btrfs is doin' me wrong (thrashing wildly)

opensuse v12.3
v3.7.10-1.16-desktop x86_64
amd athlon ii x4
8 GB RAM

I installed opensuse using btrfs. (I was unaware that it is considered beta.) It has worked fine for months. Now it has taken to thrashing wildly to do anything whatsoever and takes several seconds to minutes to accomplish actions as simple as changing window focus. A disk activity monitor shows an average of 3MB/sec transfer during to whole (in-)activity period.

There are 4 partitions on the drive: /, /boot, /home, /boot. Only the root (/) partition seems to suffer from this malady.

The swap disk is unused.

Rebooting takes up to a half hour and makes no difference.

Is there a (relatively) simple fix for this?

If not, where is a How-To or a FAQ that describes in extreme detail how to copy a system disk to another?

On the new drive, I assume I would have to create the partitions, format them (not with btrfs!), mount them, copy the volume contents, change fstab and grub, reboot. Unless there are specific tools that handle a lot the detail?

Part of the problem with BTFS is there is still (to the best of my knowledge) no fsck utilities to fix things.

So are you using any of the fancy BTFS function that may cause excessive disk activity?? Also may want to run smart to see if the disk itself is going south.

You could delete old snapshots and that may help. I saw the same back in
12.1, or felt like I did, but never had a way to fix it. Eventually I
tried deleting snapshots and maybe it helped, but it never helped
perfectly. Shortly after that I moved to my current laptop and now have
an SSD and I suspect that my super-awesome seek times mask the issue if it
still exists on 12.2 (you’re on 12.3, so probably still here on mine).

Another change… on my 12.1 system everything was part of the /
partition and I used snapshots. Now my /home partition is separate and
without snapshots, though still btrfs. Also, my / filesystem has
subvolumes (as configured by default thanks to yast) which exclude places
that should not have snapshots (variable places with log files, as I
recall) so that may be helping my current situation too.

Good luck.

On 2013-07-23 20:36, ab wrote:
> You could delete old snapshots and that may help. I saw the same back in
> 12.1, or felt like I did, but never had a way to fix it. Eventually I
> tried deleting snapshots and maybe it helped, but it never helped
> perfectly. Shortly after that I moved to my current laptop and now have
> an SSD and I suspect that my super-awesome seek times mask the issue if it
> still exists on 12.2 (you’re on 12.3, so probably still here on mine).

Recently Jeff Mahoney (a suse developer) was asking here, in the beta
forum, for people to come forward and tell about their problems with btrfs.

Almost none did.

So I understand nobody in the forums has any issues with btrfs.

Lost chance…


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))

On 07/23/2013 01:15 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2013-07-23 20:36, ab wrote:
>> You could delete old snapshots and that may help. I saw the same back in
>> 12.1, or felt like I did, but never had a way to fix it. Eventually I
>> tried deleting snapshots and maybe it helped, but it never helped
>> perfectly. Shortly after that I moved to my current laptop and now have
>> an SSD and I suspect that my super-awesome seek times mask the issue if it
>> still exists on 12.2 (you’re on 12.3, so probably still here on mine).
>
> Recently Jeff Mahoney (a suse developer) was asking here, in the beta
> forum, for people to come forward and tell about their problems with btrfs.
>
> Almost none did.

It’s reassuring to know you only consider me “almost noone” rather than an
outright nobody. :wink:

> So I understand nobody in the forums has any issues with btrfs.
>
> Lost chance…

Logic error. Almost nobody in the forums, who also happens to follow,
read, and desire to respond to a post in the beta forums, has issues with
btrfs.

Good luck.

Here is my post from last year where I mentioned a similar-sounding symptom:

https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php?threadid=473941

Good luck.

Where are the snapshots placed?

On 2013-07-23 23:06, jimoe666 wrote:
>
> ab;2573961 Wrote:
>> You could delete old snapshots and that may help. …
> Where are the snapshots placed?

inside.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

I think it’s in Yast too, but start with this:

https://lizards.opensuse.org/2011/04/01/introducing-snapper/

Good luck.

On 2013-07-23 20:46, gogalthorp wrote:
>
> Part of the problem with BTFS is there is still (to the best of my
> knowledge) no fsck utilities to fix things.

There is now, but it is not documented.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))

Meaningless response.

Not that I am aware. I just selected the fs from the list during installation. What are some of the fancy functions that would do so?

Also may want to run smart to see if the disk itself is going south.

Did that. Squeaky clean.

And this helps me… How?

On 2013-07-24 01:46, jimoe666 wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2573989 Wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>> You could delete old snapshots and that may help. …
>>> Where are the snapshots placed?
>>
>> inside.
> Meaningless response.

Oh, it has meaning… but maybe not for you.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))

I don’t use or recommend btrfs for normal use. But I’d try a fsck or fsck.btrfs command

It does look like there is finally a fsck for the system. If it works or not I don’t know but I guess it is worth a try

Boot from a runable CD or DVD and run fsck against each partition with btrfs ie

fsck /dev/sdXN

where X is the drive and n is the partition number

There are a lot of new features in btrfs If you don’t know them I wonder why you chose that file system?

Some times the new shiny thing is not ready for prime time

On Wed, 24 Jul 2013 02:14:08 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:

> On 2013-07-24 01:46, jimoe666 wrote:
>>
>> robin_listas;2573989 Wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>> You could delete old snapshots and that may help. …
>>>> Where are the snapshots placed?
>>>
>>> inside.
>> Meaningless response.
>
> Oh, it has meaning… but maybe not for you.

Guys, let’s not go down this path. Carlos, I’ll admit that I looked at
your response and wondered what you meant - maybe you could provide some
information that makes this response meaningful to the OP. One word
answers usually don’t provide very much.

Jim (I assume, from the name), if you’re getting an answer that you need
clarification on, by all means ask for the clarification, but please do
so politely.

Jim

Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

On 2013-07-24 06:39, Jim Henderson wrote:

>>>>> Where are the snapshots placed?
>>>>
>>>> inside.
>>> Meaningless response.
>>
>> Oh, it has meaning… but maybe not for you.
>
> Guys, let’s not go down this path. Carlos, I’ll admit that I looked at
> your response and wondered what you meant - maybe you could provide some
> information that makes this response meaningful to the OP. One word
> answers usually don’t provide very much.

Ok, I’ll do.

My post simply means that the snapshots are not files and directories,
but internal structures of the filesystem. To access them you need read
the manual - which is the obvious and mandatory thing to do for people
using something as cutting edge as btrfs.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))

Am 24.07.2013 13:26, schrieb Carlos E. R.:
> My post simply means that the snapshots are not files and directories,
> but internal structures of the filesystem. To access them you need read
> the manual - which is the obvious and mandatory thing to do for people
> using something as cutting edge as btrfs.
>

Well you can see the snapshots in your file system (this is an example
for / on a system on which I test btrfs) as directories


pyxis:/home/martinh # ls /.snapshots
353  391  420  437  477  501  514  533  578  652  701  752  789  802
813  821
366  393  430  438  478  502  515  534  586  653  712  763  790  804
814  822
367  394  431  452  481  503  516  535  587  672  722  764  791  805
815  823
375  408  432  453  488  504  518  544  598  673  723  766  792  807
816  824
376  409  433  454  490  505  519  545  599  681  724  773  794  808
817  825
386  411  434  456  498  506  530  552  621  682  735  774  799  809
818  826
387  412  435  461  499  507  531  553  629  699  737  775  800  810  819
390  419  436  462  500  513  532  577  630  700  738  788  801  812  820
pyxis:/home/martinh #

I have no idea though what happens if you try to delete them manually, I
use myself yast for that (more often) or the snapper commandline


snapper delete <number>


PC: oS 12.3 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.10 | GTX 650 Ti
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.3 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.10 | HD 3000

I forgot to add, if I want to delete them all in one shot, I do


snapper delete $(ls /.snapshots)

as root of course.


PC: oS 12.3 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.10 | GTX 650 Ti
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.3 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.10 | HD 3000

On 2013-07-24 13:35, Martin Helm wrote:
> Well you can see the snapshots in your file system (this is an example
> for / on a system on which I test btrfs) as directories

I understand they are information about snapshots as done by the
service, not the data itself.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4, with Evergreen, x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))