ubuntu on a laptop, regular unwanted disc access

[Marius Gedminas]

On Fri, Dec 08, 2006 at 06:56:14PM +0000, Gabriel Dragffy wrote:
> Running Ubuntu on a laptop here, the drive is formatted Ext3. I
> understand that Linux undertakes some tasks etc to keep things running
> smoothly, nevertheless every couple of seconds the hard drive light goes
> on and I can hear access. It doesn't seem to do much than just access
> the hard drive.

By default ext3 updates file access times every time you read a file, an
does a journal commit every 5 seconds.  You can change both with mount
options (mount / -o remount,noatime,commit=600).  If you enable
laptop-mode, it does that, and also spins down the disk when you're not
accessing it.

> Since this is a laptop I am concerned the battery life will be somewhat
> degraded because the drive won't ever get to power-save and spin down.
>
> Is there something that is recommended to be altered?

Enable laptop-mode.

IIRC you can do that in /etc/default/acpi-support.  It is off by
default:

  # Switch to laptop-mode on battery power - off by default as it causes odd
  # hangs on some machines
  ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=false

Marius Gedminas
-- 
The clothes have no emperor.
                -- C.A.R. Hoare, commenting on ADA.
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