So... Given that I have no info (anymore) about what processes were running etc., I suppose finding out what was going on is a bit difficult (to say the least), but any insights would be appreciated. For example, are there any cleanup operations that could be done automatically and scheduled with cron? Could I have used something other than top (e.g. ps with some magic switches) to find out what was going on? When things slow down extremely such as this -- are there other likely causes than some process (or processes) hogging CPU and/or memory?
I have seen the exact same thing on my home desktop PC (twice) and a laptop, both running Gentoo. This has only happened since I have upgraded to 2.4.20 kernels. I have no idea why it happens, other than it is not an out of memory problem. It does seem to happen when the hard disk is being used thoroughly and I believe it is an IDE driver issue, (purely speculation).
If anyone has any pointers, please speak up :)
Desktop: VIA mbd, 2xIDE @ UDMA100 + Promise ATA controller with main hard drive on. ext3.
Laptop: oooold toshiba, with reiserfs on 6GB hdd.
MAL
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