Arch Linux

bfo

Member

Registered: 2009-11-27

Posts: 44

[SOLVED]Whole computer slows down while lots of ongoing I/O operations

Hello
It's an issue bugging me from quite a long time, so finally I decided to share my anxiety :-D
Is it normal that both desktop environment actions (clicks, moving windows around, even moving the cursor) and keyboard input slows down when disk is under heavy load? It happens for example when I try to unpack something from a big archive or load a big file in a program. Whole computer runs then like Crysis on 512MB RAM, for me it's unusable. I think my config is the key here, so here it is:

Linux asus.k50in 2.6.34-zen2-ARCH-20100812-stable-06977-ge2287d6 #8 ZEN SMP PREEMPT Thu Aug 12 20:54:24 CEST 2010 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6600 @ 2.20GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
GeForce 102M 512MB
XFS filesystem on every partition.
KDE4.5.1 + all available updates.

Thanks in advance for any hints.

Last edited by bfo (2010-09-14 17:33:13)

zenlord

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2006-05-24

Posts: 1,221

Website

Re: [SOLVED]Whole computer slows down while lots of ongoing I/O operations

* Amount of RAM?
* Do you have a swapfile or -partition?
* What do you see in the output of 'top' when this happens?
* Do your logs tell you/us something?

I have never seen this behaviour. It is normal, f.e. on an older machine that when doing a pacman -Sy, the system is less responsive or that (even on a newer system) when copying large amounts of data from one HD to another that file operations are slowed down. It is not normal that your desktop is affected by this.

brebs

Member

Registered: 2007-04-03

Posts: 3,742

Re: [SOLVED]Whole computer slows down while lots of ongoing I/O operations

x86_64

See thread.

bfo

Member

Registered: 2009-11-27

Posts: 44

Re: [SOLVED]Whole computer slows down while lots of ongoing I/O operations

@zenlord
4GB RAM
2GB swap
Nothing unusual in top. Around 40% cpu use by unrar, but X is also eating up around 20-30% all the time.
What statements should I look for in logs and, first and foremost,  which logs should I seek though?
And yes, bauerbill -Syu is also causing that annoying behaviour.

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [SOLVED]Whole computer slows down while lots of ongoing I/O operations

iotop and ionice may help.
Have you tried rebase and other tricks for bauerbill?

bfo

Member

Registered: 2009-11-27

Posts: 44

Re: [SOLVED]Whole computer slows down while lots of ongoing I/O operations

@karol
I didn't know about these two. Thanks.
@brebs
That might be my issue, compiling the latest zen-stable git kernel right now. I know that's not 2.6.36rc, but still worth a try I assume.

Bauerbill manpage really helps with "search for more info in Rebase module"... Where is that?

Last edited by bfo (2010-09-14 12:42:50)

Mountainjew

Member

From: Ireland

Registered: 2008-08-24

Posts: 405

Re: [SOLVED]Whole computer slows down while lots of ongoing I/O operations

Apparently there is a patch for 2.6.35 kernel for this issue. I haven't tried it though.

Last edited by Mountainjew (2010-09-14 13:34:40)

---

Last.fm

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [SOLVED]Whole computer slows down while lots of ongoing I/O operations

Apparently there is a patch for 2.6.35 kernel for this issue. I haven't tried it though.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 13#p825713

bfo

Member

Registered: 2009-11-27

Posts: 44

Re: [SOLVED]Whole computer slows down while lots of ongoing I/O operations

Bauerbill manpage really helps with "search for more info in Rebase module"... Where is that?

Nvm.

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [SOLVED]Whole computer slows down while lots of ongoing I/O operations

Bauerbill manpage really helps with "search for more info in Rebase module"... Where is that?

Nvm.

Don't do that. Someone may have a similar problem, so please post where is it :-)

Perry3D

Member

Registered: 2008-03-20

Posts: 553

Re: [SOLVED]Whole computer slows down while lots of ongoing I/O operations

Phoronix: The Linux Desktop Responsiveness Patches Are Feeling Good
More Patches To Improve Linux Desktop Responsiveness

bfo

Member

Registered: 2009-11-27

Posts: 44

Re: [SOLVED]Whole computer slows down while lots of ongoing I/O operations

Someone may have a similar problem, so please post where is it

Sorry for that. http://xyne.archlinux.ca/projects/rebase/

bfo

Member

Registered: 2009-11-27

Posts: 44

Re: [SOLVED]Whole computer slows down while lots of ongoing I/O operations

Excellent, compiled kernel with NO_HZ=n and that's what I call the desktop now.