system hangs when transfering large files

username · n00b Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Posts: 22

Can someone help me with finding the source of a problem with my system?

I've had my first gentoo box up for a few months now. It's always been subject to freezing when writing large files. Nothing but a power cycle will restore it, causing a fsck on reboot.
I've lost two files so far & have decided to fix this once & for all, one way or another. If I can I'd like to get gentoo running reliably because I like the idea of having everything complied & optimized. However, I'd prefer a stable system compiled for i386 to putting my data at risk.

I think something in my kernel may be the source of this. Today I was backing up some data to a spare drive. After 3 freezes & hard resets I selected a genkernel I have as a boot menu option. Running the genkernel I was able to move over 20 GB of data without a hitch.

Can someone walk me through troubleshooting this? I haven't touched hdparm. What should I be looking at first?

Best regards,
Michael

Sith_Happens · Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:24 am Post subject:

Gimme some more info, namely:

1) The kernel sources your using

2) The filesystem of the partition you are copying files on

3) The I/O scheduler your using on that block device
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John5788 · Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:55 am Post subject:

you should probably use a kernel source like ck-sources or nitro-sources thats aimed for desktop performance
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John5788

username · n00b Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Posts: 22

kmare · Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:06 pm Post subject:

Sith_Happens · Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:17 pm Post subject:

When you configured with genkernel, did it save your old config as config.old? Or do you have a backup of your old "broken" kernel configuration? Why not just run diff .config config.old and see what's different between the two?
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"That question was less stupid; though you asked it in a profoundly stupid way."
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username · n00b Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Posts: 22

kmare · Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2005 6:49 pm Post subject:

you're not using cfq, but the deadline scheduler... switch to cfq with:

username · n00b Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Posts: 22

I just

bollucks · l33t Joined: 27 Oct 2004 Posts: 606

bollucks · l33t Joined: 27 Oct 2004 Posts: 606

username · n00b Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Posts: 22

Thanks, I'll fling 'round some .iso files & let post the results.

username · n00b Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Posts: 22

Well, there's no improvement with cfq I/O scheduler. Thanks for the suggestion.

kmare · Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2005 4:31 pm Post subject:

actually I'm having high cpu loads while writing files to disk. And yes.. dma and everything is working.. I've heard somewhere that it's a problem with the kernel.. you see, we're not the only one with that bug. I'm waiting for 2.6.12 to be released hoping for a few fixes.. I think it'll be released one of those days...

Sith_Happens · Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2005 6:06 pm Post subject:

Make sure you have the correct driver for your hard drive controller built into the kernel. Even though it didn't show up in the diff, it could be that genkernel autodetects it and loads it as a module, where as your kernel of course does not.
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"That question was less stupid; though you asked it in a profoundly stupid way."
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username · n00b Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Posts: 22

Thanks Sith. You nailed it.

I turned on VIA82CXXX chipset support my ASUS TUV4X motherboard needs & this seems to have cleared up.

Thanks also to everyone else for your ideas & interest.