gimp saves are really slow

[Nigel Barker <tech@hiroshima-is.ac.jp>]

Hi All,

I'm finding that gimp saves are sometimes taking a really long time,
like up to 5 minutes or even more, and I can't really identify why. At
the end of a class of 20 students, I will probably have to log out 5
because they left gimp saving and went to the next lesson.

But today there's only me here after school, and my saves are taking
at least half a minute. I'm just doing normal yearbook work, like I do
every year.

Tjener (wheezy and up to date as of a couple of weeks ago) shows low
load and io wait. Other programs are saving normally.

Does anyone have a good suggestion?

thanks
Nigel