https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=340143 Summary: System becomes sluggish/unusable after some time/weird swapping behaviour Product: openSUSE 10.3 Version: Final Platform: x86 OS/Version: Other Status: NEW Severity: Normal Priority: P5 - None Component: Kernel AssignedTo: kernel-maintainers@forge.provo.novell.com ReportedBy: lenz@grimmer.com QAContact: qa@suse.de Found By: --- Hardware: IBM Thinkpad T42, 1GB RAM, Pentium M 1,8GHz CPU, Fujitsu MHT2080AH 80 GB Hard disk, running on openSUSE 10.3 (2.6.22.9-0.4-default) I've observed this problem several times now since I updated to 10.3, but I can't really put my finger to where the problem might be. I use this Laptop as a regular Desktop system, running the usual applications (KDE, Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice). For backup purposes, I have a cron job that runs rsnapshot every four hours to back up my home directory (reiserfs on an encrypted LVM volume) to an externally attached USB disk drive. I noticed that the entire system becomes very sluggish during heavy disk activity. The mouse cursor starts jumping, application windows are being refreshed very slowly, the whole system becomes very unresponsive und basically unusable. Interestingly, it becomes slower and slower with each rsync run, so even when the backup has finished, the system still does not return back to the initial interactive performance it had after a fresh reboot. I observe that the system starts to swap quite a lot, even though there still is free memory available. After a few days, the system becomes so unusable that I have to reboot to regain control. I've set /proc/sys/vm/swappiness to "30", but this did not really make a difference. This is the output of "vmstat 3" during an rsync run (after about 4-5 days of uptime): procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu---- r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa 0 11 785504 548732 54876 73688 28 12 38 36 59 50 18 5 63 14 0 9 785048 549872 53668 72792 467 0 2071 15 596 1365 5 7 0 89 1 11 784572 551276 52296 72248 373 0 1679 45 543 1414 7 4 0 88 0 9 784008 549728 52836 72048 589 0 3345 7 701 1487 7 8 0 85 1 8 782988 540584 56128 75956 824 0 5875 0 1012 1987 12 15 0 72 2 4 782628 523636 62188 85052 369 0 15181 941 2023 4219 23 31 0 45 0 6 782428 538796 54908 79248 261 0 6689 8 1173 2072 9 16 0 75 2 8 781968 545764 52408 73596 592 0 2748 71 672 1411 8 9 0 83 1 6 781784 543092 54424 74196 277 0 4675 873 908 1765 9 14 0 77 2 6 781296 543908 55032 72168 447 0 5071 48 1049 2017 12 16 0 71 0 6 780924 548352 53464 71464 423 0 4457 36 908 1783 17 14 0 69 0 4 780620 549724 52976 70604 352 0 4147 112 882 1651 9 12 0 79 2 5 780388 546104 57320 69664 324 0 3540 844 724 1549 8 13 0 79 2 5 780080 540712 60236 71684 387 0 6051 57 1093 1863 11 19 0 70 0 5 779784 539128 60884 71420 360 0 3964 0 778 1591 8 12 0 80 2 5 779392 535712 61612 72580 636 0 3399 43 703 1463 5 9 0 87 1 6 779104 534812 60880 73200 501 0 3779 0 848 1572 9 11 0 80 1 5 778652 540708 56184 71128 595 0 2125 892 541 1298 5 6 0 89 2 5 778324 545304 53464 68716 401 0 2699 0 576 1313 5 6 0 89 2 8 778012 546684 52440 67552 380 0 2917 71 663 1491 11 9 0 80 0 8 777784 535292 57652 72824 325 0 6811 1 1173 2007 8 16 0 76 0 8 777424 542336 52612 70232 516 0 2889 49 785 1866 7 7 0 87 0 7 776932 541632 53764 68804 452 0 3036 21 799 2150 8 7 0 85 1 6 776788 540740 53696 69844 245 0 2507 4 786 1753 7 10 0 84 1 7 776540 543916 51764 68020 409 0 2213 121 691 1608 5 7 0 88 0 5 776288 551036 46892 64996 365 0 2012 0 588 1589 7 7 0 86 0 6 775780 552548 46504 62516 640 0 2277 48 720 1647 7 8 0 85 0 7 775260 553852 45396 60356 656 0 1711 0 547 1395 7 4 0 89 1 6 774912 551984 45708 60984 523 0 2285 96 688 1572 6 8 0 86 3 6 774620 546252 47352 63864 409 0 4160 0 985 2066 11 16 0 73 1 6 774124 530196 53908 73124 456 0 7681 136 1272 2137 10 18 0 72 0 7 773668 527068 53872 75800 556 0 4692 11 858 1659 9 14 0 77 2 6 773428 529096 51772 75656 328 0 2385 35 647 1652 6 8 0 87 1 4 773148 525884 53336 76988 395 0 3960 57 783 1819 13 13 0 74 2 7 772860 527528 53112 74576 401 0 2240 53 608 1532 4 7 0 89 3 9 772568 522616 56204 75324 392 0 4712 65 857 1916 11 15 0 74 Once the rsync was finished, the system was still swapping like mad when I tried to switch applications. Here is a "vmstat 3" output taken after the backup run: procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu---- r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa 4 3 729000 481936 21016 61784 292 105 740 195 432 1025 5 3 0 92 2 3 729096 481768 20696 61928 297 145 804 197 428 951 6 3 0 91 3 4 729048 481012 21104 62240 209 25 996 69 426 1006 4 4 0 91 3 6 728936 479832 20980 62780 321 63 1000 77 444 955 7 6 0 87 1 3 728856 480628 20908 61972 319 84 712 145 438 1007 11 5 0 85 3 3 728812 480640 20668 61584 372 119 733 161 442 1031 3 4 0 93 0 5 728680 479268 20876 62376 371 108 1024 161 445 1030 14 5 0 82 3 4 728508 477124 21000 63684 280 0 1524 64 457 1042 8 4 0 88 0 3 728152 474124 21008 65788 417 0 1705 4 442 997 5 3 0 92 2 7 727964 475124 21092 63484 400 23 1044 79 445 1025 3 3 0 93 0 4 727744 472556 21360 64920 367 44 1640 69 473 1155 6 4 0 91 3 4 727480 473796 21736 62884 309 5 560 28 408 1320 9 3 0 88 2 7 727404 473440 21148 63528 320 65 940 152 433 1011 5 3 0 92 2 5 727332 472104 21172 64208 361 47 1101 116 461 1056 8 3 0 89 2 4 727228 472004 21340 63564 343 45 963 71 437 1072 4 3 0 92 2 6 727252 473088 21096 63092 325 103 559 143 434 1020 5 3 0 92 1 4 727200 471524 20980 64056 340 53 1176 104 451 1076 11 4 0 86 5 2 726912 472016 20892 63116 461 84 725 153 470 1333 9 4 0 87 0 3 728840 474384 20668 62732 197 1119 311 1177 445 1470 8 8 0 85 0 5 729680 473280 20924 63912 197 499 760 499 517 1228 5 3 0 92 0 3 731196 477300 21032 63492 371 880 461 881 482 932 2 2 0 96 3 4 732128 478356 21500 63700 331 523 665 556 470 1116 3 3 0 93 0 5 732824 478040 21844 63532 284 441 405 441 443 1063 6 5 0 89 0 2 734064 481272 22240 62588 384 769 581 792 462 928 6 3 0 91 0 9 735892 482944 22296 60940 457 1052 525 1052 493 1464 9 6 0 85 2 6 737268 483988 22508 61740 463 759 791 767 492 1177 7 4 0 89 1 8 737264 481908 22468 63832 573 265 1359 319 443 1018 6 3 0 91 2 5 738108 480016 21800 67220 239 553 1900 553 535 883 4 3 0 93 4 3 737792 488624 21124 61800 372 3 1492 49 481 1900 10 7 0 83 1 4 737536 489316 21124 61880 451 0 1043 0 439 1007 2 2 0 95 3 7 737336 487084 21796 62308 291 0 1409 105 436 1053 5 2 0 93 0 5 737100 486984 21532 61864 360 0 855 45 424 986 6 3 0 91 0 6 736696 486500 21664 61284 625 0 1116 51 445 1030 6 3 0 92 2 8 736224 485268 21400 61516 629 0 1429 115 475 1103 3 3 0 93 5 5 735504 485536 21056 60372 775 0 1091 48 451 1066 3 3 0 94 0 5 735156 486128 21288 59652 360 0 653 111 433 1135 7 4 0 90 This behavior really makes the system quite unusable for desktop purposes. Why is it swapping like mad, even though there is plenty of free memory? Please let me know if you require any additional information. Thanks! -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.