msec_find making system slow and thrashing hard drive once in a while
 

actually running PCLOS MiniMe 2008 upgraded to PCLOS 2009 via Synaptic.
Since doing the upgrade I find generally once every day approx just after booting system gets unresponsive and hard drive is thrashed for a couple of minutes. The usage is never more than 15% and only for those couple of minutes. Is this normal for newer Mandriva/PCLOS ? It's the repeated thrashing of drive that worries me.

Firstly, PCLinuxOS is a fork of Mandriva you can't really compare the two in that way. They are completely separate distros. What happens in one doesn't always happen in the other.

Second, MiniMe is a very stripped down PCLinuxOS, now that you've upgraded to a full blown version of PClinux there will be things that happen now that never happened before.

Thirdly, the behavior of msec_find can be adjusted via Configure Your Computer--> Security--> Set up security level and audit.

I can't say I've noticed msec_find running after I boot up. It's usually ran at night time. Also, I didn't upgrade to 2009.

I use MDV 2009.0 (with KDE 4.2.1) and I do not notice this behaviour either

Is this a typo..?

I would guess, PCLinuxOS uses 'anacron' to kick off cron jobs that should have run since the last shutdown, every time the PC gets started up.

Do a on a console window to see if anacron is an active service.

No. I added (and installed KDE 4.2.1 from) the unofficial Mandriva repositories:or for 32 bit systems:

Yes it is a typo LOL. You put 2.4.1 in your previous post. I thought I was missing out on something, I'm also using the same repos as you. :)

I agree, I noticed today when I booted up that: awk, msec_find & rpm* (* I can't remember if it was check or update) ran straight away. I wouldn't say they were 'thrashing' the drive though.

Good eye! I checked that post when I posted it, then again when you first asked about it and still did not catch my error. I fixed it now though - Thank You.

I use anacron here (because I often shut the system down when not in use) and I have not experienced any thrashing of my hard drive following system start. If you were using Windows I'd think you need to defragment the hard drive. Just out of curiosity, does fsck report any unusual fragmentation? (Note: I know, Linux usually does not suffer from such troubles . . . this is simply idle curiosity)

you have done well to run what you have got! - the guys at PCLinux are well meaning but could not organise - forgive my french - a "piss up in a brewery" maybe because linux is open source and so is accessible by anyone - and in this case they have a microshaft insider - they have had this problem before - a sign of respect from the powers that be... their os2007 was seriously good - good enough and reliable enough to trust - to make business with - i know - i did - but then it was 'micro'shafted - (that's why there was no 2008 os - only a half way house update)

my advice would be to shift to another distribution - until PCLinux find out (if they are even looking) who is buggering them up.

i am experimenting with fedora 11 x64 - it is crap compared to PCLinux2007 but at least it works, works with new hardware and upgrades ok. - unlike PCLinux

That's a bit harsh. They're not some big outfit, with the resources to do thorough testing. It's not like upgrading was the only option on the table.

I find it strange how you encourage the OP to jump ship, rather than stay and help troubleshoot/resolve any problems.

Upgrading with any distro is rarely trouble free. 2009 is just as reliable as 2007 from a fresh install (in my experience).

What's with all the reference to microshaft? Would you care to elaborate?

Sounds to me as if ism is the 'microshaft'-er here . . .

I agree. It is inappropriate to give any advise other than a proper solution to the problem posed. To suggest the OP abandon ship is just wrong. If all users of all distributions did that instead of finding solutions to problems Linux would probably not exist today (at east not as the state of the art OS we all know and love). Since I do not use PCLOS here, my best suggestion would be to go to the PCLinuxOS Forum and see if any one there can help (if they can, please post back here to inform others).

tux99
chkconfig --list | grep -i anacron

yielded
anacron 0 : off 1 : off 2 : on 3 : on 4 : on 5 : on 6 : off

the (only a little) "thrashing" seems to be once a day, just after the first boot for day.
If it's required then fine, I was (a) commenting that PCLOS2007 didn't seem to do it, and (b) if it wasn't required I wouldn't mind trying reduce the wear and tear on the hard disk.

In answer to (b) above: whether 'it' is required depends on specifically what 'it' is (e.g.: the software or service causing the 'thrashing' of the hard drive). If you can determine what is causing the trouble (may be run by anacron - or may not), you could try stopping it and see if anything changes (other than the 'thrashing'). If not, keep it stopped.

I do not use PCLinuxOS here (I'm a Mandriva user for more than a decade) and I do not know exactly which services (processes) run at boot time. If you have a desktop search service (perhaps beagle or something similar) installed, that could be the cause - many of these run in the background to update their catalogue at boot time.

HTH,