Real time info about disk activity.
 

kernel 2.6.21.5, Slackware 12.0

Hi:
How can I obtain real time information about disk activity (processes transfering data to/from the hard disk)? Regards.

Use GKrellM. I think it's already included in Slackware. Try "gkrellm" at the command line.

In the configuration, you can select to show disk activity in aggregate or by disk.

2.6.21 should have taskstats - use that. Google for iotop - it tests if taskstats is enabled in the kernel and uses them to produce a top like display for I/O.

Most thankful to both of you and I'll see to use those programs in the future. Now, the problem I have just solved it, and it was a hardware one. I had, some time ago, unplugged the power cable from on of the hards but had left the signal ribbon cable plugged in. Then, in the BIOS, I simply left the unplugged hard (primary slave) 'Not installed'.

After writing, I remembered (gkrellm showed an alert in the disk) the problem I had that took me to disconnect power from the slave disk (a recurrent click in the unit) and did two things: I also unplugged the ribbon cable from the slave and made the BIOS to scan the disk units. This has proved to be a remedy. I'm sorry to have bothered you without having given the problem a little more thought. Regards.