[Thunar-dev] Thunar disturbs hard disk spindown

[Tino Keitel]

Hi,
sometimes I notice that a process called thunar-vfs-mime causes my hard
disk to spin up, according to the kernel log after
<7>thunar-vfs-mime(8315): dirtied inode 3269093 (applications) on dm-5
<7>thunar-vfs-mime(8315): dirtied inode 3268654 (defaults.list.CEFS6U)
on dm-5
<7>thunar-vfs-mime(8315): WRITE block 107040736 on dm-5
<7>thunar-vfs-mime(8315): dirtied inode 3268657 (?) on dm-5
2010-01-26_12:12:15.71294 Spinning up /dev/sda after 4 minutes.
<7>flush-254:4(1196): WRITE block 455352 on dm-4
2010-01-26_12:13:15.71760 Spinning down /dev/sda.

Minor addition: the PID changes each time, so it seems to be triggered
by some other service.

Regards,
Tino

[Tino Keitel]

Hi,

sometimes I notice that a process called thunar-vfs-mime causes my hard
disk to spin up, according to the kernel log after
echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/block_dump:

<7>thunar-vfs-mime(8315): dirtied inode 3269093 (applications) on dm-5
<7>thunar-vfs-mime(8315): dirtied inode 3268654 (defaults.list.CEFS6U)
on dm-5
<7>thunar-vfs-mime(8315): WRITE block 107040736 on dm-5
<7>thunar-vfs-mime(8315): dirtied inode 3268657 (?) on dm-5
2010-01-26_12:12:15.71294 Spinning up /dev/sda after 4 minutes.
<7>flush-254:4(1196): WRITE block 455352 on dm-4
2010-01-26_12:13:15.71760 Spinning down /dev/sda.

I use Debian Sid with the following versions:

ii libthunar-vfs-1-2 1.0.1-2
ii thunar 1.0.1-2
ii thunar-data 1.0.1-2
ii thunar-thumbnailers 0.4.1-2
ii thunar-volman 0.3.80-3

Is this just a misconfiguration, or a bug? Usually, the HD keeps
spinned down for 30-80 minutes.

Regards,
Tino

[v_2e]

Hello!
Please excuse me if I'm posting into a wrong location, but speaking
about "Thunar disturbs HDD", I must say that I've noticed the following
strange (at least to me) thing:
When a Thunar window is opened, I can see that 'mount.ntfs-3g' process
consumes about 10% of my CPU time. (I have a NTFS partition on my hard
drive). When I close all Thunar windows, this process consumes almost
nothing.
Maybe, this phenomenon is connected somehow to the said above?

Regards,
Vladimir.

-----
<v_2e at ukr.net>

[Nick Schermer]

On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 6:47 PM, <v_2e at ukr.net> wrote:
Vladimir,

Stop hijacking threads on the ml, but report bugs or start a new thread.

Thanks,
Nick

[v_2e]

On Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:01:15 +0100

Post by Nick Schermer
Stop hijacking threads on the ml, but report bugs or start a new thread.
Thanks,
Nick

Ok. If the thing I wrote about is a different problem - here is a
separate thread. :)
I'll shortly repeat the description:
I've noticed the following strange (at least to me) thing:
When a Thunar window is opened, I can see that 'mount.ntfs-3g' process
consumes about 10% of my CPU time. (I have a NTFS partition on my hard
drive). When I close all Thunar windows, this process consumes almost
nothing.
I'm not sure this is an adequate behaviour, since 'mount.ntfs-3g'
process consumes about 10% of CPU time (like I've mentioned above) ALL
THE TIME Thunar window is opened. It even doesn't matter whether Thunar
shows a folder on my NTFS volume or on some other volume (non-NTFS).
That is why it isn't clear for me.

Thanks for any help or advices,
Vladimir.

-----
<v_2e at ukr.net>

[Tino Keitel]

Post by v_2e
On Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:01:15 +0100

Post by Nick Schermer
Stop hijacking threads on the ml, but report bugs or start a new thread.
Thanks,
Nick

Ok. If the thing I wrote about is a different problem - here is a
separate thread. :)

Hint: A reply to another mail doesn't start a new thread just because
you change the subject. You mail is still marked as being the answer to
another mail (look into the References: and In-Reply-To: headers of
your mail). Only writing a _new_ mail (an not replying to another mail)
starts a new thread.

Regards,
Tino

[v_2e]

Hello!

On Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:48:45 +0100

Post by Tino Keitel

Post by v_2e
On Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:01:15 +0100

Post by Nick Schermer
Stop hijacking threads on the ml, but report bugs or start a new thread.
Thanks,
Nick

Ok. If the thing I wrote about is a different problem - here is a
separate thread. :)

Hint: A reply to another mail doesn't start a new thread just because
you change the subject. You mail is still marked as being the answer to
another mail (look into the References: and In-Reply-To: headers of
your mail). Only writing a _new_ mail (an not replying to another mail)
starts a new thread.
Regards,
Tino

I'm terribly sorry. :) I didn't know that. Thanks for the tip.

So here is a description of my problem in a proper thread:
I've noticed the following strange (at least to me) thing:
When a Thunar window is opened, I can see that 'mount.ntfs-3g' process
consumes about 10% of my CPU time. (I have a NTFS partition on my hard
drive). When I close all Thunar windows, this process consumes almost
nothing.
I'm not sure this is an adequate behaviour, since 'mount.ntfs-3g'
process consumes about 10% of CPU time (like I've mentioned above) ALL
THE TIME Thunar window is opened. It even doesn't matter whether Thunar
shows a folder on my NTFS volume or on some other volume (non-NTFS).
That is why it isn't clear for me.

Thanks for responding,
Vladimir.

-----
<v_2e at ukr.net>

[v_2e]

Hello again!
So, hasn't anybody encountered such a problem yet? Is it just me?
By the way, I have noticed that the 10% of CPU time mentioned by me
earlier, are not 10% of the lowest power state CPU time (@800MHz), but
of the highest one (@2200 MHz). That is why my CPU becomes heated more
and more until cpufreqd begins to cool it by setting a frequency
limitation.

Regards.
Vladimir.

On Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:16:01 +0200

Post by v_2e
When a Thunar window is opened, I can see that 'mount.ntfs-3g' process
consumes about 10% of my CPU time. (I have a NTFS partition on my hard
drive). When I close all Thunar windows, this process consumes almost
nothing.
I'm not sure this is an adequate behaviour, since 'mount.ntfs-3g'
process consumes about 10% of CPU time (like I've mentioned above) ALL
THE TIME Thunar window is opened. It even doesn't matter whether Thunar
shows a folder on my NTFS volume or on some other volume (non-NTFS).
That is why it isn't clear for me.

-----
<v_2e at ukr.net>

[v_2e]

Hello!
I'm surprised that nobody confirms such behaviour of Thunar.
Does nobody use NTFS partitions with ntfs-3g driver? Or no one else
has encountered such problem?
A'm asking because this problem becomes more and more noticeable
because the Summer is coming and the weather becomes more and more
warm. Under such circumstances the problem I mentioned before leads to
lower machine performance (via "CPU overheating -> cpufreqd frequency
throttling" scenario).

Regards,
Vladimir.

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:42:20 +0200

Post by v_2e
Hello again!
So, hasn't anybody encountered such a problem yet? Is it just me?
By the way, I have noticed that the 10% of CPU time mentioned by me
and more until cpufreqd begins to cool it by setting a frequency
limitation.
Regards.
Vladimir.

-----
<v_2e at ukr.net>

[samuel]

nobody uses the ntfs-3g driver...
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[samuel]

and come to think of it... nobody uses cpufreqd....
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[Steve Dodier]

Hi there,

Actually I think I can confirm this on Xubuntu 9.04, and 9.10 at least. I
was thinking it was just the NTFS-3G driver being resource hungry, don't
know if it's related to Thunar in any way. If I'm able to use a NTFS drive
in the coming days, I'll post again to confirm/infirm if it's linked to
Thunar here too.
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[v_2e]

Hello!

On Tue, 18 May 2010 13:36:56 +0200

Post by samuel
nobody uses the ntfs-3g driver...

And what driver are you suggesting to use instead (on the systems
with NTFS volumes)?

Post by samuel
... nobody uses cpufreqd....

A similar question: what can you advise to use instead?

On Tue, 18 May 2010 13:42:55 +0200

Post by samuel
Hi there,
Actually I think I can confirm this on Xubuntu 9.04, and 9.10 at least. I
was thinking it was just the NTFS-3G driver being resource hungry, don't
know if it's related to Thunar in any way. If I'm able to use a NTFS drive
in the coming days, I'll post again to confirm/infirm if it's linked to
Thunar here too.

I'd like to recall that the situation is the following:
- When I start Thunar, 'mount.ntfs-3g' process begins to use about 10%
of the CPU time in the highest frequency mode (!). And no matter
whether a folder on NTFS volume is opened in Thunar or on any other
(Ext3, for example).
- When I close Thunar, 'mount.ntfs-3g' consumes almost nothing and
the CPU stays in the lowest frequency mode (this means that the CPU is
not loaded much).

So, Steve, please check the behaviour of Thunar and 'mount.ntfs-3g'
on your system under the similar conditions. Just open Thunar and what
'top' shows about 'mount.ntfs-3g'. Then close Thunar, compare and
please, post the results here. I need to know if this is only my
problem.
Thanks.

Vladimir.

-----
<v_2e at ukr.net>

[Yves-Alexis Perez]

Post by v_2e

Post by samuel
.. nobody uses cpufreqd....

A similar question: what can you advise to use instead?

Nothing. As long as you can, just use ondemand cpufreq governor, and
don't change.

Cheers,

[v_2e]

On Tue, 18 May 2010 17:48:26 +0200

Post by Yves-Alexis Perez

Post by v_2e

Post by samuel
.. nobody uses cpufreqd....

A similar question: what can you advise to use instead?

Nothing. As long as you can, just use ondemand cpufreq governor, and
don't change.

Yes, I do usually use 'ondemand' governor. But I do also use cpufreqd
daemon to switch between different governors (and a maximum frequency)
depending on the current CPU temperature (for example, if cpufreqd sees
that the CPU is overheated, it can temporarily switch to 'powersave'
governor and after the CPU cools - back to 'ondemand' governor). So,
cpufreqd daemon and 'ondemand' governor exist not for the same
purpose. :)
By the way, I'm talking about a laptop now, where power saving and
keeping the CPU as cool as possible makes sense.

Post by Yves-Alexis Perez
Cheers,
--
Yves-Alexis

But that is all off-topic. Can you say something about the "Thunar +
ntfs-3g" problem which I described earlier?

Regards,
Vladimir.
-----
<v_2e at ukr.net>

[Yves-Alexis Perez]

Post by v_2e
On Tue, 18 May 2010 17:48:26 +0200

Post by Yves-Alexis Perez

Post by v_2e

Post by samuel
.. nobody uses cpufreqd....

A similar question: what can you advise to use instead?

Nothing. As long as you can, just use ondemand cpufreq governor, and
don't change.

Yes, I do usually use 'ondemand' governor. But I do also use cpufreqd
daemon to switch between different governors (and a maximum frequency)
depending on the current CPU temperature (for example, if cpufreqd sees
that the CPU is overheated, it can temporarily switch to 'powersave'
governor and after the CPU cools - back to 'ondemand' governor). So,
cpufreqd daemon and 'ondemand' governor exist not for the same
purpose. :)

You should let the CPU do its job. It nows better how to keep itself
cool, userspace is usually bad at this.

Post by v_2e
By the way, I'm talking about a laptop now, where power saving and
keeping the CPU as cool as possible makes sense.

And so it makes sense to use ondemand.

Post by v_2e

Post by Yves-Alexis Perez
Cheers,
--
Yves-Alexis

But that is all off-topic. Can you say something about the "Thunar +
ntfs-3g" problem which I described earlier?

No, I don't use ntfs-3g nor cpufreqd

Cheers,

[v_2e]

On Tue, 18 May 2010 18:17:14 +0200

Post by Yves-Alexis Perez
You should let the CPU do its job. It nows better how to keep itself
cool, userspace is usually bad at this.

I don't know how your PCs behave themselves when the CPU temperature
rises, but my laptop begins to make a loud noise (increasing the
cooling fan speed). That is why I do not want it to have more than, for
example, 55 - 60 degrees. And it usually has less than 50 degrees and
doesn't make noise, but when I start Thunar, 'mount.ntfs-3g' eats lots
of CPU time and the CPU temperature increases.
That is why I decided to ask this question in Thunar mailing list at
first.

Post by Yves-Alexis Perez
Cheers,
--
Yves-Alexis

Regards,
Vladimir.
-----
<v_2e at ukr.net>