1102.38 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  186 MB in  3.00 seconds =  61.97 MB/sec

As you can see on the benchmark and as i told what the cp command does, the harddisk can use the full speed. When i copy files i have the full speed.

But if i start, for example, GNOME than the GNOME Panel reads with only 300kb/s from the Harddisk and so takes very long time to start...

the same with the KDE Stuff

Last edited by Vamp898 (2010-09-05 12:15:16)

lagagnon · 2010-09-05 14:16:40

Exactly what are you using to know the disk access speed from Gnome, KDE and xfce?

Vamp898 · 2010-09-05 16:22:45

iotop from [extra]

lagagnon · 2010-09-05 16:49:36

I think what you are seeing is an average disk access time from over a short interval period, if you are seeing those access times from applications that access the hard drive. If you were to say use iotop to watch disk access time copying a very large file from one directory to another from your file manager, you should probably approach close to the hdparm times and the "cp" times.

Because apps access the HD for very short bursts the accuracy of the iotop number may not be great over such short intervals. As I suggest you need to do this over a few seconds to get any reasonably accurate number.

Vamp898 · 2010-09-05 17:33:15

But my Harddisk was _much_ faster about 2 months ago. I really dont know what happend or what changed... but my boot-time was much lower and especially the booting of the DE tooked less seconds.

Now i have to wait minimum 30 seconds until i see my desktop (in GNOME and KDE). On XFCE there are minimum 15 seconds too

Last edited by Vamp898 (2010-09-05 17:34:11)

lagagnon · 2010-09-05 19:30:42

You seem to now be talking about two different things: boot time versus hard disk access time. There is a big difference - boot time is dependent on a lot more than HD access times. I suggest you have a close look at /var/log/messages.log and check the length of time it takes for at least the kernel to get through its booting and see if there are any holdups there.

codycarey · 2010-09-05 20:41:30

lagagnon wrote:

You seem to now be talking about two different things: boot time versus hard disk access time. There is a big difference - boot time is dependent on a lot more than HD access times.

Just a suggestion for Vamp898 to check out 'bootchart' in the [extra] repo. Visit http://www.bootchart.org/ to find out more about it.

EDIT: Alternatively there is also bootchart2, which should probably be the preferred choice as it is being actively developed. It's available in the AUR. http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=35804

Last edited by codycarey (2010-09-05 20:55:01)

Vamp898 · 2010-09-06 12:20:54

i Already run bootchart and bootchart just shows me that my system now takes nearly the double time to boot than before in case of slow HD Access

Also KDE takes minimum the double time to boot in case of HD Access.

My Girlfriends computer have a slower processor and boots faster in case of faster HD Access. That just really sux and i dont know where to search for the problem cause the Hardware seems to be fully working.

lagagnon · 2010-09-10 23:24:20

Vamp898: you need to provide us with some data if we are to help you. First of all show us the output from bootchart so we can see potential hang up processes. The post your /var/log/messages.log file to pastebin.ca and give us the address so we can look at it. Then follow this wiki article on disble clearing of boot messages: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dis … t_Messages , and show us your boot messages output.

Maybe then someone might be able to help you...

Vamp898 · 2010-09-12 00:14:33

/var/log/everything http://pastebin.com/vNn8n9e5

Bootchart with awesome 5 minutes and 19 seconds

2 months ago my system needed 18 seconds to boot

whoever said that boottime doesnt matter, i want to hit him! Does some people really think that it have no reasen when a system takes 5 minutes longer to boot?

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/8521/bootchart.png

ok, i was able to tune it a bit with some mount options

UUID=c4198564-fe86-4bcb-838c-27ecc2c2a085 / btrfs nodatacow,flushoncommit,noacl

Last edited by Vamp898 (2010-09-12 01:00:09)

lagagnon · 2010-09-13 02:36:58

It appears to me that you have a network problem. Have a close look at your logs. You will see the system takes 4 minutes and 30 seconds to get a valid network connection. You need to look at your network setup (not your hard drive). You could start by putting your network daemons in the background in your /etc/rc.conf file, by putting a "@" in front of all your network daemons....

Arch Linux

#1 2010-09-05 06:57:24

awesome slow harddisk

#2 2010-09-05 11:57:03

Re: awesome slow harddisk

#3 2010-09-05 14:16:40

Re: awesome slow harddisk

#4 2010-09-05 16:22:45

Re: awesome slow harddisk

#5 2010-09-05 16:49:36

Re: awesome slow harddisk

#6 2010-09-05 17:33:15

Re: awesome slow harddisk

#7 2010-09-05 19:30:42

Re: awesome slow harddisk

#8 2010-09-05 20:41:30

Re: awesome slow harddisk

#9 2010-09-06 12:20:54

Re: awesome slow harddisk

#10 2010-09-10 23:24:20

Re: awesome slow harddisk

#11 2010-09-12 00:14:33

Re: awesome slow harddisk

#12 2010-09-13 02:36:58

Re: awesome slow harddisk

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