From owner-freebsd-amd64@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Nov 1 18:12:48 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DCFC616A418 for ; Thu, 1 Nov 2007 18:12:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from nge@cs.hmc.edu) Received: from knuth.cs.hmc.edu (knuth.cs.hmc.edu [134.173.42.100]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C4DD013C4B8 for ; Thu, 1 Nov 2007 18:12:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from nge@cs.hmc.edu) Received: by knuth.cs.hmc.edu (Postfix, from userid 26983) id 2128485142; Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:07:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by knuth.cs.hmc.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 20D4342F7E0; Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:07:07 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:07:07 -0700 (PDT) From: Nate Eldredge X-X-Sender: nate@knuth.cs.hmc.edu To: Marek Blaszkowski In-Reply-To: <4728906E.8020804@kis.p.lodz.pl> Message-ID: References: <4728906E.8020804@kis.p.lodz.pl> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Cc: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Subject: Re: strange i/o and tty lockups/delays on 6.1, strange sync() issue X-BeenThere: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the AMD64 platform List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:12:48 -0000 On Wed, 31 Oct 2007, Marek Blaszkowski wrote: > Hi, > my config: > thunder k8sr, dual opteron 244, 8GB RAM, FreeBSD 6.1, sata disk > > > for time to time (every 10 or 20 secs) any process which try write or > read any, even small file, is locked for a couple seconds (about 7 or 9 > secs), very iritating when I try save small files edited in vim (size > about 2-3 kbytes), it's looks like this: #vim /path/to/file ...editing.. > :w > and now (afetr w command) vim freeze for 7-10 secs until it displays > "file written". > > Delays accours on tty, too. In vim I can't move around edited file > (up/down in rows), vim just got hang, strange is that I can switch > (durning vim lockup) beetwen virtual screen consoles. [sync takes a long time too] Is there anything in the log files? This might happen if the disk access fails or times out; the kernel resets the controller and tries again, which takes a long time. That would indicate that the disk is probably failing, in which case it should be backed up and replaced as soon as possible. You could also see if smartctl reports anything significant. If that's not it, you might try running top and see if any process accumulated CPU seconds during the hang. I experienced a couple of other issues where things would hang momentarily. One was fixed by disabling ACPI (it's a long story) and the other by enabling PREEMPTION. So if the disk is okay those are two more things you could try. Hope this helps. I'd be interested to know what you find out. -- Nate Eldredge nge@cs.hmc.edu