Major problem with Oneiric 11.10 freezing

[Waleed Hamra]

On 13/02/12 10:15, Nils Kassube wrote:
> Tom Bell wrote:
>> On 02/13/2012 01:02 AM, Nils Kassube wrote:
>>> Tom Bell wrote:
>>>> Most of the time when I start a program, Thunderbird, Firefox,
>>>> Dolphin, etc., it will delay anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes and even
>>>> then there is no guarantee that it will actually start.
>>>
>>> It could be a failing harddisk. Have a look at "/var/log/syslog" if
>>> there is any hint. Or it could be a network share which is not
>>> reachable, but I think that in this case the application should
>>> finally start. Again, there should be a hint in "/var/log/syslog".
>>
>> This is the log:
> [...]
>> I see nothing of significance in it.
>> Do you?
> 
> No, I don't see anything either - it seems like I guessed wrong ...
> 
> On the screenshots you mentioned in the other mail, it looks quite 
> strange: While both CPUs are at 100% at the CPU history display, there 
> is no process of high CPU usage at the output of the "top" command. But 
> I have no idea what that means.
> 
> 
> Nils
> 

your guess is somewhat correct, but i'm not sure how to verify it. it
doesn't have to be a failing hard drive, but it DOES indicate a huge
interrupts spike, that is usually caused by I/O problems, which almost
always are the result of a hard drive issue.

on my work computer here, i have a very slow PATA hard drive, add the
fact that i'm using full disk encryption, IO becomes a huge bottleneck,
with very similar symptoms as with OP, yet, not that bad. CPU at 100% in
system monitor, but not in top or htop, hard drive crackling maddly
inside the case, as firefox is going through few dozen megabytes of
profile data. it takes firefox some 30 seconds to show any window, then
another 20 seconds to become responsive and usable.

but now to find why is the OP having this....

are you using encryption? if yes, where? root partition? home partition?
full disk? dm-crypt? ecryptfs?

what is your hard drive? size, make, model?

close firefox, open a terminal, make sure you have the package "procps"
installed, if not install it. then, in a terminal, type this:

vmstat -S M 2

once you see one or 2 lines of output, keep it running and start
firefox. keep vmstat running until firefox is up and running, then kill
vmstat with CTRL-C, and copy all its output for us... it'll be helpful
to check the bottlenecks.

-- 
Waleed K. Hamra
Manager of Hamra Information Systems
Lead Technician at Illusion Computers Megastore

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