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constant hd activity [solved]


multios
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I installed mandriva using the 2005 mini install. Everything worked fine and I was very happy. After seeing how much room I had left, I decided to install kde, browsers, snort, and evolution. Now the hd is being read or is being accessed every 5 seconds. This is a older computer system (500mhz/20gig hd) and the hd noise is *very irritating*.

I logged out of X and did a root login at console, ran "init 3" to see if that would change the constant hd activity, but that didn't stop it.

Any idea where/what I can start looking for the problem before I format / and start all over?

btw- this wasn't happening after the initial install, and the hd is very quiet when running other os (debian/os2/openbsd).

Thanks.

Edited by multios
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Hmm... Do you have a non-root user password? If so, try logging into X with a different window manager, such as IceWM or BlackBox.

When does the noise start? Does it begin when you run KDE? I myself had harddrive problems with Windows 98. The HD spontaneously made noise and then I got the blue screen of death: "Can't access Drive C:". If your HD sputters and/or fails or kills your session, I would recommend a new HD. If not, try a different WM, hopefully that won't be run in possible bad sectors.

If you still get the noise, just kill all kde-related processes (such as arts, kdeinit, famd, etc) and don't let them run at boot.

Please elaborate further. Part of KDE or other programs could be located on bad sectors in your HD. Hopefully your problem will be able to be solved.

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I am on Debian (Sarge) right now and it is fine :)

I booted the os's on this machine to check it out and all ran fine with no hd activity.

The os's were: openbsd, sarge, and os/2. I run kde on sarge and openbsd.

I will reboot mandriva and try again. It was fine with the initial install (which included

icewm). It was after installing the other wm and programs that it started.

btw- the hd activity kept going even after logging out of kde and running "init 3" as root.

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OK, I am back on mandriva :)

First, I booted into single user mode as root.

Still the hd activity.

I killed kdm and snort and no change. I "telinit 4", booted into x/icewm as root and still the hd activity. I logged out as root, logged in as normal user and started X with icewm. Still the same hd activity. It is continuous every 5 seconds.

Again, this doesn't happen on the other installed operating systems. I also have 98se installed, but I boot that *very, very, rarely* ;)

What other info can I give or what else can I try?

Thanks.

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I tried top and ps. After reading your post, I thought I would post them :)

These are under single user.

 

ps:

PID TTY TIME CMD

1 ? 00:00:00 init

2 ? 00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0

3 ? 00:00:00 events/0

4 ? 00:00:00 khelper

9 ? 00:00:00 kthread

21 ? 00:00:00 kblockd/0

51 ? 00:00:00 kapmd

71 ? 00:00:00 pdflush

72 ? 00:00:00 pdflush

74 ? 00:00:00 aio/0

73 ? 00:00:00 kswapd0

672 ? 00:00:00 kseriod

760 ? 00:00:00 reiserfs/0

788 ? 00:00:00 udevd

1356 ? 00:00:00 ata/0

2993 ? 00:00:00 kjournald

3765 ? 00:00:00 ifplugd

4051 ? 00:00:00 dhclient

5378 ? 00:00:00 portmap

5402 ? 00:00:00 syslogd

5424 ? 00:00:00 klogd

5497 ? 00:00:00 rpc.statd

5582 ? 00:00:00 cupsd

6032 ? 00:00:00 xfs

6057 ? 00:00:00 dbus-daemon-1

6082 ? 00:00:01 hald

6164 ? 00:00:00 apmd

6458 ? 00:00:00 nifd

6557 ? 00:00:00 mDNSResponder

6811 ? 00:00:00 freshclam

6934 ? 00:00:00 master

6940 ? 00:00:00 pickup

6941 ? 00:00:00 qmgr

6942 ? 00:00:00 tlsmgr

6960 ? 00:00:00 crond

7020 ? 00:00:00 ultrabayd

7279 ? 00:00:00 bash

7574 tty1 00:00:00 init

7575 tty1 00:00:00 sh

7679 ? 00:00:00 sleep

7680 ? 00:00:00 ps

 

And now top (looks ugly)

[H[J[0;10mtop - 09:39:08 up 5 min, 1 user, load average: 0.04, 0.36, 0.22[0;10m[39;49m[K

Tasks:[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 50 [0;10m[39;49mtotal,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 1 [0;10m[39;49mrunning,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 49 [0;10m[39;49msleeping,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 0 [0;10m[39;49mstopped,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 0 [0;10m[39;49mzombie[0;10m[39;49m[K

Cpu(s):[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 13.4% [0;10m[39;49mus,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 11.6% [0;10m[39;49msy,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 0.0% [0;10m[39;49mni,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 71.1% [0;10m[39;49mid,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 3.8% [0;10m[39;49mwa,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 0.1% [0;10m[39;49mhi,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 0.1% [0;10m[39;49msi[0;10m[39;49m[K

Mem: [0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 256112k [0;10m[39;49mtotal,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 158704k [0;10m[39;49mused,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 97408k [0;10m[39;49mfree,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 14364k [0;10m[39;49mbuffers[0;10m[39;49m[K

Swap:[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 305192k [0;10m[39;49mtotal,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 0k [0;10m[39;49mused,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 305192k [0;10m[39;49mfree,[0;10m[39;49m[0;10m 58488k [0;10m[39;49mcached[0;10m[39;49m[K

[6;1H

[7m PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND [0;10m[39;49m[K

[0;10m[0;10m 7479 root 15 0 1964 908 708 R 3.9 0.4 0:00.02 top [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 1 root 16 0 1536 524 464 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.92 init [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 2 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0 [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 3 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.21 events/0 [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 4 root 13 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.04 khelper [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 9 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kthread [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 21 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 kblockd/0 [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 51 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kapmd [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 71 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 pdflush [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 72 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.11 pdflush [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 74 root 20 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 aio/0 [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 73 root 25 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kswapd0 [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 672 root 21 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kseriod [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 760 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 reiserfs/0 [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 788 root 12 -4 1520 456 392 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.49 udevd [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 1356 root 11 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ata/0 [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 2993 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kjournald [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 3765 root 16 0 1544 504 440 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.00 ifplugd [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 4051 root 16 0 2192 992 712 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.00 dhclient [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 5378 rpc 15 0 1664 584 492 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.00 portmap [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 5402 root 16 0 1968 824 668 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.29 syslogd [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 5424 root 15 0 2436 1336 464 S 0.0 0.5 0:00.23 klogd [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 5497 root 17 0 1852 876 748 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.00 rpc.statd [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 5582 root 16 0 5724 2524 1556 S 0.0 1.0 0:00.35 cupsd [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 6032 xfs 16 0 4132 2512 1008 S 0.0 1.0 0:00.17 xfs [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 6057 messageb 15 0 2196 1124 972 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.08 dbus-daemon-1 [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 6082 root 17 0 4036 2608 1580 S 0.0 1.0 0:00.99 hald [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 6164 root 16 0 1536 532 472 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.00 apmd [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 6447 root 16 0 2716 720 600 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.01 kdm [0;10m[39;49m

[0;10m 6458 root 16 0 2776 644 552 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.02 nifd

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the program/file that caused the activity was ultrabayd.

It is used in kdeutils and also for laptops. Once the programs were removed, the hd quieted down immediately :)

My only "question" is why there is not the same hd activity on my other systems that I use kde on?

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My only "question" is why there is not the same hd activity on my other systems that I use kde on?

Because ultrabayd doesn't register by default as a running daemon- but AFAIK it does on Mandy.

You could just disable the service via MCC instead of removing, but if you don't have an IBM docking station you will lose nothing by uninstalling it.

See also this thread:

https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtopic=25688

Edited by scarecrow
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