gvfsd-metadata bug (?)

Please post any bugs you have found
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Mike7
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gvfsd-metadata bug (?)

#1 Post by Mike7 »

Hi, all.

I have been plagued by a service named gvfsd-metadata running frequently and consuming as much as 60% of my CPU. Surprisingly, I couldn't find any matches when I searched in this forum with keyword "gvfsd-metadata".

Searching the Internet, however, I did find many complaints about it on the boards of Ubuntu, Debian, etc. Some of the proposed solutions were:

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pkill gvfsd-metadata

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rm -rf .local/share/gvfs-metadata

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rm /usr/libexec/gvfsd-metadata

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mv /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-metadata /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-metadata.disabled
Has anyone here had the "gvfsd-metadata bug"? If so, what have you done to get rid of it? Is there some way of permanently disabling it without interfering with important services that may depend on it?

Any and all help will be appreciated.

Mike7
Carolite-1.2 w/FF38 on bootable 16G flash drive; Asus eeePC 1000HA, Atom CPU, 2G RAM, 160G HDD.

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Marv
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#2 Post by Marv »

It's a fairly long-standing issue. Combining your first two lines of code into a script with a desktop link would let you reign it in when it pigs without permanently disabling it. The way I disable it on the machine I do a lot of squashing, unsquashing etc. on is outlined here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 292#936292
Pups currently in kennel :D Older LxPupSc and X-slacko-4.4 for my users; LxPupSc, LxPupSc64 and upupEF for me. All good pups indeed, and all running savefiles for look'n'feel only. Browsers, etc. solely from SFS.

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peebee
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Re: gvfsd-metadata bug (?)

#3 Post by peebee »

Mike7 wrote:Hi, all.
I have been plagued by a service named gvfsd-metadata running frequently and consuming as much as 60% of my CPU.
Mike7
Hi Mike7

Is this on Carolite-1.2 ??

I've never seen this issue on LxPup which also includes gvfs and gvfsd-metadata.....

@Marv - have you seen this on LxPup??

Thanks
ImageLxPup = Puppy + LXDE
Main version used daily: LxPupSc; Assembler of UPups, ScPup & ScPup64, LxPup, LxPupSc & LxPupSc64

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Marv
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#4 Post by Marv »

@peebee
Quick answer is no but there are several things at play here IMO including Kernel, age of hardware, and type of use so it isn't a crystal clear yes or no.

Hardware: it is much more a problem on the Pentium M class machines than on the core 2 machines.

Age of Kernel and associated gvfs software: It is clearly present in all the X- series pups I use, both with the 3.14.55/56 kernel and with the 4.1.31 I commonly swap in (They are XFCE/Thunar based FWIW). I have certainly seen it in the past in some Lx pups but couldn't quantify that as to vintage. With progressively newer versions it has gotten enough better so I don't disable it in them any more. The Fujitsus I use all have pretty hair-trigger fans irrespective of governor setup etc. so I know when hogging occurs.

Type of use: Seems to be a function of large (size & number) file operations, squashing & unsquashing FS etc.

Longish answer, context I guess. Shortish answer, I think we've outgrown it :)
Pups currently in kennel :D Older LxPupSc and X-slacko-4.4 for my users; LxPupSc, LxPupSc64 and upupEF for me. All good pups indeed, and all running savefiles for look'n'feel only. Browsers, etc. solely from SFS.

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Mike7
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#5 Post by Mike7 »

Hi, Marv-
It's a fairly long-standing issue.
I don't understand why a search for gvfsd-metadata didn't turn up any posts, like yours at http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 292#936292.

Anyway, I have taken note of your workarounds. I'll probably opt for the paranoid-conservative approach (changing as little as possible), and just kill the process and clear out the directory with a desktop-linked script, as you suggest.

Thanks.

Mike7
Carolite-1.2 w/FF38 on bootable 16G flash drive; Asus eeePC 1000HA, Atom CPU, 2G RAM, 160G HDD.

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Mike7
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Re: gvfsd-metadata bug (?)

#6 Post by Mike7 »

Hi, peebee.
Is this on Carolite-1.2 ??
Yes.
I've never seen this issue on LxPup which also includes gvfs and gvfsd-metadata.....
I never saw it before in TaskMan or Top in my Carolite, but things have tended to slow down and the fan speed up when I did large copies or moves, so maybe I just didn't notice it was running.

It definitely is "Not A Good Thing" <grin>.

Mike7
Carolite-1.2 w/FF38 on bootable 16G flash drive; Asus eeePC 1000HA, Atom CPU, 2G RAM, 160G HDD.

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#7 Post by Marv »

@Mike7
If you don't mind using google, the following is much more tolerant of special characters etc. than the forum search tool : http://wellminded.net63.net/
Pups currently in kennel :D Older LxPupSc and X-slacko-4.4 for my users; LxPupSc, LxPupSc64 and upupEF for me. All good pups indeed, and all running savefiles for look'n'feel only. Browsers, etc. solely from SFS.

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Mike7
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#8 Post by Mike7 »

Hi, Marv.
If you don't mind using google, the following is much more tolerant of special characters etc. than the forum search tool : http://wellminded.net63.net/
Thanks for the reminder. Unfortunately a wellminded search didn't turn up anything new on the subject.

It's a real bug, but it looks like no linux developers wanted to deal with it because the gvfs/gvfsd subroutines are so ubiquitous that it would probably mean redesigning all the programs that have them as dependencies, and there must be many such programs.

The work-arounds I included above are the only solutions I have found from a thorough google search including most forums of linux distros that use gvfsd.

Perhaps someday someone will tackle the problem. But look how long it took just to get Frisbee to work right, and that's only used on Puppy versions.

I don't know how gvfs/gvfsd work, but they are apparently a can of worms. Any file sub-system that has a system-determined floating cache size is, in my opinion, a mistake.

But what do I know?

Mike7
Carolite-1.2 w/FF38 on bootable 16G flash drive; Asus eeePC 1000HA, Atom CPU, 2G RAM, 160G HDD.

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