Public bug reported:

gsd-housekeeping is opening /etc/fstab every 60 seconds and because it
is being opened without the O_NOATIME flag the access time updates are
causing regular meta data flushes. On an idle laptop this can cause the
HDD to spin up, flush write and spin down every 60 seconds.  This
consumes power unnecessarily.

I've traced this using health-check for 15 minutes of activity:

sudo heath-check -p gsd-housekeeping -d 900 -f -r -v > gnome-gsd-
househeeping-15.min

See attached log.

Running strace on the process will show that the open of /etc/fstab does
not use O_NOATIME, hence atime is being updated on the file each time it
is accessed, causing dirtying of metadata for this file and hence the
dirty metadata has to be flushed back periodically.

Can this be fixed to save some power.  I've estimated it can save ~0.1
Watts on my Lenovo x220.

** Affects: gnome-settings-daemon (Ubuntu)
     Importance: High
         Status: New

** Attachment added: "capture of gsd-housekeeping activity using heath-check 
tool"
   
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1846779/+attachment/5294354/+files/gnome-gsd-housekeeping-15min.log

** Changed in: gnome-settings-daemon (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided => High

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Desktop Bugs, which is subscribed to gnome-settings-daemon in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1846779

Title:
  gsd-housekeeping is regularly opening /etc/fstab and the atime update
  is causing meta data write fluesh

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/1846779/+subscriptions

-- 
desktop-bugs mailing list
desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs

Reply via email to