WOW, this fix worked for me still in Ubuntu 13.10 I have in my laptop combined SSD, HDD, External HDD and USB Sticks (from time to time) and copying files got my system stuck always, but after changing to deadline it seems to be fixed
-- 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/427210 Title: CFQ may not be the right choice of i/o scheduler for the most common desktop systems Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu: Invalid Bug description: Ubuntu currently uses the kernel default i/o scheduler, CFQ. I strongly believe that this is the wrong scheduler to use for the vast majority of likely Ubuntu desktop installs because it causes huge lag in interactive applications under the heavy kind of i/o typically experienced during a file copy or backup operation. DISCLAIMER: Of course it's always hard to justify these sorts of claims because desktop responsiveness is a notoriously woolly and hard to measure thing, but without at least suggesting some solutions I don't see how we can improve it, hence this bug report. With that said, I would politely request that the Ubuntu kernel team at least examine the performance, and very importantly, the general desktop responsiveness experienced when using a variety of different i/o schedulers. I also think this could go a long way to solving bug no. 131094 , especially since numerous users in that bug thread have reported significant improvements in responsiveness after changing i/o schedulers. To reproduce on a standard ubuntu desktop, open (for example) a music player, firefox and/or any other slightly latency sensitive ui applications. Now execute: sudo dd if=/dev/$ROOTPARTITION of=/dev/zero bs=10M where $ROOTPARTITION is your root partition eg sda1, hdb2 or whatever. This should simulate the heavy i/o likely to be experienced whilst doing a large file copy/backup or similar. Now go back to normal web browsing/email writing/whatever and observe some truly horrible ui lag and general unresponsiveness. The current i/o scheduler for a particular partition can be changed on the fly by editing /sys/block/$PARTITION/queue/scheduler. "cat /sys/block/$PARTITION/queue/scheduler" will tell you the current i/o scheduler in use as well as other possible other schedulers that can be used. To change it, you must become root with sudo -s and then "echo $SCHEDULER > /sys/block/$PARTITION/queue/scheduler". The i/o scheduler can be set to a different default globally by appending the elevator=$SCHEDULER option to the grub kernel boot stanza. Try changing the i/o scheduler for your root partition to "deadline" for example and repeat the test. I observed MASSIVELY improved ui responsiveness during the heavy i/o test on my desktop, and several others who I have discussed this with have seen similar improvements. Now I'm certainly NOT saying "switch to the deadline i/o scheduler", but I do think the ubuntu kernel devs should experiment a bit and see if perhaps the current i/o scheduler is not the best option for desktop responsiveness. After all, a scheduler that copes well with the typical tasks a server has to deal with may not also cope as well with the tasks a desktop has to deal with and vice versa. For Ubuntu Desktop, perceived desktop performance and interactivity should come first, so perhaps the kernel defaults here (which might possibly be tuned more for server-type workloads) may not be the best option. ProblemType: Bug Architecture: amd64 DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04 MachineType: System manufacturer P5QL PRO NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia Package: linux-image-2.6.28-15-generic 2.6.28-15.49 ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=f9c198f6-df39-49bf-9444-a1ad71d16bf6 ro elevator=deadline quiet splash ProcEnviron: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.28-15.49-generic SourcePackage: linux To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/427210/+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
