Forcing HDD spindown

[Christopher Svanefalk]

Dear all,

one problem I have on my system is the frequency with which the kernel
winds up the HDD. It is hot almost constantly, and never seems to power
down. Is there anything I can do (aside from deactivating updatedb and the
like) in order to force the system to a minimal use of the HDD?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

[JB]

Christopher Svanefalk <christopher.svanefalk <at> gmail.com> writes:
> Dear all,
>
> one problem I have on my system is the frequency with which the kernel winds

up the HDD. It is hot almost constantly, and never seems to power down. Is there
anything I can do (aside from deactivating updatedb and the like) in order to
force the system to a minimal use of the HDD?
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Chris

Take it seriously.
If it is "hot almost constantly" you should take a closer look at processes run
over some longer period of time (top, iotop, ...; you can run them as a cron
job and collect data as well).

Also:
- System-Preferences-Power Management
- man hdparm
  # hdparm -I /dev/sd?
  ...
- $ yum info hddtemp
- Gogle search: linux hard disk temperature
  http://www.linuxjournal.com/magazine/monitoring-hard-disks-smart
  ...

JB

[Konstantin Svist]

On 11/01/2011 02:03 PM, Christopher Svanefalk wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> one problem I have on my system is the frequency with which the kernel 
> winds up the HDD. It is hot almost constantly, and never seems to 
> power down. Is there anything I can do (aside from deactivating 
> updatedb and the like) in order to force the system to a minimal use 
> of the HDD?

If it's a laptop, I would check for dust in the heat exchangers -- if 
it's plugged up, then laptop would definitely heat up.

Also have a look at Laptop Mode Tools (only recommended for laptop, mind!)

[Joe Zeff]

On 11/01/2011 05:42 PM, Konstantin Svist wrote:
> Also have a look at Laptop Mode Tools (only recommended for laptop, mind!)

What package provides them?  (I'd check with yum for "laptop mode tools" 
but I've learned from experience that the obvious often doesn't work 
when it comes to this type of thing.)

[Konstantin Svist]

On 11/01/2011 06:01 PM, Joe Zeff wrote:
> On 11/01/2011 05:42 PM, Konstantin Svist wrote:
> > Also have a look at Laptop Mode Tools (only recommended for laptop, mind!)
>
> What package provides them?  (I'd check with yum for "laptop mode tools"
> but I've learned from experience that the obvious often doesn't work
> when it comes to this type of thing.)

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=laptop+mode+tools

[Joe Zeff]

On 11/01/2011 06:19 PM, Konstantin Svist wrote:
> http://lmgtfy.com/?q=laptop+mode+tools

Cute.  Rude, but cute.  Much better and more polite would have been to 
point me directly to http://samwel.tk/laptop_mode/packages/fedora.

[Tim]

Konstantin Svist:
> > http://lmgtfy.com/?q=laptop+mode+tools

Joe Zeff:
> Cute.  Rude, but cute.  Much better and more polite would have been to 
> point me directly to http://samwel.tk/laptop_mode/packages/fedora.

I would have tried a slightly different yum query.  Such as "yum search
laptop" to see about *any* packages related to laptops.

[Christopher Svanefalk]

Correction: laptop-tools 1.60 supports kernel 3.x. You have to pull the
tarball,  but its only a matter of running a shell script to install it
anyway. I am having some issues with my harddrives spinning down too fast
and waking up too easily now, but its being resolved.

You can find the tarball here: http://samwel.tk/laptop_mode/packages/tarball

On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 12:08 PM, Tim  wrote:
> Konstantin Svist:
> > > http://lmgtfy.com/?q=laptop+mode+tools
>
> Joe Zeff:
> > Cute.  Rude, but cute.  Much better and more polite would have been to
> > point me directly to http://samwel.tk/laptop_mode/packages/fedora.
>
> I would have tried a slightly different yum query.  Such as "yum search
> laptop" to see about *any* packages related to laptops.
>
> --
> [tim@localhost ~]$ uname -r
> 2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686
>
> Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.  I
> read messages from the public lists.
>
> --
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[Tim Largy]

On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 5:03 PM, Christopher Svanefalk
 wrote:
> Dear all,
> one problem I have on my system is the frequency with which the kernel winds
> up the HDD. It is hot almost constantly, and never seems to power down. Is
> there anything I can do (aside from deactivating updatedb and the like) in
> order to force the system to a minimal use of the HDD?
> Thanks in advance,
> Chris

I'm not sure if smartd would be set up to run on your system but rule that out.

Tim

[Christopher Svanefalk]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Laptop-mode unfortunately does not support kernel 3.1 (I am running F16
Beta)...hopefully this will be updated, it seems like a great tool.

On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 4:08 AM, Tim Largy  wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 5:03 PM, Christopher Svanefalk
>  wrote:
> > Dear all,
> > one problem I have on my system is the frequency with which the kernel
>
> winds
> > up the HDD. It is hot almost constantly, and never seems to power down.
>
> Is
> > there anything I can do (aside from deactivating updatedb and the like)
>
> in
> > order to force the system to a minimal use of the HDD?
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Chris
>
> I'm not sure if smartd would be set up to run on your system but rule that
> out.
> Tim
>
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