Thank you for your feedback. I was able to reproduce the bug today. It is not linked to any floppy device at all since I have used the same hardware for one year and that was working properly.
In fact this bug is appearing right during and after the installation of VMware Workstation 9.0.2 for Linux x64. I can see that : sudo blkid takes now in the 10 to 15 mn to complete vs. less than a second. This has the same effect on gparted. If I happen to close gparted while "Scanning for all devices" then a subsequent launch will have it to crash right after getting the system password. I need to restart Ubuntu to attempt a relaunch of gparted. Unfortunately removing VMware Workstation does not solve the issue. They obviously tinker something in the Ubuntu file system to make this happen to 'blkid' and 'gparted'. This may be as well because of a weakness in the code of linux Ubuntu which is affected by something from the VMware installation process. I am trying to find a way to report this bug to VMware ... Since I happen to have a working image of Ubuntu 12.04 made a month ago with CloneZilla I was able to pinpoint the problem. However it is quite unerving that a "commercial" program could derails basic functions of the OS and impact through it other applications. If you have any other thought, please let me know. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1159288 Title: GParted hang while Scanning all devices for 10 to 15 mn To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gparted/+bug/1159288/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
