[ubuntu-uk] odd hd activity

[norman]

< snip >

> I would open a terminal and run "top" in that terminal. You'll get
> something that looks a bit like this:-
> 
> http://pastebin.ubuntu.com/999/
> 
> Followed by this header:-
> 
> PID USER   PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND      
> 
> Then a list of processes that are running. The default view shows the
> processes that are consuming the most CPU time at the top. For example
> right now I have these:-
> 
> http://pastebin.ubuntu.com/1000/
> 
> You'll note at the top of the list right now on my machine is Xorg,
> nautilus and Java. (I'm uploading some files using a java applet, so
> this looks about right).
> 
> Note in the left hand column you can see who owns the processes. My name
> is next to some of them. 
> 
> I would leave that running permanently, and when you notice the disk
> going nuts, take a look at it and see if something rises to the top. You
> may also note in the top header the %wa (percentage of time the cpu is
> blocked waiting for IO operations to complete) goes up as your disk is
> getting mashed.
> 
> My bet would be trackerd, the file indexing daemon, but it could be
> anything. Let us know what you find.

Thanks for these ideas, I shall get cracking, expect my report back in
the not too distant future.

Norman