Disk Analyzer is glacially slow

[Mintstant Karma]

Several times in the last few months I've tried to figure out what's using up space on my SSD (where Linux Mint resides). But every time I launch Disk Usage Analyzer it just seems to be working endlessly, never giving any results. For example, I launched this current attempt 37 minutes ago, and counting, and I'm still seeing this:

I'm also curious to know why the 'timeshift' folder/directory is separated out from the rest.


For what it's worth, here's the output of inxi -Fxxxrz. (I realize my storage is nearly full, but that's not on the system drive, nor did I click on that drive in Disk Usage Analyzer; I clicked on the SSD.)


mintstant@mintstant-MS-7522:~$ inxi -Fxxxrz
System:
Kernel: 5.4.0-91-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0
Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.7 wm: muffin 5.0.2 dm: LightDM 1.30.0
Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: MSI model: MSI X58 Pro-E (MS-7522) v: 3.0
serial: <filter> BIOS: American Megatrends v: 8.31B7 date: 11/26/2010
CPU:
Topology: 6-Core model: Intel Core i7 970 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Nehalem rev: 2 L2 cache: 12.0 MiB
flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 76995
Speed: 1911 MHz min/max: 1600/3201 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz):
1: 2055 2: 2293 3: 3448 4: 1944 5: 1946 6: 2503 7: 3339 8: 1787 9: 1823
10: 2635 11: 2168 12: 3019
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GF106 [GeForce GTS 450] vendor: eVga.com. driver: nvidia
v: 390.144 bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10de:0dc4
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: nvidia
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTS 450/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.144
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel 82801JI HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:3a3e
Device-2: Conexant Systems CX23887/8 PCIe Broadcast Audio and Video
Decoder with 3D Comb
vendor: Hauppauge works driver: cx23885 v: 0.0.4 bus ID: 01:00.0
chip ID: 14f1:8880
Device-3: NVIDIA GF106 High Definition Audio vendor: eVga.com.
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 02:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0be9
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-91-generic
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: Micro-Star MSI X58 Pro-E driver: r8169 v: kernel port: d800
bus ID: 06:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168
IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Device-2: Realtek RTL8190 802.11n PCI Wireless Network Adapter driver: N/A
port: e800 bus ID: 08:01.0 chip ID: 10ec:8190
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 2.27 TiB used: 2.05 TiB (90.1%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Hitachi model: HDS721010CLA332 size: 931.51 GiB
speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: A3EA
ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Hitachi model: HDS721010CLA332 size: 931.51 GiB
speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: A3EA
ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Samsung model: SSD 850 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB
speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 1B6Q scheme: MBR
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 456.95 GiB used: 316.98 GiB (69.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdc5
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 46 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 30%
Repos:
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/ stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com uma main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main
Info:
Processes: 404 Uptime: 13h 28m Memory: 9.72 GiB used: 8.33 GiB (85.7%)
Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash
v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38
mintstant@mintstant-MS-7522:~$

[all41]

slowness
Memory: 9.72 GiB used: 8.33 GiB (85.7%)
My guess is you're hitting swap hard.
Decent processor though

[Mintstant Karma]

I noticed that RAM usage too -- just as I was posting yesterday. Later I opened the System Monitor and it was even higher: somewhere around 95%. And you were right: my swap usage was very high. I closed a bunch of Chromium tabs and now today on reboot my memory stats are 61% with 13% swap.

But Disk Usage Analyzer still isn't working. 40 minutes and still no results. I'm still trying to close more browser tabs but I've got so many projects going.

I'm also wondering about CPU usage. A while ago I saw an awful lot of activity (while the analyzer was spinning endlessly). Notice a few of those cores are peaking at nearly 100%.

But the processes listed at the same time did not seem to jibe at all. That showed only the Disk Usage Analyzer (baobab) using any cycles.

Can you make sense of that discrepancy?

[Petermint]

System Monitor has a setting to show all processes. Is it on? With that option switched on, there is still a small difference on my machine.

What is the memory/cache/swap display showing when the disk analyser runs? If you have heaps of files, an application can stay way under the maximum memory, avoiding swap. but the file cache will continually drop entries to make room for new entries and the whole process will run at disk speed instead of reusing file cache entries.

The next problem might be an area of disk with read errors, making the disk retry.

[Mintstant Karma]

System Monitor has a setting to show all processes. Is it on?

Oh, interesting! I hadn't explored the menu. Mine was set to "My processes" so I switched to "All processes" and launched Disk Usage Analyzer again. As you experienced, there wasn't much difference in the list -- nothing that explained the wild lines I was seeing on the graphical display, with some CPU cores again hitting 70% to near 100% regularly. I guess I have to conclude that the "% CPU" column simply doesn't correlate to the % figure in the graph. Perhaps since only a few individual cores are reaching those high numbers and a greater number of them are practically inactive, the average usage is still low, and that's what's shown in the list. I read the Help files but didn't see anything there to support or refute that guess.

Interesting side note: When I set the display to show "Active processes" -- a third option -- the (very active) Disk Usage Analyzer didn't even appear. That's just strange.

As for your question about memory/cache/swap, I seem to recall it was just two flat lines last time I looked, and something like 25% usage for the top line. I forget which was which.

But that leads me to my next point, which was also for all41. ...

I finally got smart and shut down Chromium, which was by far the memory hog thanks to all my open tabs. Then I got sidetracked by an update notification for both Firefox and Chromium, which I accepted, and they took longer than any update I can remember: half an hour or so. Whether that was related to the other slowness I don't know. Could've been an overloaded server I suppose. Usually a "big" update for me is done in less than five minutes!

Finally I started Disk Usage Analyzer again. Even without Chromium running it was working for at least half an hour with no output -- so I took a nap. When I came back I finally saw a graphical display of my disk usage. Since it's working, I'll mark this SOLVED, even though I'd still welcome any new insights. My memory usage is currently hovering around 45% with Chromium running dozens of tabs, so I don't seem to be that starved for physical memory. Maybe my memory of Disk Usage Analyzer is distorted but I thought it used to be a lot faster.

Anyway thank you both for the feedback.

[Mintstant Karma]

Decent processor though

Thanks, I take that as a personal compliment because it's an 11(?) year old system and I researched processors pretty heavily back when I bought it. I was doing a lot of work for SETI@home and other distributed-computing projects, so that was a really important component to me. It does seem to serve me well, still.

On a side note I also had 12 GB of RAM originally, which was a lot for its day, but one module went bad and I have yet to replace it.

[all41]

In Users and Groups temporarily create a new user for troubleshooting.
Log out and log back in as the new user and rerun your tests--particularly your system resources.
New users get a fresh set of config files--try it there.
You should not be hitting swap like that--my guess--a yet to be determined process is running in the background.
Also for troubleshooting boot to a live desktop using your install flash/dvd iso.
Check the processes there and compare with your current readings.

[Mintstant Karma]

Hmm, I'd love to oblige but I'm afraid you lost me with the very first step. Users and groups?

I went here index.php but don't see anything by that name.

Ah! On my system... got it!

account type: standard or administrator?

[all41]

Doesn't matter--you will not need admin privileges to observe the system monitor
Processor activity should be near zero for all cores with a freshly created new user.
zero swap as well

[Mintstant Karma]

Man, that was scary. I might need more hand-holding. I've never switched users before and wasn't sure I could get back, especially when passwords were mentioned and everything looked different. Thankfully I'm back.

I also couldn't recall the terminal command I needed, so instead I went to the System Reports/System Info application. Then I also didn't know how I'd be able to transfer the data. Chromium on the new profile doesn't have my password manager so I couldn't even log into the forum if I tried. I really needed you over my shoulder.

I copied the system info to the clipboard, but is that on the NEW user's clipboard??

Well evidently so. I just tried pasting here but there was only the last thing I copied in my original profile. However I did write down this data while in the new one...

Processes: 431
Uptime: 10 h 17 m
Memory: 9.72 GiB
used: 5.26 GiB
(54.1%)

But now I see that wasn't what you asked for. Bear with me.

[Mintstant Karma]

Log out and log back in as the new user and rerun your tests--particularly your system resources.
New users get a fresh set of config files--try it there.

Rerun what tests, specifically?

Try what, where?

I need a bit more detail, I'm afraid.

[Mintstant Karma]

Also for troubleshooting boot to a live desktop using your install flash/dvd iso.
Check the processes there and compare with your current readings.

Unfortunately my installation flash drive stopped working long ago.

{sigh}

I'm really trying to help you help me. But there's a lot I don't know. Many parts of Linux/Mint are familiar to me now, but many are still foreign.

[all41]

While logged in as the new user go directly to your Menu and start the System Monitor.
Under the resources tab observe the reports for cpu usage and memory/swap.
You should remove SOLVED from the topic title--let's get more heads on this.

[Mintstant Karma]

OK, I'm starting to get the hang of the user switches. Went back again to the new profile. Copied all of the following onto paper:

In System Monitor, processor activity isn't near zero but it is low: less than 10% for all cores.

Memory usage is 43% (4.2 GiB of 9.7 GiB)

cache: 2.7 GiB

swap: 316.5 MiB (15.5%) of 2.0 GiB

While writing these notes I noticed a spike in the CPU usage in one core -- up to 50% briefly, through no action on my part.

Network history is showing occasional spikes

Now more cores are active, and one spiked to 100%

Should there be network activity? Data is being sent and received, though I'm seeing only "bytes" so I suppose that's safe?

Also, should I ignore the Welcome / Update manager screen, as I have been?

Ah, I see your latest post now, after all of that was done -- happy to say I did what you advised. Also removing the SOLVED.

[all41]

The network activity could just be a few housekeeping bytes between your system and the router.
Good that you are seeing less processor activity--but the memory usage seems excessive for
a fresh reboot--and the swap usage still. Why is swap being utilized?? I don't have a clue.
Here is where booting to a live desktop using an install .iso would be helpful--having a bootable usb device
is a great troubleshooting tool
for comparison:

Notice the swap report--

[Mintstant Karma]

I appreciate your suggestion, all41. I just haven't had time to troubleshoot that lately, or to create a bootable USB device. Nothing lately seems slow like Disk Analyzer had been, so I've at least temporarily moved onto bigger fires. Occasionally I'll launch System Monitor again and sometimes it'll look pretty quiescent like yours. Other times the memory usage is high, probably due to dozens of open Chromium tabs. I won't mark it "solved" since I don't think anything we've mentioned so far would help anyone else with the same problem. Thanks for the replies.

[tripleo]

Just to chime in, my Disk Analyzer is slow, but I suspect that is because I have ALOT of small files on spinning rust.

My questions is isn't something like Disk Analyzer i/o bound instead of processor bound? What does the processor have to do with anything?