sudden slow display response

[michael <linux@networkingnewsletter.org.uk>]

I also get a slow display response, seemingly whenever the filesystem is
accessed (see below too). Can't see anything wrong so please help. The
graphics card is a 
0000:04:02.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL
(rev 27)


Thanks, Michael

-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: michael <linux@networkingnewsletter.org.uk>
To: debian user <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
Subject: optimizing ext3 with journaling
Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 11:45:38 +0100
I've Googled about but not found anything to help although I'm sure
there must be a relevant HowTo/FAQ somewhere, so all pointers welcome!

My system is a dual Xeon box, running Sarge with 
	michael@ratty:~/.personal$ uname -a
	Linux ratty 2.4.27-1-686-smp #1 SMP Wed Dec 1 19:50:17 JST 2004 i686
GNU/Linux


and 1 250Gb disk partitioned thus
	michael@ratty:~/.personal$ df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hde2              9614148    287684   8838088   4% /
tmpfs                  1034796         0   1034796   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hde8              1829159     19364   1712202   2% /boot
/dev/hde11           119765712  64309488  49372412  57% /home
/dev/hde6              9614116    438828   8686916   5% /tmp
/dev/hde5              9614116   1950684   7175060  22% /usr
/dev/hde7             19228276  16042208   2209320  88% /usr/local
/dev/hde3              9614148   1673012   7452760  19% /var
michael@ratty:~/.personal$ mount
/dev/hde2 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/hde8 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hde11 on /home type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hde6 on /tmp type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hde5 on /usr type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hde7 on /usr/local type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hde3 on /var type ext3 (rw)
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)

and the syslog shows each with
	May  4 19:32:15 localhost kernel: kjournald starting.  Commit interval
5 seconds
	May  4 19:32:15 localhost kernel: EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on
ide2(33,3), internal journal
	May  4 19:32:15 localhost kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with
ordered data mode.

I was wondering if this 'default' setting is optimal, particularly
for /home -- I frequently (circa daily) run jobs (Fortran code) each
that creates files of a few Gb per run.

It may or may not be connected but I have noticed, albeit only recently
but that may not exclude it always happening, that `top` gives "system"
from 10-40% when such jobs are running (or big data files in Mozilla or
OpenOffice-Spreadsheet).

If you need more info, please let me know, and if you have references
for how to tune this definitely let me know!



	
-- 
Michael Bane
Atmospheric Physics Group
University of Manchester


-- 
Michael Bane
Atmospheric Physics Group
University of Manchester