ubuntu 16.04 became VERY slow

[Colin Law]

On 19 December 2016 at 09:20, robert rottermann <robert at redcor.ch> wrote:
>
> thanks colin
> On 19.12.2016 09:56, Colin Law wrote:
>>
>> On 19 December 2016 at 08:40, robert rottermann <robert at redcor.ch> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi there,
>>>
>>> i am using ubuntu 16.04 on on a reasonably modern box.
>>>
>>> During the last couple of weeks it has become unbearably slow.
>>
>> Slow doing what?
>
> everything  :(
> switching from one window to an other with alt tab, can take 2secs or so.
>>
>>
>> If you run
>> tail -f /var/log/syslog
>> which will show syslog as it is written to do you see significant
>> activity there or anything like looks like ongoing errors?
>
> no, here it is (and it seems rather static)
>
> root at mozart:/home/robert# tail -f /var/log/syslog -n 30
>
> Dec 19 10:09:24 mozart systemd[1]: Started ACPI event daemon.
>
> Dec 19 10:09:24 mozart systemd[1]: Started CUPS Scheduler.
>
> Dec 19 10:09:24 mozart smartd[12445]: Device: /dev/sdb [SAT], is SMART
> capable. Adding to "monitor" list.
>
> Dec 19 10:09:24 mozart smartd[12445]: Monitoring 2 ATA and 0 SCSI devices
>
> Dec 19 10:09:25 mozart smartd[12445]: Device: /dev/sda [SAT], state written
> to /var/lib/smartmontools/smartd.ST31000524AS-9VPGLDY0.ata.state
>
> Dec 19 10:09:25 mozart smartd[12445]: Device: /dev/sdb [SAT], state written
> to
> /var/lib/smartmontools/smartd.WDC_WD10EALX_089BA0-WD_WCATR8111487.ata.state
>
> Dec 19 10:10:01 mozart com.ubuntu.OneConf[2986]: WARNING:oneconf.hosts:Error
> in loading other_hosts file: [Errno 2] No such file or directory:
> '/home/robert/.cache/oneconf/813e56ef1c4f171bda95b46b5448007c/other_hosts'
>
> Dec 19 10:10:50 mozart systemd[1]: dev-sdc2.device: Job
> dev-sdc2.device/start timed out.
>
> Dec 19 10:10:50 mozart systemd[1]: Timed out waiting for device
> dev-sdc2.device.
>
> Dec 19 10:10:50 mozart systemd[1]: Dependency failed for /dev/sdc2.
>
> Dec 19 10:10:50 mozart systemd[1]: dev-sdc2.swap: Job dev-sdc2.swap/start
> failed with result 'dependency'.
>
> Dec 19 10:10:50 mozart systemd[1]: dev-sdc2.device: Job
> dev-sdc2.device/start failed with result 'timeout'.
>
> Dec 19 10:10:50 mozart systemd[1]: dev-sdc1.device: Job
> dev-sdc1.device/start timed out.
>
> Dec 19 10:10:50 mozart systemd[1]: Timed out waiting for device
> dev-sdc1.device.
>
> Dec 19 10:10:50 mozart systemd[1]: Dependency failed for /dev/sdc1.
>
> Dec 19 10:10:50 mozart systemd[1]: dev-sdc1.swap: Job dev-sdc1.swap/start
> failed with result 'dependency'.
>
> Dec 19 10:10:50 mozart systemd[1]: dev-sdc1.device: Job
> dev-sdc1.device/start failed with result 'timeout'.

I would start by understanding and sorting those problems.

I see you have installed something like smartmontools. Did the
problems start when you did that?

Have you updated display drivers or something similar?

Colin