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List:       kde-bugs-dist
Subject:    Bug#1431: More information on bug 1431
From:       "K. J. Nash" <k.j.nash () usa ! net>
Date:       1999-07-02 12:17:30
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More information on bug 1431.

WHEN DOES IT OCCUR?
This condition occurs once every few hours of active use.  It is most common
when dragging a vertical scrollbar, but has also occurred:
when clicking on a link in kfm;
when clicking on the close gadget in a kwrite window;
when clicking on the move 'context-menu item' (is that the right term?) when
moving files in kfm (the last one nearly gave me a fit! fortunately the
underlying Linux is robust enough that the files didn't get lost).


WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENS?
There is continuous hard drive activity, usually in bursts with short spaces
in between.  The mouse pointer can be moved; but moving the pointer over
something, clicking, typing etc have no effect.  The screensaver does not
start.

On one occasion, the hard drive activity & lock ceased after a
while; in other cases I gave up and switched off the machine (shades of
Windows 95): when I was most patient, I left the machine running for 15 hours
before giving up.

In most cases there is no warning of impending lock-up. Sometimes, however,
there are short bursts of apparently unnecessary disk activity, or kfm is
unusually slow in listing a directory.  Then the best course is to hit
'Logout' immediately.

The lockup that occurred when moving files was unusual.  The system only
needed to execute one mv, but intense hard-drive activity started. The
"moving files" information/dialogue box was not drawn properly, but the system
did not lock up at first.  I could highlight panel buttons by moving the mouse
pointer over them, but I was (probably unnecessarily) reluctant to hit
'Logout' in case I lost my files. The system locked a couple of seconds after
the screensaver started: the screensaver pattern froze.

This, together with the warning signs, seem to indicate that the lock-up can
sometimes start a short time AFTER the intense disk activity.

The frozen screensaver suggests a possible relation to another bug: when I
return to my system after some time away, I sometimes find that the
screensaver has frozen and the machine has to be switched off - but unlike bug
1431, there is no hard drive activity, at least by the time I have returned to
the machine.

When I restart the system after one of these failures, the Linux
partitions are automatically checked, and the root partition has an error
message: 
Deleted inode <inode number> has zero dtime: FIXED


OTHER INFORMATION ABOUT MY SYSTEM:
It is perfectly stable when running without KDE (even when running X with the
default window manager supplied with RedHat5.2).
I have 170Mb of free space on the root partition, 116Mb free on my other Linux
partition, and one 127Mb swap partition.

I would be glad to try anything to isolate this bug, as it makes KDE very
unfriendly - and I HATE switching off my machine while the hard drive is in
use.

If you have any suggestions please e-mail me and I will try to help.

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