[ltp] system unresponsive during disk activity

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh]

On Sun, 30 Dec 2007, Theodore Tso wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 28, 2007 at 07:18:14AM +0100, Marcus Better wrote:
> > my [R60] laptop becomes unresponsive whenever some process does a
> > lot of disk I/O, like when I install or upgrade Debian packages. The
> > other applications appear to be starved for periods of ten seconds
> > or longer, don't redraw their windows and don't respond to input.
> 
> What does "hdparm -tt" show?  It could be that for some reason the
> kernel is falling back to using legacy IDE mode, in which case your
> system will feel very slow and can have the symptoms which you
> describe.

I have seen CFS screw up when the SCSI EH is running (e.g. when the optical
drive in the ultrabay is ejected) on a T43, which uses a ICH6 (not AHCI).
It might be related.  The symptoms are the same: tasks are blocked until the
EH finishes its job.  Kernel 2.6.22 with the latest v24.1 CFS patch.

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh