System slowed down- again!

[Dotan Cohen]

-- 
Well, this is the first time that I've used Gmail in lynx! Today my
FC4 system started slowing down on me, becoming unusable. I ran top,
as was suggested to me when i had the same problem on FC3, and I just
uploaded the output of 3 runs of top here: http://dotancohen.com/top I
also checked in SysGuard, you can see the screenshot here:
http://dotancohen.com/sysguard.png
I see in top that there are 4 users. Earlier in the day there were 3
users. Other than root, there is only on other user on this machine
(me- dotancohen). Also, while STFA I noticed that in my post regarding
the system slowdown in FC3, I mentioned that I had run yum clean all
prior to the onset of the problem. Well, this morning, about an hour
before the problem started, I ran yum clean all for the first time on
the FC4 installation! I should note that the FC4 installation was NOT
an upgrade. It was a clean install.
Other note. When I ALT-F6'ed to get to a terminal to reset the
machine, there was output to the screen about some problem, I think
about the disk. It went by pretty fast, but I was able to copy (on
paper) this from it: "Illegal request" "I/O error"
"endrequest:I/O
error, dev hdb, sector 0" "11 messages suppresed" "illegal mose for
this track or incompatable medium". After shutting it down with the
switch, X is so solow that I ALT-F6'ed into the terminal and I am
writing this in lynx...

Dotan Cohen
http://LyricsList.com/

[Andy Green]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hi Dotan -

Try ps -Af instead and look at the last few processes on the list.

When top shows high wait %, in my experience this is because your disk
is thrashing.  This can happen in FC because of anacron, which runs
cronjobs that should have executed while your machine was turned off.
It does this some time after your machine is switched back on, an hour IIRC.

Therefore look at the last few processes in ps -Af and see if they look
like the kind of thing anacron would run (slocate, prelink, etc).

- -Andy
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
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> Comment: Using GnuPG with Fedora - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
>
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> =eWkW
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[Alexander Dalloz]

Am Sa, den 02.07.2005 schrieb Dotan Cohen um 15:17:

>  Well, this is the first time that I've used Gmail in lynx! Today
> my
>  FC4 system started slowing down on me, becoming unusable. I ran top,
>  as was suggested to me when i had the same problem on FC3, and I just
>  uploaded the output of 3 runs of top here: http://dotancohen.com/top I
>  also checked in SysGuard, you can see the screenshot here:
>  http://dotancohen.com/sysguard.png 
>  Dotan Cohen 
Your top shows 2 zombies. Start by finding them:

ps axuwwww | grep Z

Will be interesting to know who they are.

Alexander


-- 
Alexander Dalloz | Enger, Germany | GPG http://pgp.mit.edu 0xB366A773
legal statement: http://www.uni-x.org/legal.html
Fedora Core 2 GNU/Linux on Athlon with kernel 2.6.11-1.35_FC2smp 
Serendipity 15:30:46 up 6 days, 22:22, load average: 0.20, 0.26, 0.17

[Dotan Cohen]

On 7/2/05, Alexander Dalloz <ad+lists(a)uni-x.org&gt; wrote:
>  Am Sa, den 02.07.2005 schrieb Dotan Cohen um 15:17:
>  
>  > Well, this is the first time that I've used Gmail in lynx! Today my
>  > FC4 system started slowing down on me, becoming unusable. I ran top,
>  > as was suggested to me when i had the same problem on FC3, and I just
>  > uploaded the output of 3 runs of top here: http://dotancohen.com/top I
>  > also checked in SysGuard, you can see the screenshot here:
>  > http://dotancohen.com/sysguard.png
>  
>  > Dotan Cohen
>  
>  Your top shows 2 zombies. Start by finding them:
>  
>  ps axuwwww | grep Z
>  
>  Will be interesting to know who they are.
>  
>  Alexander
>  
>  
>  --
>  Alexander Dalloz | Enger, Germany | GPG http://pgp.mit.edu 0xB366A773
>  legal statement: http://www.uni-x.org/legal.html
>  Fedora Core 2 GNU/Linux on Athlon with kernel 2.6.11-1.35_FC2smp
>  Serendipity 15:30:46 up 6 days, 22:22, load average: 0.20, 0.26, 0.17 
Thanks, Alex. I've since had to restart the machine twice. After the
first time I ran ps axuwwww | grep Z. At that time I had only one
zombie show up in top:
USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root      3571  0.0  0.0      0     0 tty4     Z<   16:37   0:00 [X] <defunct>
500       3802  0.0  0.0    364   108 tty6     R+   16:45   0:00 grep Z

As soon as the machine slows down again, I'll run top, and in the
event of zombies, I'll run ps.

I don't think that the problem is anacron, as Andy suggested, as the
machine was up all night. I ussually don't turn the computer off at
night.

Dotan Cohen
http://lyricslist.com/lyrics/artist_albums/137/crosby_stills_and_nash.php
Crosby, Stills And Nash Song Lyrics

[Alexander Dalloz]

Am Sa, den 02.07.2005 schrieb Dotan Cohen um 16:02:

>  Thanks, Alex. I've since had to restart the machine twice. After
> the
>  first time I ran ps axuwwww | grep Z. At that time I had only one
>  zombie show up in top:
>  USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME 
COMMAND
>  root      3571  0.0  0.0      0     0 tty4     Z<   16:37   0:00
> [X] 
<defunct>
>  500       3802  0.0  0.0    364   108 tty6     R+   16:45   0:00 grep
Z

So X is dead - but on tty4?

>  As soon as the machine slows down again, I'll run top, and in
> the
>  event of zombies, I'll run ps.
>  
>  I don't think that the problem is anacron, as Andy suggested, as the
>  machine was up all night. I ussually don't turn the computer off at
>  night.
>  
>  Dotan Cohen 
Rereading your initial posting I suspect like Andy a hardware problem,
presumably with your harddrive. Run

smartctl -t long /dev/<your drive>

and when it finished inspect the results with

smartctl -a /dev/<your drive>

[ <your drive> seems to be hdb ]

I suggest you do this in runlevel 3 (so without X) and doing nothing
with the PC during the selftest time. Check too your cables. Often
enough a damaged cable or one with bad contact to the motherboard is
cause of trouble.

Alexander


-- 
Alexander Dalloz | Enger, Germany | GPG http://pgp.mit.edu 0xB366A773
legal statement: http://www.uni-x.org/legal.html
Fedora Core 2 GNU/Linux on Athlon with kernel 2.6.11-1.35_FC2smp 
Serendipity 16:40:32 up 6 days, 23:32, load average: 0.14, 0.13, 0.09

[Dotan Cohen]

On 7/2/05, Alexander Dalloz <ad+lists(a)uni-x.org&gt; wrote:
>  Am Sa, den 02.07.2005 schrieb Dotan Cohen um 16:02:
>  
>  > Thanks, Alex. I've since had to restart the machine twice. After the
>  > first time I ran ps axuwwww | grep Z. At that time I had only one
>  > zombie show up in top:
>  > USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME
>  COMMAND
>  > root      3571  0.0  0.0      0     0 tty4     Z<   16:37   0:00 [X]
>  <defunct>
>  > 500       3802  0.0  0.0    364   108 tty6     R+   16:45   0:00 grep
>  Z
>  
>  So X is dead - but on tty4?
>  
>  > As soon as the machine slows down again, I'll run top, and in the
>  > event of zombies, I'll run ps.
>  >
>  > I don't think that the problem is anacron, as Andy suggested, as the
>  > machine was up all night. I ussually don't turn the computer off at
>  > night.
>  >
>  > Dotan Cohen
>  
>  Rereading your initial posting I suspect like Andy a hardware problem,
>  presumably with your harddrive. Run
>  
>  smartctl -t long /dev/<your drive>
>  
>  and when it finished inspect the results with
>  
>  smartctl -a /dev/<your drive>
>  
>  [ <your drive> seems to be hdb ]
>  
>  I suggest you do this in runlevel 3 (so without X) and doing nothing
>  with the PC during the selftest time. Check too your cables. Often
>  enough a damaged cable or one with bad contact to the motherboard is
>  cause of trouble.
>  
>  Alexander
>  
>  
>  --
>  Alexander Dalloz | Enger, Germany | GPG http://pgp.mit.edu 0xB366A773
>  legal statement: http://www.uni-x.org/legal.html
>  Fedora Core 2 GNU/Linux on Athlon with kernel 2.6.11-1.35_FC2smp
>  Serendipity 16:40:32 up 6 days, 23:32, load average: 0.14, 0.13, 0.09
>  
>  
>  BodyID:97205227.2.n.logpart (stored separately)
>  
>  --
>  fedora-list mailing list
>  fedora-list(a)redhat.com
>  To unsubscribe: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
>  
>   
Thank you for your advise. I do not seem to have a command smartctl.
Even man smartctl gives me nothing. I went googling and came to the
comclusion that I simply have to install it, but I thought that I'd
ask here first. Without a man page I don't want to go messing things
up.

If I do need to install it, to where should it be installed? /usr/bin?

Thanks.

Dotan Cohen
http://lyricslist.com/lyrics/artist_albums/395/papa_roach.php
Papa Roach Song Lyrics

[Alexander Dalloz]

Am So, den 03.07.2005 schrieb Dotan Cohen um 16:43:

>  Thank you for your advise. I do not seem to have a command smartctl.
>  Even man smartctl gives me nothing. I went googling and came to the
>  comclusion that I simply have to install it, but I thought that I'd
>  ask here first. Without a man page I don't want to go messing things
>  up.
>  
>  If I do need to install it, to where should it be installed? /usr/bin? 
yum install smartmontools
(it is a Fedora Core 4 package)

>  Dotan Cohen 
Alexander


-- 
Alexander Dalloz | Enger, Germany | GPG http://pgp.mit.edu 0xB366A773
legal statement: http://www.uni-x.org/legal.html
Fedora Core 2 GNU/Linux on Athlon with kernel 2.6.11-1.35_FC2smp 
Serendipity 16:44:57 up 7 days, 23:37, load average: 0.11, 0.20, 0.18

[Dotan Cohen]

On 7/3/05, Alexander Dalloz <ad+lists(a)uni-x.org&gt; wrote:
>  Am So, den 03.07.2005 schrieb Dotan Cohen um 16:43:
>  
>  > Thank you for your advise. I do not seem to have a command smartctl.
>  > Even man smartctl gives me nothing. I went googling and came to the
>  > comclusion that I simply have to install it, but I thought that I'd
>  > ask here first. Without a man page I don't want to go messing things
>  > up.
>  >
>  > If I do need to install it, to where should it be installed? /usr/bin?
>  
>  yum install smartmontools
>  (it is a Fedora Core 4 package)
>  
>  > Dotan Cohen
>  
>  Alexander
>  
>  
>  --
>  Alexander Dalloz | Enger, Germany | GPG http://pgp.mit.edu 0xB366A773
>  legal statement: http://www.uni-x.org/legal.html
>  Fedora Core 2 GNU/Linux on Athlon with kernel 2.6.11-1.35_FC2smp
>  Serendipity 16:44:57 up 7 days, 23:37, load average: 0.11, 0.20, 0.18
>  
>  
>  BodyID:97941302.2.n.logpart (stored separately)
>   
Alex, I think I've gone completely back to newbie-land. I don't know
where to continue from here with smart. I think that I remember a post
where there was mention of another disk checking utility but STFA
didn't help much- probably because I don't remember the command name!
So I googled for linux commands, but pages like
http://www.ss64.com/bash/ didn't have a command for checking to disks.
Also, there was still no man for smart:

[root@localhost ~]# smartctl -t long /dev/hdb
smartctl version 5.33 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

SMART support is: Unavailable - Packet Interface Devices [this device:
CD/DVD] don't support ATA SMART
A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or
more '-T permissive' options.
[root@localhost ~]# man smart
No manual entry for smart
[root@localhost ~]#

Dotan Cohen
http://lyricslist.com/lyrics/artist_albums/11/a-ha.php
A-Ha Song Lyrics

[Alexander Dalloz]

Am Mo, den 04.07.2005 schrieb Dotan Cohen um 0:45:

>  [root@localhost ~]# smartctl -t long /dev/hdb
>  smartctl version 5.33 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen
>  Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
>  
>  SMART support is: Unavailable - Packet Interface Devices [this device:
>  CD/DVD] don't support ATA SMART
>  A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or
>  more '-T permissive' options. 
So /dev/hdb is no harddrive as I thought from your previous error
message quoting "Illegal request" "I/O error" "endrequest:I/O
error, dev
hdb, sector 0". Find out which your harddrive is by running "fdisk -l".

>  [root@localhost ~]# man smart
>  No manual entry for smart 
man -k smart

>  Dotan Cohen 
Alexander


-- 
Alexander Dalloz | Enger, Germany | GPG http://pgp.mit.edu 0xB366A773
legal statement: http://www.uni-x.org/legal.html
Fedora Core 2 GNU/Linux on Athlon with kernel 2.6.11-1.35_FC2smp 
Serendipity 00:49:33 up 8 days, 7:41, load average: 0.07, 0.14, 0.17

[Dotan Cohen]

On 7/4/05, Alexander Dalloz <ad+lists(a)uni-x.org&gt; wrote:
>  Am Mo, den 04.07.2005 schrieb Dotan Cohen um 0:45:
>  
>  > [root@localhost ~]# smartctl -t long /dev/hdb
>  > smartctl version 5.33 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen
>  > Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
>  >
>  > SMART support is: Unavailable - Packet Interface Devices [this device:
>  > CD/DVD] don't support ATA SMART
>  > A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or
>  > more '-T permissive' options.
>  
>  So /dev/hdb is no harddrive as I thought from your previous error
>  message quoting "Illegal request" "I/O error" "endrequest:I/O
> error, dev
>  hdb, sector 0". Find out which your harddrive is by running "fdisk -l".
>  
>  > [root@localhost ~]# man smart
>  > No manual entry for smart
>  
>  man -k smart
>  
>  > Dotan Cohen
>  
>  Alexander
>  
>  
>  --
>  Alexander Dalloz | Enger, Germany | GPG http://pgp.mit.edu 0xB366A773
>  legal statement: http://www.uni-x.org/legal.html
>  Fedora Core 2 GNU/Linux on Athlon with kernel 2.6.11-1.35_FC2smp
>  Serendipity 00:49:33 up 8 days, 7:41, load average: 0.07, 0.14, 0.17
>  
>  
>  BodyID:98314086.2.n.logpart (stored separately)
>  
>   
I didn't realize that was the problem. I should have know that my
drive is hda- it's the only one in there! But it appears to not be
supported:


[root@localhost ~]# smartctl -t long /dev/hda
smartctl version 5.33 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 B
ruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

SMART Disabled. Use option -s with argument 'on' to enable it.
[root@localhost ~]# smartctl -s on long /dev/hda
smartctl version 5.33 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 B
ruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

ERROR: smartctl takes ONE device name as the final command-line argu
ment.
You have provided 2 device names:
long
/dev/hda

Use smartctl -h to get a usage summary

[root@localhost ~]# smartctl -s on /dev/hda
smartctl version 5.33 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 B
ruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS SECTION ===
SMART Enabled.

[root@localhost ~]# smartctl -a /dev/hda
smartctl version 5.33 [i386-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 B
ruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     ST320413A
Serial Number:    6ED3SE0G
Firmware Version: 3.40
User Capacity:    20,020,396,032 bytes
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   5
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicate
d
Local Time is:    Mon Jul  4 02:01:32 2005 IDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82) Offline data collection acti
vity
                                        was completed without error.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection
: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routi
ne completed
                                        without error or no self-tes
t has ever
                                        been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:                 ( 422) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x1b) SMART execute Offline immedi
ate.
                                        Auto Offline data collection
 on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection u
pon new
                                        command.
                                        Offline surface scan support
ed.
                                        Self-test supported.
                                        No Conveyance Self-test supp
orted.
                                        No Selective Self-test suppo
rted.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before ente
ring
                                        power-saving mode.
                                        Supports SMART auto save tim
er.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                                        No General Purpose Logging s
upport.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (  23) minutes.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UP
DATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000e   083   061   025    Old_age   Al
ways       -       170108439
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0002   080   078   000    Old_age   Al
ways       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Al
ways       -       501
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0032   100   100   036    Old_age   Al
ways       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000e   081   060   030    Old_age   Al
ways       -       4413666102
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   093   093   000    Old_age   Al
ways       -       6611
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0012   100   099   097    Old_age   Al
ways       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Al
ways       -       878
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   039   052   000    Old_age   Al
ways       -       39
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x001a   082   070   000    Old_age   Al
ways       -       127230975
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Al
ways       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Of  
           fline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Al  
           ways       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0000   100   100   000    Old_age   Of  
           fline      -       0
202 TA_Increase_Count       0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Al  
           ways       -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -  
           t]


Device does not support Selective Self Tests/Logging
[root@localhost ~]# use: smartctl -t /dev/hda
-bash: use:: command not found
[root@localhost ~]# man smartctl
Formatting page, please wait...

I remember a postnot long ago (a month, maybe) where someone posted
the output of a disk check and you told him that there was reason to
worry. You then wrote back and mentioned that you checked the man for
that particular program and found that there was in fact no real
reason to worry. I can't find that post! I don't think that the
program was smart, because I would have remembered that name...

Dotan
http://lyricslist.com/lyrics/artist_albums/11/a-ha.php
A-Ha Song Lyrics

[Ben Steeves]

On 7/3/05, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  Thank you for your advise. I do not seem to have a command smartctl.
>  Even man smartctl gives me nothing. I went googling and came to the
>  comclusion that I simply have to install it, but I thought that I'd
>  ask here first. Without a man page I don't want to go messing things
>  up.
>  
>  If I do need to install it, to where should it be installed? /usr/bin? 
$ yum install smartmontools
$ which smartctl
/usr/sbin/smartctl
$
-- 
Ben Steeves                     _                    bcs(a)metacon.ca
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http://www.metacon.ca/bcs      / \     Yahoo Messenger: ben_steeves

[Tony Nelson]

At 5:43 PM +0300 7/3/05, Dotan Cohen wrote:
 ...
> Thank you for your advise. I do not seem to have a command smartctl.
> Even man smartctl gives me nothing. I went googling and came to the
> comclusion that I simply have to install it, but I thought that I'd
> ask here first. Without a man page I don't want to go messing things
> up. 
To find out such things:

$ yum provides smartctl

On my FC3 system it shows that it is in kernel-utils.  See where it is (or
would be) on your system.  Then:

$ su -
# yum install <pkg>


> If I do need to install it, to where should it be installed? /usr/bin?
/usr/sbin, but don't do it by hand.
____________________________________________________________________
TonyN.:'                       <mailto:[e-mail]>
      '                              <http://www.georgeanelson.com/>