jbd2 writing block every 5 - 10 seconds, preventing disk spin-down and making noise

Bug #607560 reported by rCX
794
This bug affects 167 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
linux (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

jbd2 writes blocks to the hard disk every 5 seconds. This makes an annoying click/tick noise and prevents the disk from spinning down to conserve power. jbd2 appears in logs as several entries like...

 Jul 19 21:35:45 edge kernel: [ 3312.913759] jbd2/sda5-8(350): WRITE block 42280704 on sda5

... and can be observed using iotop. Since the noise only occurs in Ubuntu and not in Windows 7 it is probably a software problem. The excessive writes may reduce the disk's lifespan.

WORKAROUND: Adding commit=60 to the partition's entry in fstab increases the interval to 30-45 seconds.

Threads covering this problem
* http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1489637
* https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=692073

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: linux-image-2.6.32-23-generic-pae 2.6.32-23.37
Regression: No
Reproducible: No
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-23.37-generic-pae 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-23-generic-pae i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269 Analog [ALC269 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: rcx 2456 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf0800000 irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'Intel G45 DEVIBX'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0269,17aa21bc,00100004 HDA:80862804,80860101,00100000'
   Controls : 16
   Simple ctrls : 8
Date: Mon Jul 19 23:24:03 2010
Frequency: Every 5-10 seconds.
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=ae276af8-b805-466a-a688-8d175cd3f2d7
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
MachineType: LENOVO 05782AU
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-23-generic-pae root=UUID=01d19f79-8c81-4da6-949d-db8f4d85b84a ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_US.utf8
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.34.1
SourcePackage: linux
dmi.bios.date: 06/11/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 80ET37WW (1.14 )
dmi.board.name: 05782AU
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr80ET37WW(1.14):bd06/11/2010:svnLENOVO:pn05782AU:pvrThinkPadEdge:rvnLENOVO:rn05782AU:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 05782AU
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad Edge
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

Revision history for this message
rCX (rcx) wrote :
description: updated
Revision history for this message
rCX (rcx) wrote :

A 1 minute log was generated using the following commands...

sudo -i
echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/block_dump # Start logging
# Wait 1 minute
echo 0 > /proc/sys/vm/block_dump # Stop logging
exit

Results from /var/log/kern.log are attached. Noise/write occurs at jbd2 entries e.g....
Jul 20 00:15:35 edge kernel: [ 7281.741214] jbd2/sda5-8(347): WRITE block 68124096 on sda5

summary: - jbd2 writing block every 5 seconds, preventing disk spin-down and making
- noise
+ jbd2 writing block every 5 - 10 seconds, preventing disk spin-down and
+ making noise
rCX (rcx)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
homoludens (marko-homoludens) wrote :

i have the same problem:

* OS: Gentoo
* Disk fomat: ext4
* Kernel: 2.6.32

so it is not ubuntu specific, arch users have this problem also. maybe this info helps solving it.
first thing i'll try is upgrading kernel.

Revision history for this message
Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee) wrote :

Hi rCX,

If you could also please test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

    [This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

tags: added: kj-triage
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
rCX (rcx) wrote :

This problem seems to have been resolved in the latest mainline kernel 2.6.35-999-generic_2.6.35-999.201007211008. jbd2 only writes every 1-2 minutes which is more tolerable. Unfortunately, I had to downgrade back to 2.6.32-23-generic-pae because of another bug.

tags: removed: needs-upstream-testing
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → New
Revision history for this message
Matthew Holtz (matthew-holtz) wrote :

rCX, I'm not sure I'd call every 1-2 minutes tolerable, though it is certainly better. Why does there need to be any excess disk activity at all? On a netbook install, 1-2 minutes will still prevent the system from going to sleep automatically because the disk activity fools the system into thinking it's not idle. Besides, its loud.

Is there a mechanism to disable this process or is it required if journaling is used? Why doesn't ext3 have this behavior? It's also a journaling filesystem, right?

Revision history for this message
rCX (rcx) wrote :

Matthew Holtz, I guess you're right, this would still be a problem on netbooks. Hopefully someone will mark this as confirmed.

I've been playing around with different settings. Adding commit=60, to the partition's entry in fstab increases the interval to 30-45 seconds. No solution yet.

What hard disk are you using? I have a Fujitsu MJA2250B.

Revision history for this message
gitpik (gitpik) wrote :

I am also experiencing this behavior on an eeePC 1000. It appears that is affecting the sleep when idle functionality as it won't sleep when I set it to 10 min on A/C power.

Revision history for this message
Jaime Alberto Silva (jaimealbertosilva) wrote :

I'm having the same problem on Debian testing/unstable:

Linux 2.6.32-5-686 #1 SMP Wed Aug 25 14:28:12 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

Is there any progress about this?

The 2.6.35 kernel for Debian is currently in experimental and I don't know where will it be upgraded to unstable.

How can I stop my disks from spinning? I have LVM and, for luck, half of my disks are free. Should I migrate my partitions to ext3?

Revision history for this message
Matthew Holtz (matthew-holtz) wrote : Re: [Bug 607560] Re: jbd2 writing block every 5 - 10 seconds, preventing disk spin-down and making noise
Download full text (3.7 KiB)

As I understand it we can either wait for a new kernel or change away from ext4.

On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 8:32 PM, Jaime Alberto Silva
<email address hidden> wrote:
> I'm having the same problem on Debian testing/unstable:
>
> Linux 2.6.32-5-686 #1 SMP Wed Aug 25 14:28:12 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux
>
> Is there any progress about this?
>
> The 2.6.35 kernel for Debian is currently in experimental and I don't
> know where will it be upgraded to unstable.
>
> How can I stop my disks from spinning? I have LVM and, for luck, half of
> my disks are free. Should I  migrate my partitions to ext3?
>
> --
> jbd2 writing block every 5 - 10 seconds, preventing disk spin-down and making noise
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/607560
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu: New
>
> Bug description:
> jbd2 writes blocks to the hard disk every 5 seconds.  This makes an annoying click/tick noise and prevents the disk from spinning down to conserve power.  jbd2 appears in logs as several entries like...
>
>  Jul 19 21:35:45 edge kernel: [ 3312.913759] jbd2/sda5-8(350): WRITE block 42280704 on sda5
>
> ... and can be observed using iotop. Since the noise only occurs in Ubuntu and not in Windows 7 it is probably a software problem.  The excessive writes may reduce the disk's lifespan.
>
> Other info...
> * OS: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
> * Disk fomat: ext4
> * Kernel: 2.6.32-23-generic-pae
>
> Threads covering this problem
> * http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1489637
> * https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=692073
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
> Package: linux-image-2.6.32-23-generic-pae 2.6.32-23.37
> Regression: No
> Reproducible: No
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-23.37-generic-pae 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
> Uname: Linux 2.6.32-23-generic-pae i686
> AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
> Architecture: i386
> ArecordDevices:
>  **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
>  card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269 Analog [ALC269 Analog]
>    Subdevices: 1/1
>    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
> AudioDevicesInUse:
>  USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
>  /dev/snd/controlC0:  rcx      2456 F.... pulseaudio
> CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
> Card0.Amixer.info:
>  Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf0800000 irq 22'
>    Mixer name   : 'Intel G45 DEVIBX'
>    Components   : 'HDA:10ec0269,17aa21bc,00100004 HDA:80862804,80860101,00100000'
>    Controls      : 16
>    Simple ctrls  : 8
> Date: Mon Jul 19 23:24:03 2010
> Frequency: Every 5-10 seconds.
> HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=ae276af8-b805-466a-a688-8d175cd3f2d7
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
> MachineType: LENOVO 05782AU
> ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-23-generic-pae root=UUID=01d19f79-8c81-4da6-949d-db8f4d85b84a ro quiet splash
> ProcEnviron:
>  SHELL=/bin/bash
>  LANG=en_US.utf8
> RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.34.1
> SourcePackage: linux
> dmi.bios.date: 06/11/2010
> dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
> dmi.bios.version: 80ET37WW (1.14 )
> dmi.board.name: 05782AU
> dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
>...

Read more...

Revision history for this message
Per Wahlström (per-wahlstrom) wrote :

Seems to be the ext4 journaling doing its thing. You can increase the interval (in seconds) by adding for example

  commit=60

to mount-options in /etc/fstab, or disable it altogether with

  tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sda5
  e2fsck -f /dev/sda5

(or whatever your disk is called). Your disk will be more vulnerable for data corruption on uncontrolled shut-downs without journaling.

Revision history for this message
Matthew Holtz (matthew-holtz) wrote :

I understand that ext4 does journaling and that the journal must be
written to disk from time to time. What escapes me is why the disk
must be written every few seconds __when no disk access is needed at
all__.

That is the issue I struggle with on my netbook -- most of the time I
need no disk access when browsing the internet, yet my disk accesses
every 5 to 10 seconds like clockwork.

That is why this is a bug.

Revision history for this message
Anmar Oueja (anmar) wrote :

this wasn't a problem in early releases of Ubuntu 10.10 kernel. Now that we are in RC, it is back and it is a bad thing to have as it kills battery life. I will get on IRC and see if i can get some traction on this.

cat /proc/mount yields a mount commit=60 (that is too fast). Any how, iotop clearly shows jbd2 constantly flushing preventing the hard drive from spinning down.

this is a real issue that we should fix for 10.10

Revision history for this message
Anmar Oueja (anmar) wrote :

After much investigation, i discovered that the output of "hdparm -B /dev/sda" happen to be my only laptop hard drisk, gives me a value of 128, which permits the HD from spinning down. This is what is prevents the hard driver from spinning down and not the jbd2 activity. BTW, I did a complete fresh install.

from hdparm man page (notice the bit about 128 being in the range that prevents spinning down):

   -B Query/set Advanced Power Management feature, if the drive sup‐
              ports it. A low value means aggressive power management and a
              high value means better performance. Possible settings range
              from values 1 through 127 (which permit spin-down), and values
              128 through 254 (which do not permit spin-down). The highest
              degree of power management is attained with a setting of 1, and
              the highest I/O performance with a setting of 254. A value of
              255 tells hdparm to disable Advanced Power Management altogether
              on the drive (not all drives support disabling it, but most do).

Revision history for this message
Matthew Holtz (matthew-holtz) wrote :

Anmar,

That is interesting. I'll have to try it on my netbook and see what it reports. However, I maintain that I should not have to change this, particularly on a netbook install. The default should be to spin the drive down to save power, especially if that power mode is selected from the Gnome power manager.

Revision history for this message
Anmar Oueja (anmar) wrote :

I wrote a new bug since I don't think this is a jbd2 issue at all. You can find the details here: 654561

Revision history for this message
Matthew Holtz (matthew-holtz) wrote :

I tried using hdparm to set this parameter down to 1. This had no effect on my netbook, and the jdb2 process was still doing the disk writes every 5 seconds or so. I don't agree with your assessment that this is not a jdb2 issue.

Revision history for this message
nephilim (torsten-wolf) wrote :

Same problem here after upgrading to 10.10 yesterday. I doubted that hdparm would be a proper fix and actually it didn't show any effect.

Revision history for this message
Alan N (anise) wrote :

I am having the same issue, but I dont think its a spin down issue. I am using laptop-tools and the disk wakes up every 2 mins due to the flush. The disk is really spinning down (the JBD2 writes seems to be getting cached by laptop mode), but the flush is waking up the drive. someone here https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=105456 seems to think that the flush is being cause by the frequent JBD2 writes, though I am certain if this is the case or not.

Revision history for this message
周成瑞 (e93b5ae3) wrote :

This also affects me.

Sometime jbd2 just freeze my laptop for 5 minutes. CPU usage is mostly sy(stem) in "top" output. Look the attached screenshot.

Revision history for this message
周成瑞 (e93b5ae3) wrote :

This also affects me. I think this must be a bug somewhere in 10.10.

Sometime jbd2 just freeze my laptop for 5 minutes. CPU usage is mostly sy(stem) in "top" output. Look the attached screenshot.

Revision history for this message
VastOne (vastone) wrote :

Affects me as well .. I am not on a laptop and have the latest daily kernel build.

Revision history for this message
mark (mphinpompano) wrote :

Same problem here using Mandriva 2010.1, kernel linux 2.6.33.7-desktop586-2mnb on usb flash drive w/ ext4 partitions. jbd2 continues to hammer on my flash drive. Disabling rsyslogd did stop the numerous log writes but jbd2 continues on. Switched away from ubuntu because I thought it was ubuntu flavor that was burning up my flash drive. Guess I was wrong.

Brad Figg (brad-figg)
tags: added: acpi-method-return
Revision history for this message
cmcginty (casey-mcginty) wrote :

I just built a minimal ubuntu system, albeit there are a few background services running. I'm seeing jbd2 disk access in iotop. Its happening every between 30 seconds, up to 2 min. Maybe we just need a better way to find out what processes are causing the disk activity.

I'm thinking that there is something that is another process causing the writes, but its not getting shown by iotop.

Revision history for this message
draoi99 (draoi99) wrote :

This affect me too. jbd2 appears in iotop every five ir six seconds.

Revision history for this message
Kris Simpson (buckeye7) wrote :

Add me to the list, jbd2 is accessing IO every few seconds. I'm considering rebuilding my system as ext3 instead.

Revision history for this message
LPM (lpmail) wrote :

This is affecting me too! jbd2 is accessing IO every 2 seconds. Please fix this problem before my hard drive gets damaged!!!

Revision history for this message
LPM (lpmail) wrote :

I am using ubuntu 10.10 64bit

Revision history for this message
m4cph1sto (dlreid) wrote :

I am experiencing this problem with Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora. It seems to be a kernel bug that is affecting every distro. Best to avoid ext4 until this is resolved. Otherwise your laptop hard drive will get worn out in short order by the frequent spin cycles.

Revision history for this message
Erik (paganini18w06n) wrote :

This problem seems to be occurring on Arch as well. There is a thread about it here [url]https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=113516[/url], which links to a kernel patch that may solve the issue:
[url=http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=e44718318004a5618d1dfe2d080e2862532d8e5f]jbd2: call __jbd2_log_start_commit with j_state_lock write locked[/url]

Revision history for this message
Erik (paganini18w06n) wrote :

I just reinstalled on a ext3 partition, and the same issue occurs. The only difference is instead of jbd2 writing every few seconds, it is kjournald. Both are 64 bit systems.

Revision history for this message
m4cph1sto (dlreid) wrote :

In reference to #31, I am seeing the same thing on ext3 partitions in multiple distros and systems, 32-bit and 64-bit. With ext4, jdb2 continually accesses the disk when the laptop is otherwise idle. With ext3, kjournald does the same thing, maybe slightly less frequently.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
1 comments hidden view all 116 comments
Revision history for this message
bernard (berny-wat) wrote :

Also affected...I noticed that began after an upgrade of the kernel, I think it's the 2.6.32.28-generic I686

-Laptop
-ubuntu 10.04 LTS (openbox & gnome)
- 2.6.32.28-generic I686
- ext4
- /dev/sda8 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
- /dev/sda5 /home ext4 defaults 0 2
- /dev/sda6 none swap sw 0 0

Revision history for this message
Jean Cremers (jc-jcremers) wrote :

kubuntu 10.04 64 bit, harddrive light flashes every second.
- Linux server 2.6.32-29-generic #58-Ubuntu SMP Fri Feb 11 20:52:10 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Revision history for this message
Daniel Ennis (aikar) wrote :

want to add that after installing ubuntu to a different harddrive the problem no longer occurs.

Harddrive that experienced issue: Seagate 1TB 7200rpm drive.
New that doesnt: 1TB SAMGSUNG 7200rpm

Revision history for this message
Andreas Tetzner (a-tetzner) wrote :

I'm also using a Seagate 1TB 7200rpm drive (ST31000528AS) having this problem.
(I used a Western Digital drive before that and didn't have this problem - but that was about 2 years ago...)

Revision history for this message
Magnes (magnesus2) wrote :

Seagate 1TB here - the same problem.

Revision history for this message
Fuzzy Logic PC (pltorbit) wrote :

Same problem here.

Ubuntu 10.10 64 bit / 2.6.35-28-generic
Disk one, Seagate barracuda 500 gig - ext4 - sda3 on /
Disk two, Samsung spinpoint 500 gig - ext4 - sdb1 on /home

I tried booting into the recovery mode with the shell and networking.
After a few seconds nothing, no jdb2. No disk activity at all running iotop.

This is the only time jdb2 did not access the disks.

After this I followed these instructions and on my system it worked:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We can confirm that our ext4 partition is running a journal with: (where X is the partition number, sda1,2,3,4 etc)

$sudo dumpe2fs /dev/sdaX | grep has_journal

Disabling journaling is rather easy, the only drag is that to make structural changes to a filesystem, the filesystem cannot be mounted with read/write privileges. So, run a live cd, open a terminal and enter:

$sudo tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sdaX

And it's done. Now when you boot, the change will be noted and the disk will be checked for errors. When the system is finally up we can run this again to confirm that in fact ext4 is running without a journal.

$sudo dumpe2fs /dev/sdaX | grep has_journal

should now return nothing.

With this quick fix, no more constant IO peaks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The tune2fs man page has this entry about 'has_journal'.

-O [^]feature[,...]

Set or clear the indicated filesystem features (options) in the filesystem. More than one filesystem feature can be cleared or set by separating features with commas. Filesystem features prefixed with a caret character ('^') will be cleared in the filesystem's superblock; filesystem features without a prefix character or prefixed with a plus character ('+') will be added to the filesystem.

The following filesystem features can be set or cleared using tune2fs:

has_journal
Use a journal to ensure filesystem consistency even across unclean shutdowns. Setting the filesystem feature is equivalent to using the -j option.

Revision history for this message
cccccccc (cccccccc) wrote :

Lol guys, what the frack is this:)? I've just found this bug (if it's bug) on my PC. I have latest Ubuntu 11.04, kernel 2.6.38 and jbd2 makes constantly IO every 2 seconds. Heh... I may wander why my disk is crazy as hell and had to changed it.

36 comments hidden view all 116 comments
Revision history for this message
EugeneI (eugenestm) wrote :

1. block_dump (see post 73). I should mention again that you may skip creating tempfs dir altogether.
2. find (see post 73).
3. ftrace

FTRACE
Note: ftrace should be enabled on most more or less recent systems by default.

Overall usage:
ATTENTION: overall rule - after you have traced whatever you wanted return all values to the state they were in before trace (usually disabled)! Use "cat" to check them beforehand.
1) sudo -i
2) enable required tracer (see below)
3) enable trace:
echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/tracing_on
4) see trace results:
cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace #Open as usual file.
OR
cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace_pipe #See trace results in real time. May be piped to file. Stop viewing with Ctrl+C. NOTE: reading from this file consumes its output.
#For example: "cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace_pipe > /tmp/mytemp/trace_results"
5) disable trace:
echo 0 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/tracing_on
6) disable whatever tracer you have used ("echo 0")
7) "exit" from root shell

Tracers:

echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/ext4/ext4_mark_inode_dirty/enable #will show how apps dirty inodes (they will be written to disk eventually). ATTENTION: redirect output to file in tmpfs instead of watching it in terminal (because terminal writes to pipe inode or socket when it outputs to the screen thus dirtying it and will just flood your output).

echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/ext4/ext4_sync_file_enter/enable #try to look if some application uses fsync aggressively thus making system to immediately write data to disk.

Revision history for this message
Ari (ari-lp) wrote :

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. This bug affects me as well. Intevalls are pretty irregular.

~$ sudo iotop -obtqqq | grep jbd2:
23:34:46 270 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 3.42 % [jbd2/sda7-8]
23:34:50 953 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 3.88 K/s 0.00 % 4.38 % [jbd2/sda8-8]
23:34:57 270 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 15.50 K/s 0.00 % 2.21 % [jbd2/sda7-8]
23:35:08 270 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 7.75 K/s 0.00 % 3.40 % [jbd2/sda7-8]
23:35:29 270 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 1.35 % [jbd2/sda7-8]
23:35:38 270 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 19.37 K/s 0.00 % 2.36 % [jbd2/sda7-8]
23:35:49 270 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 7.75 K/s 0.00 % 3.73 % [jbd2/sda7-8]
23:36:09 270 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 1.79 % [jbd2/sda7-8]
23:36:22 270 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 15.50 K/s 0.00 % 1.77 % [jbd2/sda7-8]
23:36:29 270 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 7.75 K/s 0.00 % 3.10 % [jbd2/sda7-8]

~$ mount -l:
/dev/sda7 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,size=10%,mode=0755)
none on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=5242880)
none on /run/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sda4 on /boot type ext4 (rw)
/dev/sda3 on /media/Share type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions,blksize=4096) [Shared]
/dev/sda8 on /home type ext4 (rw)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/ari/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=ari)

Haven't done any advanced debugging yet.

Revision history for this message
Forest (foresto) wrote :

I tried using an fstab option to make ext4 sync its journal data less often, but found that Ubuntu's power management scripts were overriding my change. After a bit of reading and poking around, I created /etc/pm/config.d/10_journal_commit_time containing this line:

JOURNAL_COMMIT_TIME_AC=30

This sets the journal sync interval to 30 seconds when on AC power, which I feel is safe on my system because I'm using a UPS.

After I made this change, stopped my kernel from updating atime on every file access, and rebooted, disk activity settled down to a tolerable rate. It's now more like what I expected based on the applications I use.

Revision history for this message
Ari (ari-lp) wrote :

I used Eugenel's debugging method nr. 2 (find) and correlated it to the iotop outputs. The attached file includes listings of the recorded hard drive activity both while idling and while having Google Chrome open.

I think I may have identified the culprit in my case. What's common to all entries is hard drive writing activity in "/dev/ati/card0". if you look at the last intervall (15:25:30-15:26:40) you'll find that it's the only recorded change. Thus we can assume that most of the jbd2 I/O activity in the previous intervalls can be attributed to the same location.

Two questions:

1.) Any idea why I can't access "/home/ari/.gvfs" despite being in a root shell?

2.) Does anyone know what "/dev/ati/card0" is used for? Can't open the file with gedit.

Thank you in advance.

Revision history for this message
gert (gert.cuykens) wrote :

Confirmed for me too on ubuntu 12.04 3.2.0-32-generic #51-Ubuntu SMP x86_64

Revision history for this message
Rafał Ochmański (rmopl) wrote :

/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/journal-commit is gone but the problem is still here and very annoying:

# iotop -obtqqq | grep jbd2
03:37:23 401 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 99.99 % [jbd2/dm-1-8]
03:37:24 401 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 16.55 % [jbd2/dm-1-8]
03:37:29 401 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.18 % [jbd2/dm-1-8]
03:37:30 401 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 9.47 % [jbd2/dm-1-8]
03:37:35 401 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 5.70 % [jbd2/dm-1-8]
03:37:41 401 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 5.56 % [jbd2/dm-1-8]

# uname -a
Linux flax 3.5.0-17-generic #28-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 9 19:31:23 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.10
Release: 12.10
Codename: quantal

Revision history for this message
Rafał Ochmański (rmopl) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Florin (flopppy) wrote :

I can confirm the issue for Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-32-generic x86_64), jbd is hitting the disk every 4-5 sec on this server.

Revision history for this message
bwat47 (bwat47) wrote :

Same here with ubuntu 12.10

Revision history for this message
Yusup (aphawk) wrote :

any update for this bug? I can not work on my desktop right now.

Revision history for this message
gert (gert.cuykens) wrote :

Update is that its has nothing to do with jbd2. In my case its chrome, jdb2 is only writing stuff to disk if a app is telling it to do so. Check iotop witch app triggers jdb2 and file a bug report for that app. Pretty sure you are using chrome.

Revision history for this message
Miguel Barrio Orsikowsky (megamik79) wrote :

Ubuntu 12.04.1

Same annoying problem here. JBD2 is causing EXTREMELY high IO everytime. Next iotop sample belongs to a large file writing through NFS:

$ sudo iotop -oq

Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 1784.50 K/s
  239 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 99.65 % [jbd2/sdb1-8]
 1224 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 116.89 K/s 0.00 % 1.13 % [nfsd]
 1220 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 163.64 K/s 0.00 % 0.37 % [nfsd]
 1226 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 187.02 K/s 0.00 % 0.24 % [nfsd]
 1223 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 109.10 K/s 0.00 % 0.24 % [nfsd]
 1225 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 175.33 K/s 0.00 % 0.21 % [nfsd]
 1222 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 187.02 K/s 0.00 % 0.15 % [nfsd]
 1219 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 175.33 K/s 0.00 % 0.13 % [nfsd]
 1221 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 124.68 K/s 0.00 % 0.13 % [nfsd]

The file copy started OK (80 MB/s) and, after 1 or 2 minutes, speed dropped to barely 1 MB/s. As you can see, there are no other processes doing IO at this time. This behaviour appears randomly and VERY often, not necessarily when doing net IO, so my system becomes unresponsive again and again. Other OSes behave perfectly in this machine, so it's not a hardware issue.

Revision history for this message
gert (gert.cuykens) wrote :
Download full text (3.2 KiB)

Linux i7 3.8.0-0-generic #3-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 11 17:24:16 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
sudo iotop -oq

  327 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 23.70 K/s 0.00 % 2.66 % [jbd2/sdb1-8]
 1677 be/4 gert 0.00 B/s 27.65 K/s 0.00 % 0.03 % chrome
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 39.50 K/s
  327 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 7.90 K/s 0.00 % 1.61 % [jbd2/sdb1-8]
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 221.21 K/s
  327 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 11.85 K/s 0.00 % 2.76 % [jbd2/sdb1-8]
 1678 be/4 gert 0.00 B/s 189.61 K/s 0.00 % 0.31 % chrome
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 78.96 K/s
  327 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 7.90 K/s 0.00 % 2.20 % [jbd2/sdb1-8]
 1677 be/4 gert 0.00 B/s 27.64 K/s 0.00 % 0.04 % chrome
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 39.50 K/s
  327 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 1.72 % [jbd2/sdb1-8]
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 201.42 K/s
  327 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 31.60 K/s 0.00 % 6.70 % [jbd2/sdb1-8]
 1631 be/4 gert 0.00 B/s 106.63 K/s 0.00 % 0.25 % chrome
 1666 be/4 gert 0.00 B/s 3.95 K/s 0.00 % 0.01 % chrome
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 43.45 K/s
 1669 be/4 gert 0.00 B/s 15.80 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % chrome
 1666 be/4 gert 0.00 B/s 3.95 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % chrome
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
 1669 be/4 gert 0.00 B/s 31.58 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % chrome
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 35.53 K/s
  327 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 7.90 K/s 0.00 % 1.76 % [jbd2/sdb1-8]
 1678 be/4 gert 0.00 B/s 15.79 K/s 0.00 % 0.09 % chrome
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 67.14 K/s
  327 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 3.95 K/s 0.00 % 2.21 % [jbd2/sdb1-8]
 1678 be/4 ge...

Read more...

Revision history for this message
gert (gert.cuykens) wrote :

chrome closed
sudo iotop -oq

Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s
Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 0.00 B/s

Revision history for this message
Miguel Barrio Orsikowsky (megamik79) wrote :

After getting really upset because of this issue (see comment #88), I decided to fully erase my HD and reinstall Ubuntu 12.04.1 again. Then I installed all applications I've been using before, and this problem fully disappeared. No idea of what was causing it, really. It remembers me those times when I was using Windows...

Revision history for this message
StYxXx (d-launchpad-net-styxxx-de) wrote :

Seems like this bug causes corrupt file systems too:

Both used ext4 partitions show errors everytime after booting and running the affected OS. Errors include wrong counts of free blocks, zero dtime and orphaned inodes. The hardware is fine (according to smartctl) and errors don't occour after using the partitions via live disks (without the rampaging jdb2 process).
The installed OS is linux mint 13 (Linux version 3.2.0-26-generic (buildd@batsu) (gcc version 4.6.3 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5) ) #41-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jun 14 17:49:24 UTC 2012).

Revision history for this message
don bright (hugh-m-bright) wrote :

Just dist-upgraded from 12.04 to 12.10 and I have started noticing it here too. Not only the 'chkhkhk' every 10 seconds, verified by iotop, but every now and then there is a high-pitched very soft whine as though it is spinning... i can stop this simply by running 'find /' and hitting ctrl-c. I have tried kernel 3.2 and 3.5, same result.

I shut down firefox - still happens. Used elinks for a while. Still happens.

The noise is unbearable. I am going to have to switch to a different distro or something.

Revision history for this message
Vladimir Kononov (voldemark) wrote :

Had the same problem on lenovo x220 laptop under ubuntu 12.10 3.5.26
Fiddling with hdparm/apm had no effect.
Problem vanished after fsck'ing my ext4 partitions (in my case, using recovery mode menu option).

Revision history for this message
jeromechan (jeromechan88) wrote :

when I download a xml on firefox,it's about 1MB size,but firefox will be gray window,and system becomeslow down ,I type 'sudo iotop' on the terminal , jbd2/sdb3-8 is 98%io,jbd2 writing the disk all time,my disk is alway full work.my system is ubuntu 12.04 lts,Linux IT-Department 3.2.0-38-generic #61-Ubuntu SMP Tue Feb 19 12:18:21 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Revision history for this message
Shandrinov.WaD (itogo) wrote :

Notebook Lenovo G770

wad@wad-G770:~/$ cat /etc/*rele*
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=13.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=raring
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 13.04"
VERSION="13.04, Raring Ringtail"

wad@wad-G770:~/$ uname -a
Linux wad-G770 3.8.0-25-generic #37-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jun 6 20:47:07 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

wad@wad-G770:~/$ sudo iotop -o -d 10
Total DISK READ: 125.85 K/s | Total DISK WRITE: 303.86 K/s
  TID PRIO USER DISK READ DISK WRITE SWAPIN IO> COMMAND
  282 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 12.74 K/s 0.00 % 84.76 % [jbd2/sda5-8]
 9228 be/4 wad 118.28 K/s 407.81 B/s 0.00 % 9.52 % geany
 9071 be/4 wad 0.00 B/s 93.59 K/s 0.00 % 0.46 % thunderbird
 9109 be/4 wad 407.81 B/s 6.37 K/s 0.00 % 0.15 % thunderbird
 9095 be/4 wad 0.00 B/s 121.47 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % thunderbird

jbd2/sda5-8 takes up to 100% IO operation

Revision history for this message
Shandrinov.WaD (itogo) wrote :

wad@wad-G770:~$ cat /etc/fstab

UUID=d154600d-a0ba-494a-a7f2-74773fbe748b / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1

Revision history for this message
Vitalis (workyz) wrote :

Linux xxxxxx 3.2.0-48-generic #74-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jun 6 19:43:26 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
 Manufacturer: Supermicro
 Product Name: H8SGL
I have this bug too. WTF?

Total DISK READ: 0.00 B/s | Total DISK WRITE: 7.06 M/s
  TID PRIO USER DISK READ DISK WRITE SWAPIN IO> COMMAND
32079 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 33.17 K/s 0.00 % 99.99 % [jbd2/dm-3-8]
  292 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 98.38 % [md0_raid1]
  337 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 3.69 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [jbd2/dm-0-8]
19735 be/4 www-data 0.00 B/s 3.69 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % apache2 -k start
    1 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % init
    2 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [kthreadd]
    3 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.00 % [ksoftirqd/0]

Revision history for this message
penalvch (penalvch) wrote :

rCX, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Please do not test the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.11-rc5

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, please comment as to why specifically you were unable to test it and add the following tags:
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

tags: added: needs-full-computer-model needs-upstream-testing
description: updated
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport) wrote :

I'm having a similar issue in Zentyal, which runs on top of Ubuntu 12.04.

Details:
http://forum.zentyal.org/index.php/topic,17925.0.html

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
penalvch (penalvch) wrote :

Lonnie Lee Best / Rafael Duarte Vencioneck, thank you for your comment. So your hardware and problem may be tracked, could you please file a new report with Ubuntu by executing the following in a terminal while booted into a Ubuntu repository kernel (not a mainline one) via:
ubuntu-bug linux

For more on this, please read the official Ubuntu documentation:
Ubuntu Bug Control and Ubuntu Bug Squad: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue
Ubuntu Kernel Team: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Filing_Kernel_Bug_reports
Ubuntu Community: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Low
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Peter M. Clausen (pclausen) wrote :

I just want to confirm comment #94 of Vladimir Kononov (voldemark). After fsck on my disk drives (/ and /home) on a quite long time running (+1year) desktop install of debian mint on an old laptop the issue of high harddisk load seems to be minimized and system runs much more smoothly now.

So, please do fsck on your disks and update whether or not it solves the issue.

Revision history for this message
penalvch (penalvch) wrote :

Peter M. Clausen, thank you for your comment. If you have a bug in Ubuntu (not mint, mint debian, etc.), please feel free to file a new report with Ubuntu by executing the following in a terminal while booted into a Ubuntu repository kernel (not a mainline one) via:
ubuntu-bug linux

For more on this, please read the official Ubuntu documentation:
Ubuntu Bug Control and Ubuntu Bug Squad: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue
Ubuntu Kernel Team: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Filing_Kernel_Bug_reports
Ubuntu Community: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

Revision history for this message
berend (berenddeboer) wrote :

I also can confirm that after tearing out my hair fsck the disk fixes the problem. A longer write up is here: http://www.advogato.org/person/berend/diary/397.html

Revision history for this message
berend (berenddeboer) wrote :

Update: I was wrong. Thought I fixed it, but didn't. Moved to Ubuntu 13.10, which solved the problem. So I'm guessing it's a kernel bug.

Revision history for this message
berend (berenddeboer) wrote :

Wrong again, got exactly the bad behaviour on Ubuntu 13.10. It's perhaps not related to the issue that started this thread, but since I posted here I thought I might as well inform anyone visiting this that my solution didn't work.

My current thinking is that if you have an NFS4 server with clients attached, and you reboot the server without detaching the clients, you get the bad behaviour. If you umount the clients first, then reboot the server, then mount the clients, the problem doesn't occur.

Revision history for this message
penalvch (penalvch) wrote :

berend, thank you for your comment. So your hardware and problem may be tracked, could you please file a new report with Ubuntu by executing the following in a terminal while booted into a Ubuntu repository kernel (not a mainline one) via:
ubuntu-bug linux

For more on this, please read the official Ubuntu documentation:
Ubuntu Bug Control and Ubuntu Bug Squad: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue
Ubuntu Kernel Team: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Filing_Kernel_Bug_reports
Ubuntu Community: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

Revision history for this message
xbmc50 (xbmc50) wrote :
Download full text (4.3 KiB)

This bug also conserns Lenovo B575e models.

Odd kworker and ext4lazyinit activity which results in constant hdd-activity light blinking. Interesting that this did'n _not_ affect ie. Ubuntu 14.04. Tested within about two hour timeframe.

Xubuntu 14.04
3.13.0-24-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 10 19:11:08 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

:~$ sudo iotop -obtqqq

14:59:38 2451 idle man 0.00 B/s 1050.18 K/s 0.00 % 4.30 % mandb --quiet
14:59:39 143 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 90.60 K/s 0.00 % 71.89 % [jbd2/sda5-8]
14:59:39 2451 idle man 328.41 K/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 16.43 % mandb --quiet
14:59:39 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.33 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:40 143 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 102.14 K/s 0.00 % 79.94 % [jbd2/sda5-8]
14:59:40 2451 idle man 272.38 K/s 177.80 K/s 0.00 % 6.25 % mandb --quiet
14:59:40 393 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 4.01 % [ext4lazyinit]
14:59:40 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 3.42 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:41 143 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 79.35 K/s 0.00 % 90.75 % [jbd2/sda5-8]
14:59:41 2451 idle man 317.41 K/s 196.49 K/s 0.00 % 0.91 % mandb --quiet
14:59:41 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.36 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:42 143 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 79.22 K/s 0.00 % 80.29 % [jbd2/sda5-8]
14:59:42 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 3.46 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:42 823 be/4 syslog 0.00 B/s 3.77 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % rsyslogd [rs:main Q:Reg]
14:59:42 956 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 3.77 K/s 0.00 % 0.00 % anacron -s
14:59:43 393 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 3.02 % [ext4lazyinit]
14:59:43 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.36 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:44 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 3.56 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:46 393 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 2.83 % [ext4lazyinit]
14:59:46 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.67 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:47 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 3.63 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:48 143 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 72.00 K/s 0.00 % 3.78 % [jbd2/sda5-8]
14:59:48 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.40 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:49 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 3.70 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:49 393 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 3.00 % [ext4lazyinit]
14:59:50 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.34 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:51 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 3.78 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:51 393 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 1.71 % [ext4lazyinit]
14:59:52 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.32 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:53 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 3.85 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:54 143 be/3 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 4.55 % [jbd2/sda5-8]
14:59:54 393 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 1.97 % [ext4lazyinit]
14:59:54 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % 0.33 % [kworker/u8:3]
14:59:55 129 be/4 root 0.00 B/s 0.00 B/s 0.00 % ...

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Revision history for this message
dino99 (9d9) wrote :

This version is now outdated and no more supported

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Колесников Денис Сергеевич (bckpkol) wrote :

I have this bug on Ubuntu 16.04. I am using 4.6.2 kernel. 4.4.6 have this bug too. What else information do you need?

Revision history for this message
Колесников Денис Сергеевич (bckpkol) wrote :

Forgot to mention that the trouble starts with start of kernel, right after boot. And it affect not only Ubuntu. This bug was once fixed in 2.6 kernels and it worked up to 2.6.39.3, but then was a regression. Here's old patch, maybe it will be helpful:
http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=e44718318004a5618d1dfe2d080e2862532d8e5f

Revision history for this message
Колесников Денис Сергеевич (bckpkol) wrote :

Thinked some more. Journalling is just redirect of other apps, right? So I tried to disable journalling at all. And what do you think? Suddenly, another app was taking all I/O. It's "python onedrive-d start", glitchy sync app that I have been installed recently. Now my plot is:
1. Configure onedrive-d so it be not so intensive;
2. Re-enable journalling.
Solution is found, no glitchy commits is needed.

Revision history for this message
Rencer (rencer) wrote :

This bug is still NOT FIXED.
(Maybe once it was fixed, but now it is there again, so this is not related to old kernels, newer kernels suffer from this again. I think this thread must not be "invalid".)

I'm using Ubuntu MATE 17.04 64-bit,the kernel is 4.10.0-38-generic.
My system suffers from extreme disk usage by jbd2, so much that the constant "scratching" from the HDD is slowly drives me insane.

Rencer (rencer)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Invalid → Incomplete
status: Incomplete → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Rencer (rencer) wrote :

This bug maybe fixed, but it is already happening in various Linux distros, not just Ubuntu.
This bug drastically lowers the computer's performance and it's negatively affect the lifespan of HDDs, because of the extreme usage.
The noise from the HDD annoys the user and therefore can negatively affect the performance of their work, so this is a very important bug that must be fixed, once and for all. Fix it, And leave that part of the code alone. Forever.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Invalid → In Progress
Revision history for this message
penalvch (penalvch) wrote :

Rencer, if you are having an issue in Ubuntu, the fastest way to getting it addressed is file a new report with Ubuntu by using the default repository kernel (not mainline/upstream/3rd party) via a terminal:
ubuntu-bug linux

Please feel free to subscribe me to it.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
importance: Low → Undecided
status: In Progress → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Jerome St-Louis (jerstlouis) wrote :

I have a similar problem on a 4.15.0-20-generic kernel.
Is there a new bug for this since this one has been marked invalid?

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