Regular disk activity with Knoppix install

**Worm** · 01-08-2004, 01:20 AM

Hi all,

I installed Knoppix 3.3 on to my hard drive and after using it for a week or two I am puzzled by the constant and regular disk access. No Unix I have ever used before hits the drive nearly as often. I estimate it is every 3-5 seconds. What would be causing this? I am using ReiserFS on the main drive if that is relevant.

**aay** · 01-08-2004, 02:02 AM

Wierd. I've never had this happen and I've done lots of Knoppix installs. Anyone else have any ideas? Hardware?

**Worm** · 01-08-2004, 03:38 AM

It is an all SCSI system with two Symbios based cards. The motherboard is a K7S5A using the builtin LAN and sound card. The video is an S3 Savag4 based AGP card.

**Stephen** · 01-08-2004, 10:11 AM

Originally Posted by Worm

Hi all,

I installed Knoppix 3.3 on to my hard drive and after using it for a week or two I am puzzled by the constant and regular disk access. No Unix I have ever used before hits the drive nearly as often. I estimate it is every 3-5 seconds. What would be causing this? I am using ReiserFS on the main drive if that is relevant.

The journal on the disk getting updated? Or is it a prolonged access not just the one quick flicker of light you would see when the disk was accessed.

**Worm** · 01-08-2004, 08:09 PM

Hi Stephen,

This explanation is quie plausible. Also, since I have never used ReiserFS on a Unix installation before it would be why this seems so different to me. Is there a way to either tune the update time or look in some logs to see for sure if this is the activity?

The sound itself is definitely more than just a brief flash of the HD LED. It is a disk access sound of maybe 100 milliseconds or more. Since this disk is kind of loud, it is quite noticeable.