runit Disk I/O Activity: 40 – 120 KB with no rest at 0B

[Member mysteradio]

I’ve been using antiX for a few years now. I’m still a noob but I love it–learning lots about linux, cli, bash, etc.

My most recent experiment is taking place on this macbook air (A1496) w/ a SSD.

I installed the bullseye antiX-21-runit_x64-full.iso. When I logged in and got into the usual business, I noticed that Conky was registering non-stop disk action that was fluctuating between approximately 40 to 120 KB without ever chillin at 0B, even when I let the computer sit without any tasks on my part. I installed iotop and noticed some wiley kworker activity coinciding with the disk i/o. “power-efficient”, “freezable-power”, claims of that nature.

I checked the disk activity of a LIVE runit system on the same computer — disk regularly alights and rests at 0B.

I installed antiX-21_x64-full.iso (no runit) on the SSD — disk regularly alights and rests at 0B.

Any thoughts? I love learning about all this stuff. Is that what runit does, it keeps the disk hummin so that it can make things happen more swiftly than init? I wanted to spare my drive of (what I took to be) extraneous demands.

P.S. on this init install of antiX-21, my computer would freeze and be TOTALLY unresponsive when I’d ask Firefox to take me to the vile bowels of youtube. However, once upon a return from forced shutdown, I went to the Control Center and (finally) enabled all the ad-block action and, voila, no crash. Ads are yucky.

Thanks guys!

• This topic was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by christophe.
• This topic was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by christophe.
• This topic was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by mysteradio.

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[Anonymous]

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some wiley kworker activity coinciding with the disk i/o. “power-efficient”, “freezable-power”

antiX-21-runit_x64-full.iso
vs
antiX-21_x64-full.iso

Is the difference in behavior related to using differing kernels?
Attributable to something different in the kernel config of the runit system?

• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by Brian Masinick. Reason: From skidoo

[Member sybok]

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Hi, perhaps have a look at this thread:
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/constant-disk-activity-in-antix21-runit/
Does not seem to provide a definite solution but some hints on suspending/turning-off services that are not neened and on monitoring the activity.

[Member mysteradio]

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hi. thanks for the responses.

Is the difference in behavior related to using differing kernels?

with legacy kernel i can’t access my hard drive at all. it doesn’t appear in lsblk or gparted.

with modern kernel, i can access hard drive and install antiX. however, my computer keeps crashing (even with init that doesn’t have the funky disk i/o flux). i thought the adblock fixed the firefox problem, but it actually didn’t. i tried using epiphany-browser instead but got the same problem with 3 tabs open. i’m starting to suspect it’s a hardware issue, most likely RAM (4GB).

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[Member mysteradio]

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sybok wrote:

Hi, perhaps have a look at this thread:
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/constant-disk-activity-in-antix21-runit/
Does not seem to provide a definite solution but some hints on suspending/turning-off services that are not neened and on monitoring the activity.

hey, sybok. thank you. very informative and right on the subject. it seems the problem is not uncommon. one thing i would speculate is that the excessive disk i/o activity may also be associate with solid state drive hardware(?) i don’t know enough (about anything lol) to argue for or against a naughty installer being party to the affair.

p.s. i’m running antiX-21 live right now from USB 2.0, init. such smooth sailing! i’d love to get the same action on my internal drive. fingers crossed!

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[Member ModdIt]

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i would speculate is that the excessive disk i/o activity may also be associate with solid state drive hardware

Nope nothing to do with an SSD, if you had a fast rotating disk you could hear the head seek click.
The installer, it was adopted at a late stage just before release and a problem overseen..

If you do not accept the fact that some services were found to have been started without neccesity you will never fix
your issue.
More background info and reading regarding conmann. A tool many like.
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/wifi-with-connman-antix-19-2/page/7/#post-72056
More info and reading
Updating your system will fix some of the issues, regarding info and assistance from the forum others.

The only way I have found to date to get rid of spurious disk and network activity, dump conman for ceni, conmann pings
a microsoft server, if it is unable to get an answer forever at rapid intervall.
Switch off all services which are not essential to your user case.
Use nearby time servers so NTP time synch activity is short as possible. Make sure BIOS battery is OK on older devices
or clock may drift excessively.
Stop all logging, which can be a disadvantage.
Set your system to swap only when absolutely neccesary. I have 8 GB Ram, only see swapping while attempting to compile
a browser or working with Nikon Raw images which are more than double my memory size. for example.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by ModdIt.

[Member mysteradio]

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Mr Moddit! Thank you very much for the reply and the resources. Very much appreciated.

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