2002-07-21 13:34:32

by Marc-Christian Petersen

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Subject: heavy Disk I/O and system stops reacting for seconds

Hi there,

I think someone else notices this too, but anyway, i write down my
experiences.

I've tested 2.4.19rc[1|2|3], AC tree, AA tree, jam tree and mjc tree
All of them shows up the same behaviour. If i do some disk i/o, f.e.:

tar xzpf linux-2.4.18.tar.gz; rm -rf linux-2.4.18

the system stopps reacting while untar/ungzipping the file for more than 5
seconds. Nothing but the mouse reacts. This does NOT occur with 2.4.18 and
early 2.4.19-pre's ...

System is a Celeron 800MHz, 256 MB RAM, EIDE UDMA100 Intel BX440 running ext3
filesystem.

If you need more informations tell me what and I provide them.
If this is already fixed by someone, please tell me :-)

Please CC, i am not subscribed!

--
Kind regards
Marc-Christian Petersen

http://sourceforge.net/projects/wolk

PGP/GnuPG Key: 1024D/408B2D54947750EC
Fingerprint: 8602 69E0 A9C2 A509 8661 2B0B 408B 2D54 9477 50EC
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2002-07-21 14:14:56

by Adrian Bunk

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Subject: Re: heavy Disk I/O and system stops reacting for seconds

On Sun, 21 Jul 2002, Marc-Christian Petersen wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> I think someone else notices this too, but anyway, i write down my
> experiences.
>
> I've tested 2.4.19rc[1|2|3], AC tree, AA tree, jam tree and mjc tree
> All of them shows up the same behaviour. If i do some disk i/o, f.e.:
>
> tar xzpf linux-2.4.18.tar.gz; rm -rf linux-2.4.18
>
> the system stopps reacting while untar/ungzipping the file for more than 5
> seconds. Nothing but the mouse reacts. This does NOT occur with 2.4.18 and
> early 2.4.19-pre's ...
>...

I've seen this the first time four months ago - at that time the problem
was only present in the -ac kernels (but now it's also present in the -pre
kernels). My report is at [1]. It seems to be a problem that affects only
the handling of keyboard events. Quoting from what I wrote at [1]:

<-- snip -->

I tried to start Gimp from the fvwm menu after I typed a letter - and
Gimp has completed its startup before the letter arrived in the xterm.

<-- snip -->


cu
Adrian

[1] http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=101705972802903&w=2

--

You only think this is a free country. Like the US the UK spends a lot of
time explaining its a free country because its a police state.
Alan Cox


2002-07-21 15:32:16

by Marc-Christian Petersen

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Subject: Re: heavy Disk I/O and system stops reacting for seconds

On Sunday 21 July 2002 16:17, Adrian Bunk wrote:

Hi Adrian,

> On Sun, 21 Jul 2002, Marc-Christian Petersen wrote:
> > Hi there,
> >
> > I think someone else notices this too, but anyway, i write down my
> > experiences.
> >
> > I've tested 2.4.19rc[1|2|3], AC tree, AA tree, jam tree and mjc tree
> > All of them shows up the same behaviour. If i do some disk i/o, f.e.:
> >
> > tar xzpf linux-2.4.18.tar.gz; rm -rf linux-2.4.18
> >
> > the system stopps reacting while untar/ungzipping the file for more than
> > 5 seconds. Nothing but the mouse reacts. This does NOT occur with 2.4.18
> > and early 2.4.19-pre's ...
> >...
>
> <-- snip -->
>
> I tried to start Gimp from the fvwm menu after I typed a letter - and
> Gimp has completed its startup before the letter arrived in the xterm.
for my tests this does not appear. System does nothing for some seconds, no
keyboard input, no startup of programs, just nothing. Seems like flushing
somewhat to disk.

I think i have the causer. I've downgraded ext3fs code to 2.4.18 code and
those behaviour is gone! I think ext3fs needs a big deep review before 2.4.19
gets final.

--
Kind regards
Marc-Christian Petersen

http://sourceforge.net/projects/wolk

PGP/GnuPG Key: 1024D/408B2D54947750EC
Fingerprint: 8602 69E0 A9C2 A509 8661 2B0B 408B 2D54 9477 50EC
Key available at http://www.keyserver.net. Encrypted e-mail preferred.