I have noticed exactly the same problem when I moved from 2.3.51 to
2.3.99-pre5 a couple of days ago. In fact, its so bad, that a disk
performance test program that writes 500MB of data won't even
complete! My audio HDR system ardour, which works fine under 2.3.51
cannot get close to its intended performance under 2.3.99pre-5 - as
soon as we have written more than a few 100MB, it grinds to a halt.
The more general effects also happen - other programs with GUI's
on them, and X in general, cease to become responsive, though they do
not stop altogether.
Interestingly, dumpe2fs(8), when run at a point while the disk writer
apps are slowed down to a crawl, will also hang until the files are
removed.
This appears to me to be a very serious problem. I will be willing to
provide substantial help anyone who can make suggestions on how to
debug this.
--p
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