Firefox 3.0b5 in hardy issues these fsyncs so often it starts blocking on them for seconds, becoming completely nonresponsive in the UI with compiz making the whole window grey). It's not just a power-saving issue, it's a painful usability problem.
Here's a short excerpt from strace taken while I was typing this comment: $ strace -p `pidof firefox` -e fsync -tT Process 7187 attached - interrupt to quit 03:37:04 fsync(49) = 0 <7.587739> 03:37:11 fsync(49) = 0 <0.273196> 03:37:12 fsync(32) = 0 <0.229370> 03:37:33 fsync(49) = 0 <12.852950> 03:37:45 fsync(49) = 0 <0.184390> 03:37:46 fsync(32) = 0 <0.220538> 03:38:06 fsync(49) = 0 <5.217726> 03:38:11 fsync(49) = 0 <5.487585> 03:38:17 fsync(32) = 0 <0.464993> 03:38:37 fsync(49) = 0 <3.724943> 03:38:41 fsync(49) = 0 <5.732189> 03:38:47 fsync(32) = 0 <6.252349> 03:39:14 fsync(49) = 0 <8.729353> 03:39:22 fsync(49) = 0 <0.930190> 03:39:23 fsync(32) = 0 <0.173965> As you can see, fsync calls block Firefox for several seconds, a few times every minute. The file handles point to places.sqlite $ lsof -p `pidof firefox` ... firefox 7187 mg 32uw REG 8,3 8380416 8814778 /home/mg/.mozilla/firefox/default.a83/places.sqlite ... firefox 7187 mg 49u REG 8,3 0 1884617 /home/mg/.mozilla/firefox/default.a83/places.sqlite-journal Note that firefox 3.0b4 (at least the one in gutsy-backports) did not have this problem, or if it did, it wasn't as noticeable. ** Also affects: firefox via https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=421482 Importance: Unknown Status: Unknown -- Firefox keeps forcing disk to spin up when browsing because its sqlite storage calls fsync() for every recorded entry https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/221009 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
