[Bug 431207] [NEW] mc: Slows down desktop to a crawl when copying/moving data to external usb disk

[malheum]

Public bug reported:

Binary package hint: mc

Hello,

I was just copying about 20GB of data from the internal hard disk to an
external one using mc (midnight commander). Using mc the desktop almost
freezes, at least it takes 4 minutes until firefox starts. Thunderbird
does not show any emails anymore. Mp3 playback becomes horribly
interrupted. Switching between applications takes ages.

Using top on a text console, I saw that the %wa (iowait) entry in 'top'
gets up to 85% to 90% percent. Stopping the data copy in mc restores the
good behaviour of the desktop.

I then tried moving the data with mv. There is no iowait using mv, the
desktop keeps responsive, only the %us (user space) entry in top shows
some 80% percent, but that does not seem to slow down my desktop.

I think that mc should change it's behaviour when copying to that used
by mv.

$ lsb_release -rd
Description:    Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS
Release:        8.04

$ apt-cache policy mc
mc:
  Installiert:1:4.6.1-8ubuntu1
  Mögliche Pakete:1:4.6.1-8ubuntu1
  Versions-Tabelle:
 *** 1:4.6.1-8ubuntu1 0
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

This is on a Pentium M 1200MHz.

This is the external usb disk:
Bus 004 Device 004: ID 0d49:5020 Maxtor

** Affects: mc (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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mc: Slows down desktop to a crawl when copying/moving data to external usb disk
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/431207
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