gvfs-metadata + on Flash drive/SSD drives (beware)

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freed00m

gvfs-metadata + on Flash drive/SSD drives (beware)

Post by freed00m »

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/517021

gvfs-metadata is often stuck in an infinite loop writing data like crazy.

You can see in a system monitor/top that this process is using higher amount of cpu power.
And after few minutes stuck in a loop it has over billions of read and writes count.

I ran live mint 17.1 on flash drive and it was fully dead under 10minutes running firefox.

I hope the devel team will include hotfix very VERY soon or many other users end up with a DEAD hard drives.

Super start extension for firefox cause this alot.
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Pjotr
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Re: gvfs-metadata + on Flash drive/SSD drives (beware)

Post by Pjotr »

Thanks for the warning.

For the time being I think nobody should install the Super Start extension in Firefox. Are there, as far as you know, other common use cases in which this nasty problem might occur?
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freed00m

Re: gvfs-metadata + on Flash drive/SSD drives (beware)

Post by freed00m »

Yes, It happens randomly and multiple apps cause this. I now know when does it happens because my spinning drive starts silently clicking. It is often caused by firefox (even without Super start extension) and thunderbird.
The gvfs maintainer confirmed it is bug in the gvfs and pointed to a patch. However the link of the patch was dead so I think/hope it'll be released to the LTS version of ubuntu.

Because regular users wont care about applying patch and compiling it themselves and pulling from newer base will have crazy dependency issue I believe.

:?
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Re: gvfs-metadata + on Flash drive/SSD drives (beware)

Post by Pjotr »

Maybe the clicking is another, unrelated issue:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... p-and-down
(item 10, right column)

Super Start is now under scrutiny from Mozilla Netherlands (reaction is in Dutch):
https://twitter.com/Mozilla_nl/status/5 ... 8298741761
Tip: 10 things to do after installing Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia
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Re: gvfs-metadata + on Flash drive/SSD drives (beware)

Post by freed00m »

Thanks for the advice, but my drive doesn't click even when heavy rw action is underway.
Only when gvfs gets stuck it gets very weird.

Thanks for raising awareness on super start extension.

But I believe the debian team already fixed the gvfs issue.
Now it is up to ubuntu team to push the fixes up to the stream.

If anyone reads this, please help raise awareness, ubuntu team might stop being lazy about gvfs and helps the community save drives. :)

The hotfix might be exactly this commit. (I did not tested)
https://git.gnome.org/browse/gvfs/commi ... 6a8adb03bc
freed00m

Re: gvfs-metadata + on Flash drive/SSD drives (beware)

Post by freed00m »

Thank you all for support and I am glad it got fixed today.

A patch was picked up from upstream.

---

gvfs

* debian/patches/avoid-endless-looping.patch: picked from upstream.
Fixes constant disk usage in certain situations. (LP: #517021)

:) Happy SSD
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