Major problem with Oneiric 11.10 freezing

[Tom Bell]

On 02/13/2012 12:04 PM, Alvin wrote:
> On Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:54:06 +0100, Tom Bell <cbell44 at cfl.rr.com> wrote:
>
>> On 02/13/2012 05:38 AM, Alvin wrote:
>>> [...]
>>> I see 'md' in that process list. Are you using LVM with snapshots?
>>>
>> I am not an expert, so I have no idea what LVM is.
>> Explanation?
>
> Linux Volume Manager. Often used on top of an md device. If you don't 
> know what it is, you will probably not use it. It can't be installed 
> with the default Kubuntu installer. You need the alternate CD.
>
> High load when LVM snapshots are present is a known problem.
>
> Unexplained load is often due to I/O problems. Try 'iotop' to see 
> what's causing I/O.
>
This may be helping, thank you.
I tried iotop and it showed "jdb2/sda1-8" as topping out the cpu cycles.
Checking on the internet eventually lead me to anacron.
Now I am checking further to see what value that is and why it is working.
I did not start it or anything like it.
Supposedly it can be scheduled to run daily, not hourly, minutely or 
secondly(sic).
I found where it is connected somehow to firefox in the Window Title 
part of System Monitor.

/etc/cron.d/anacron:
# /etc/cron.d/anacron: crontab entries for the anacron package

SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

#30 7    * * *   root   test -x /etc/init.d/anacron && 
/usr/sbin/invoke-rc.d anacron start >/dev/null
30 7    * * *   root    start -q anacron || :


At www.geekstuff.com it says:
/* Begin quote */
Anacron is the cron for desktops and laptops.

Anacron does not expect the system to be running 24 x 7 like a server.

When you want a background job to be executed automatically on a machine 
that is not running 24 x 7, you should use anacron.

For example, if you have a backup script scheduled everyday at 11 PM as 
a regular cron job, and if your laptop is not up at 11 PM, your backup 
job will not be executed.

However, if you have the same job scheduled in anacron, you can be sure 
that it will be executed once the laptop come back up.
/* End of quote */

I run my desktop computer 24/7.
I am considering removing anacron, so, has anyone a good argument why not?


Tom