https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=816388
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=816388#c43
--- Comment #43 from Moritz Duge 2013-06-18 14:17:16 UTC ---
Put my hdd back to an APM_level of 128 for testing. This is what happened in
about 90 seconds. While that, I did just a some scrolling in the terminal
window. My desktop was running KDE and there were a minimized Firefox and
Okular (pdf viewer).
I wanted to repeat the test with a lower dirty_expire_centisecs value. But the
problem didn't appeared (still testing with the same dirty_expire_centisecs
value of 3000 - my system default). The hdd just didn't went to sleep once in
about a 25 seconds and there was no i/o (regarding to iotop).
This makes me think, there is some more wrong at a lower level. hdparm manpage
says about the "-B" option:
----
Possible settings range from values 1 through 127 (which permit spin-
down), and values 128 through 254 (which do not permit spin-down).
----
So there shouldn't be no spindown at all, as long as I don't go below 128. Or
maybe this is about stopping the disk rotation and Load_Cycle_Count is about
parking the head without stopping the disk? I don't know...
But every time Load_Cycle_Count increases I hear a click-sound. So I think
there is some physical degeneration for sure! And there's some degeneration in
my ear and head by that clicking...
Altogether I'm very satisfied with my battery power and I don't think it became
worse since I switched to APM_level 192.
Some more confusion: hdparm manpage says:
-S Put the drive into idle (low-power) mode, and also set the standby
(spindown)
timeout for the drive. This timeout value is used by the drive to determine
how long to wait (with no disk activity) before turning off the spindle motor
to save power. Under such circumstances, the drive may take as long as 30
seconds to respond to a subsequent disk access, though most drives are much
quicker. The encoding of the timeout value is somewhat peculiar. A value of
zero means "timeouts are disabled": the device will not automatically enter
standby mode.
How does this values interact with the -B APM_level? And, as far as I can see,
there's no way to get the -S value from the drive. Just a way to set it.
How ever we decide: I think openSUSE should provide an easier possibility to
adjust this value (together with a warning for the user to be careful).
Currently it's not easy to set this value in openSUSE (also persistent after
s2ram). Maybe there should be some configuration value in /etc/sysconfig/ide or
somewhere else it's easy adjustable. So users can adjust if the hdd is
"clicking" too often.
==============================
======== test results ========
// My system default
# cat /proc/sys/vm/dirty_expire_centisecs
3000
# date; /usr/sbin/smartctl -A /dev/sda | grep Load_Cycle_Count
Di 18. Jun 21:09:12 CEST 2013
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0012 089 089 000 Old_age Always
- 115543
# date; /usr/sbin/smartctl -A /dev/sda | grep Load_Cycle_Count
Di 18. Jun 21:10:44 CEST 2013
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0012 089 089 000 Old_age Always
- 115555
// deleted the lines without i/o
# sudo iotop -o --time
TIME TID PRIO USER DISK READ DISK WRITE SWAPIN IO COMMAND
21:09:13 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 46.89 K/s
21:09:13 339 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 3.91 K/s 0.00 % 5.13 %
[jbd2/dm-2-8]
21:09:13 23593 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 %
[kworker/0:1]
21:09:13 17043 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 %
[kworker/1:1]
21:09:16 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 418.97 K/s
21:09:18 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 15.66 K/s
21:09:18 347 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 34.62 %
[flush-253:2]
21:09:23 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 35.24 K/s
21:09:23 339 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 11.75 K/s 0.00 % 33.98 %
[jbd2/dm-2-8]
21:09:31 1908 be/4 moritz 0.00 B/s 3.92 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % kdeinit4:
plasma-desktop [kdeinit]
21:09:36 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 7.83 K/s
21:09:37 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 66.57 K/s
21:09:37 717 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 3.92 K/s 0.00 % 33.40 %
[jbd2/dm-1-8]
21:09:38 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 11.74 K/s
21:09:38 339 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 3.91 K/s 0.00 % 5.59 %
[jbd2/dm-2-8]
21:09:45 1246 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 3.91 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % nmbd -D -s
/etc/samba/smb.conf
21:09:46 373 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 58.72 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 %
systemd-journald
21:09:46 992 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 3.91 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % rsyslogd
-n
21:09:47 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 3.91 K/s
21:09:48 373 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 11.75 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 %
systemd-journald
21:09:50 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 50.90 K/s
21:09:51 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 3.91 K/s
21:09:51 339 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 46.96 K/s 0.00 % 35.07 %
[jbd2/dm-2-8]
21:09:52 373 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 15.66 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 %
systemd-journald
21:09:58 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 31.32 K/s
21:09:58 339 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 11.75 K/s 0.00 % 34.38 %
[jbd2/dm-2-8]
21:10:00 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 3.92 K/s
21:10:07 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 3.92 K/s
21:10:07 717 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 32.06 %
[jbd2/dm-1-8]
21:10:11 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 3.92 K/s
21:10:12 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 62.64 K/s
21:10:17 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 86.14 K/s
21:10:18 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 11.75 K/s
21:10:18 347 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 37.28 %
[flush-253:2]
21:10:20 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 3.92 K/s
21:10:21 23789 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 41.87 % udisksd
--no-debug
21:10:21 23786 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 %
[kworker/0:0]
21:10:22 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 23.48 K/s
21:10:23 339 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 15.66 K/s 0.00 % 5.24 %
[jbd2/dm-2-8]
21:10:25 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 23.57 K/s
21:10:25 717 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.07 %
[jbd2/dm-1-8]
21:10:26 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 349.60 K/s
21:10:26 717 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 39.28 K/s 0.00 % 9.34 %
[jbd2/dm-1-8]
21:10:26 19604 be/4 moritz 0.00 B/s 310.32 K/s 0.00 % 0.16 % firefox
21:10:30 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 11.79 K/s
21:10:30 339 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 3.93 K/s 0.00 % 5.31 %
[jbd2/dm-2-8]
21:10:31 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 55.00 K/s
21:10:31 717 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 11.79 K/s 0.00 % 4.61 %
[jbd2/dm-1-8]
21:10:31 8794 be/4 moritz 0.00 B/s 3.93 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % okular
/home/moritz/Moritz/main.lecture_notes.pdf --icon okular -caption Okular
21:10:38 Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 11.79 K/s
21:10:38 339 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 3.93 K/s 0.00 % 5.39 %
[jbd2/dm-2-8]
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