Slow disk I/O - was Re: Seeking Help

[NoOp]

On 01/22/2013 06:09 AM, geoff at thebakershome.net wrote:
>> On 22 January 2013 13:34,  <geoff at thebakershome.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> On 22 January 2013 13:13,  <geoff at thebakershome.net> wrote:
...
>>> Anytime I am performing a task with high I/O to one of the HDDs. There
>>> are
>>> three in the computer. The SDD, and two Western Digital platter drives.
>>
>> So actually you think it is disk I/O speed that is the problem, rather
>> than being anything to do with installing/upgrading?
>>
>> If you just copy a large file is it slow?
>> Have a look in /var/log/syslog and see if there is anything that looks
>> like an error.
>>
>> Colin
> 
> Yes that is it exactly, this is why my request was to find someone with
> the same motherboard rather than ask for help with upgrade/install.
> 
> I have been monitoring syslog and have not found anything obvious. There
> are warnings about ACHI which may be relevant. Unfortunately I am at work
> now so I cannot get the warnings off the computer. Will update later
> today.
> 
> I have a thread on ubuntuforums where I have been getting advice but
> thought searching for someone with the same motherboard would help me
> diagnose the problem. I do not want to spam this list, instead if you
> search for "thisismyusername4now ubuntuforums" my thread title is "New
> Install - Very slow at "Reading package lists..." in apt-get".
> 
> Thanks
> -Geoff
...

These might be of help:

<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures>
  <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingInstallationIssues>
<http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man8/iotop.8.html>
<http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man1/atop.1.html>
<https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ubuntu+%2B+slow+disk+i%2Fo>
<https://launchpad.net/+search?field.text=slow+disk+i%2Fo&field.actions.search=Search>
<https://launchpad.net/+search?field.text=apt-get+update+slow&field.actions.search=Search>

For the last, you might try a different update source location: e.g.
http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/. Install synaptic (sudo apt-get
install synaptic), open and then:
Settings|Repositories|Ubuntu Software|Download from: Other|Select best
server. Somtimes that works, sometimes not (for example it's telling me
that the best links for me from California are all in New Zealand), but
at least it gives you something you can experiment with. After selecting
the server, go back to the main synaptic page & click 'Reload'. See if
it's better. If so, close out synaptic & try from the terminal.

I suggest that you also use http://pastebin.ubuntu.com/ to post some
specifics regarding your system so that folks know what they are dealing
with (sudo lshw, sudo fdisk -l, cat /etc/apt/sources.list, uname -a
etc). Paste info there & then provide the list with the url to the paste.