Ubuntu
linux package

Hard-disk spike freezes system

Asked by Adrian Nicoara

Hi all,
At this point I just need to know how to debug this, to gather some info for a proper bug, or to track this thing down.

The problem:
From time to time, I can see the hard-disk light going on, and the system does a mini-freeze, but conky doesn't reveal that the disk is under heavy usage. It may be a few hundred kilobyte read/write, but I have done megs, and I still had better response. It doesn't seem to be related to just one app, I get this from time to time.

I am open to any suggestions on how I can properly track this down.
Some background info: Ubuntu 9.04, on x86_64, 2.6.28-14 generic kernel, ext4 as the file system.
I have done fsck, and there were no errors last time I checked.

Update --- rtorrent just crashed with this error, after getting a spike , not sure how much it will help:

Caught Bus error, dumping stack:
0 rtorrent [0x4337fb]
1 rtorrent [0x43805a]
2 /lib/libc.so.6 [0x7f0e4370e040]
3 /lib/libc.so.6(memcpy+0xa3) [0x7f0e4375f063]
4 /usr/lib/libtorrent.so.9 [0x7f0e45204e25]
5 /usr/lib/libtorrent.so.9 [0x7f0e4523e6bf]
6 /usr/lib/libtorrent.so.9 [0x7f0e4523e740]
7 /usr/lib/libtorrent.so.9 [0x7f0e452432be]
8 /usr/lib/libtorrent.so.9 [0x7f0e45244dd0]
9 /usr/lib/libtorrent.so.9(_ZN7torrent9PollEPoll7performEv+0x68) [0x7f0e451e82a8]
10 rtorrent [0x473110]
11 rtorrent [0x4340af]
12 /lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe6) [0x7f0e436f95a6]
13 rtorrent(_ZNSt8ios_base4InitD1Ev+0x71) [0x40df79]
A bus error probably means you ran out of diskspace.
Aborted

However I have 87 GB free....
Thanks in advance

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

It may be a bug with ext4. I am unsure of its maturity to date. I recommend you boot to a Live Linux CD (Ubuntu if you wish) and fsck the partitions once you umount them.

I also recommend you download the ultimate boot cd (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com) and test the drive physically with the tool provided by the manufacturer of your drive. You can find this out by running:

sudo lshw -C disk | grep -i product

Mine says:

andy@fileserver:~$ sudo lshw -C disk | grep -i product
       product: CD/DVDW SH-S182D
       product: MAXTOR STM380215
       product: Flash HS-CF
       product: Flash HS-COMBO

So I would use Maxtor's tool, yours may be different.

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