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[Daniel van Vugt <daniel.van.vugt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This used to be a problem with early Unity (v5/v6?) doing I/O bound
operations in threads used for rendering. Which is obviously bad. Maybe
we haven't fully solved that yet or regressed.

Also, the choice of filesystem formats used on the USB drive could be a
factor. In Ubuntu/Gnome/Nautilus I think the formats NTFS and ExFAT for
example are handled in userspace via GVFS [1]. So try some USB drives
that are ext2/ext3/ext4/FAT32 to compare.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GVfs

Either way, there's no excuse for this bug. If it was fast in 14.04 then
it should be at least as fast in 16.04.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1581651

Title:
  Xenial desktop unusable under simple I/O through USB

Status in linux package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete
Status in linux source package in Xenial:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  
  Hello!

  After installing Xenial [0] I experience the following: when I do I/O through USB (to/from simple pendrives, or an
  external HDD I have), the desktop becomes unusable, because it goes very very unresponsive.

  With unresponsive I mean:

  - all windows go greyed out (like when it's failing to answer in time,
  as if the process inside that window locked up)

  - firefox and thunderbird start to pop up the typical "the script is taking too much to finis, want to kill
  it/continue/etc" (in whatever tab I'll be, so it's not the JS scripts (for once!)

  - the mouse pointer goes jumpy, not really following my hand movement

  - I see in thee indicator-multiload widget that CPU time is "wasted"
  in "waiting i/o"; which I confirmed looking at "top".

  So, in short: even while understanding that CPU would wait a little for i/o and that the system will be under a little
  load by writing a pen-drive, I find current situation beyond a normal experience.

  How can I start to debug this? What I can try? Can I provide you more
  info?

  Thanks!

  Regards,

  [0] from scratch, in the computer where I always work; I previously
  had Trusty here

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
  Package: linux-image-4.4.0-21-generic 4.4.0-21.37
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-21.37-generic 4.4.6
  Uname: Linux 4.4.0-21-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia_modeset nvidia
  ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2
  Architecture: amd64
  AudioDevicesInUse:
   USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
   /dev/snd/controlC1:  facundo    2338 F.... pulseaudio
   /dev/snd/controlC3:  facundo    2338 F.... pulseaudio
   /dev/snd/controlC2:  facundo    2338 F.... pulseaudio
   /dev/snd/controlC0:  facundo    2338 F.... pulseaudio
  CurrentDesktop: Unity
  Date: Fri May 13 16:13:12 2016
  HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=5dabff2e-722b-4c99-8bf5-003643ad0d04
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-04-01 (42 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Beta amd64 (20160323)
  MachineType: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-970A-D3
  ProcFB:
   
  ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-21-generic root=UUID=6ba5d9f5-e21f-4e58-800d-89ec0b7d1e9b ro quiet splash
  RelatedPackageVersions:
   linux-restricted-modules-4.4.0-21-generic N/A
   linux-backports-modules-4.4.0-21-generic  N/A
   linux-firmware                            1.157
  RfKill:
   
  SourcePackage: linux
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
  dmi.bios.date: 10/13/2011
  dmi.bios.vendor: Award Software International, Inc.
  dmi.bios.version: F7
  dmi.board.name: GA-970A-D3
  dmi.board.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
  dmi.board.version: x.x
  dmi.chassis.type: 3
  dmi.chassis.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
  dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAwardSoftwareInternational,Inc.:bvrF7:bd10/13/2011:svnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:pnGA-970A-D3:pvr:rvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:rnGA-970A-D3:rvrx.x:cvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:ct3:cvr:
  dmi.product.name: GA-970A-D3
  dmi.sys.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

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