After a Kernel upgrade gnome-tracker beats on my disk for severaal days. Why?

Asked by bsalem

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814:44.76 tracker-miner-f

process now been running for 800 mins. after software-update installed a new kernal.

This is the second time this has happened.

This is poorly documented software, no description of the metadata anywhere or any justification for why this softare runs or
is needed. For all I know it could e malicious.

I do not like any software that keeps my disk continually busy for three days without expaination.

I am going to find the line in the init scripts that kicks this off and comment it out.

$ ubuntu_release
LSB Version: core-2.0-ia32:core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-ia32:core-3.0-noarch:core-3.1-ia32:core-3.1-noarch:core-3.2-ia32:core-3.2-noarch:core-4.0-ia32:core-4.0-noarch
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.10
Release: 11.10
Codename: oneiric

$ uname -a
Linux brucesalem-FQ582AA-ABA-SR5710F 3.0.0-31-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Mon Feb 4 13:25:59 UTC 2013 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

I challenge anyone to explain why this process should be running.

I am ssurely tempted to hange my window manager and possibly dump Ubuntu and not use Gnome on any other Linux.

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bsalem
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Revision history for this message
bsalem (bruce-euphon) said :
#1

This morning my system wanted to install security updates and it couldn't
because root had filled up.
I found that 23 GB of data as in ~/.cache/tracker in the meta-data
database. I removed that file and rebooted.
I was able to get the updates in, then.

Tracker-miner-r ran for more than 700 mins. and filled up my disk with
about 22 gb of data.
A bug should be opened on this.

The space had been freed up and a went back into Gnome Classic.

I killed the tracker process which had started at boot.

I want to disable tracker in the init scripts until I know what it does and
why it is needed.

I will allow you the chance to give me troubleshooting direction as to find
out why tracker fills up my disk partition which is a generous 70 GB root.

I still find it odd that no one can justify tracker. I can go use KDE as a
result and if that I will consider a different OS. Knoppix and Mint run
quite well from live DVDs. I don't have to run Ubuntu.

On Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 12:35 AM, Manfred Hampl <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #221874 on tracker in Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tracker/+question/221874
>
> Project: Ubuntu => tracker in Ubuntu
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>

Revision history for this message
bsalem (bruce-euphon) said :
#2

I know a little more from tracker-control.

I did 'tracker-control -r' to scrub everything from my cache. Now I need to
pare down the config to get it to only look at a few things. I think that
the problem is that I have too many files. There is 900 gb on an external
disk and my root is about 45GB/70GB. The tracker filled up my root,, so
that is 24 GB. If I can tell it to journal only system files, it may only
use a few GB at most.

Does anyone know ho to config tracker-miner-r?

The wuki at org.freedesktop is really technical and not oriented for
end-users. Ubuntu needs to document this much better.

On Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 9:25 AM, bsalem <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #221874 on tracker in Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tracker/+question/221874
>
> You gave more information on the question:
> This morning my system wanted to install security updates and it couldn't
> because root had filled up.
> I found that 23 GB of data as in ~/.cache/tracker in the meta-data
> database. I removed that file and rebooted.
> I was able to get the updates in, then.
>
> Tracker-miner-r ran for more than 700 mins. and filled up my disk with
> about 22 gb of data.
> A bug should be opened on this.
>
> The space had been freed up and a went back into Gnome Classic.
>
> I killed the tracker process which had started at boot.
>
> I want to disable tracker in the init scripts until I know what it does and
> why it is needed.
>
> I will allow you the chance to give me troubleshooting direction as to find
> out why tracker fills up my disk partition which is a generous 70 GB root.
>
> I still find it odd that no one can justify tracker. I can go use KDE as a
> result and if that I will consider a different OS. Knoppix and Mint run
> quite well from live DVDs. I don't have to run Ubuntu.
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 12:35 AM, Manfred Hampl <
> <email address hidden>> wrote:
>
> > Your question #221874 on tracker in Ubuntu changed:
> > https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tracker/+question/221874
> >
> > Project: Ubuntu => tracker in Ubuntu
> >
> > --
> > You received this question notification because you asked the question.
> >
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>

Revision history for this message
bsalem (bruce-euphon) said :
#3

I may have solved this.

tracker-preferences is a GUI app that allows one to set some choices. I
turned off its checking for removable media, especially an external NTFS
filesystem that is big and slow.

I used tracker-control to scrub ~/.cache/tracker and restart the processes.

$ tracker-control
Found 163 PIDs…
Found process ID 6217 for 'tracker-miner-fs'
Found process ID 6220 for 'tracker-store'

Store:
15 Feb 2013, 11:43:29: ✓ Store - Idle

Miners:
15 Feb 2013, 11:43:29: ✗ Emails - Not running or is a
disabled plugin
15 Feb 2013, 11:43:29: ✓ Applications - Idle
15 Feb 2013, 11:43:29: 1 % File System (PAUSED) - Crawling single
directory '/home/brucesalem'

The ran briefly, according to top, and have much less impact

I think that this question can be closed.

On Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 11:15 AM, bsalem <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #221874 on tracker in Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tracker/+question/221874
>
> You gave more information on the question:
> I know a little more from tracker-control.
>
> I did 'tracker-control -r' to scrub everything from my cache. Now I need to
> pare down the config to get it to only look at a few things. I think that
> the problem is that I have too many files. There is 900 gb on an external
> disk and my root is about 45GB/70GB. The tracker filled up my root,, so
> that is 24 GB. If I can tell it to journal only system files, it may only
> use a few GB at most.
>
> Does anyone know ho to config tracker-miner-r?
>
> The wuki at org.freedesktop is really technical and not oriented for
> end-users. Ubuntu needs to document this much better.
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 9:25 AM, bsalem <
> <email address hidden>> wrote:
>
> > Your question #221874 on tracker in Ubuntu changed:
> > https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tracker/+question/221874
> >
> > You gave more information on the question:
> > This morning my system wanted to install security updates and it couldn't
> > because root had filled up.
> > I found that 23 GB of data as in ~/.cache/tracker in the meta-data
> > database. I removed that file and rebooted.
> > I was able to get the updates in, then.
> >
> > Tracker-miner-r ran for more than 700 mins. and filled up my disk with
> > about 22 gb of data.
> > A bug should be opened on this.
> >
> > The space had been freed up and a went back into Gnome Classic.
> >
> > I killed the tracker process which had started at boot.
> >
> > I want to disable tracker in the init scripts until I know what it does
> and
> > why it is needed.
> >
> > I will allow you the chance to give me troubleshooting direction as to
> find
> > out why tracker fills up my disk partition which is a generous 70 GB
> root.
> >
> > I still find it odd that no one can justify tracker. I can go use KDE as
> a
> > result and if that I will consider a different OS. Knoppix and Mint run
> > quite well from live DVDs. I don't have to run Ubuntu.
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 12:35 AM, Manfred Hampl <
> > <email address hidden>> wrote:
> >
> > > Your question #221874 on tracker in Ubuntu changed:
> > > https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tracker/+question/221874
> > >
> > > Project: Ubuntu => tracker in Ubuntu
> > >
> > > --
> > > You received this question notification because you asked the question.
> > >
> >
> > --
> > You received this question notification because you asked the question.
> >
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>

Revision history for this message
bsalem (bruce-euphon) said :
#4

I have been looking at this for a couple of hours and rebooted for a different reason. The problem (disk busy) did not return. I think that this problem has been solved.