In my case ( see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1460985 ) the culprit generating huge I/O throughput was in /etc/cron.daily/man-db
It's such a long-standing and persistent bug that the default advice I give nowadays to people complaining about their ubuntu "got stuck again" is to run "sudo killall -9 find". That's really a shame: - it's not some random IO spike coming from nowhere - it's not 3rd-party, it's in default install - it's reproducible Yet, we still don't even have workaround, let alone proper policing IO of all the background tasks shipped in default ubuntu install. Hopefully migration to systemd timer units would help tackling it. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to linux in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/131094 Title: Heavy Disk I/O harms desktop responsiveness Status in linux package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: Binary package hint: linux-source-2.6.22 When compared with 2.6.15 in feisty, heavy disk I/O causes increased iowait times and affects desktop responsiveness in 2.6.22 this appears to be a regression from 2.6.15 where iowait is much lower and desktop responsiveness is unaffected with the same I/O load Easy to reproduce with tracker - index the same set of files with 2.6.15 kernel and 2.6.22 kernel and the difference in desktop responsiveness is massive I have not confirmed if a non-tracker process which does heavy disk i/o (especially writing) replicates this yet - will do further investigation soon To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/131094/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages Post to : kernel-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp