mount.ntfs and CPU %

[bad medicine]

I'm having sluggish/temporary freeze behavior lately and one thing I notice is that a process called mount.ntfs is consuming up to 100% CPU during some of these episodes. What is it, and can I do anything about it using so much %?

[Lemongrass38]

Hi bad medicine, have you edited your /etc/fstab file? Could you post it here, please?

As I see, it's easier and safer to edit that file with the disks utility. If you have changed that, maybe you can try reverting the change and setting auto-mount in disks and see if it helps.

[bad medicine]

I havent edited it to my recollection, but I forget things easily In fact I can't remember how to find the contents of fstab, but as soon as I do I can post it.

I manually mount my storage drive each time I start Linux, if that helps. Other than that I don't mount anything on a regular basis.

[austin.texas]

I can't remember how to find the contents of fstab, but as soon as I do I can post it.

In a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+t):

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cat /etc/fstab

[bad medicine]

Here it is

ThinkPad-T410 ~ $ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=53d446d9-2eb2-4a33-bc4c-1c550782c72a / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=6a6c6e32-bb99-42b2-8398-8ae73ae1cda1 none swap sw 0 0
ThinkPad-T410 ~ $

[austin.texas]

The request to see the contents of fstab was to see if there was a problem in that file. There is none. The problem is elsewhere.

[austin.texas]

Are you accessing an external drive? USB or LAN?

[bad medicine]

Are you accessing an external drive? USB or LAN?

I occasionally use a thumb drive but I've not been using one when the CPU % shoots up. Havent used one in a week. Other than that, I never use an external drive.

[austin.texas]

Please post the result of

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inxi -Fxz

[bad medicine]

wayne@wayne-ThinkPad-T410 ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System: Host: wayne-ThinkPad-T410 Kernel: 3.13.0-37-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.8.2)
Desktop: Cinnamon 2.8.8 (Gtk 3.10.8~8+qiana)
Distro: Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa
Machine: System: LENOVO (portable) product: 2522WT4 v: ThinkPad T410
Mobo: LENOVO model: 2522WT4
Bios: LENOVO v: 6IET84WW (1.44 ) date: 09/26/2012
CPU: Dual core Intel Core i5 M 520 (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 9576
clock speeds: max: 2400 MHz 1: 1199 MHz 2: 1199 MHz 3: 1199 MHz
4: 1199 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller
bus-ID: 00:02.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1280x800@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ironlake Mobile
GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k3.13.0-37-generic
Network: Card-1: Intel 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection
driver: e1000e v: 2.3.2-k port: 1820 bus-ID: 00:19.0
IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
Card-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200
driver: iwlwifi v: in-tree: bus-ID: 03:00.0
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 320.1GB (42.5% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: TOSHIBA_MK3261GS size: 320.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 38G used: 12G (33%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda7
ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.08GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda6
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 42.0C mobo: 0.0C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 1971
Info: Processes: 176 Uptime: 3:18 Memory: 1042.6/3751.2MB
Init: Upstart runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.111) inxi: 2.2.28
wayne@wayne-ThinkPad-T410 ~ $

[austin.texas]

The next time the problem occurs, try to get the results of the command:

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mount

I am guessing that you have some ntfs partitions in addition to the linux partitions. Right?
Show

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sudo parted --list

[bad medicine]

Yes I have a Windows partition, a restore partition, and other junk I don't even remember

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 12.6GB 12.6GB primary ntfs diag
2 12.6GB 12.9GB 300MB primary ntfs boot
3 12.9GB 118GB 105GB primary ntfs
4 118GB 320GB 202GB extended lba
5 118GB 275GB 157GB logical ntfs
7 275GB 316GB 41.2GB logical ext4
6 316GB 320GB 4079MB logical linux-swap(v1)

[bad medicine]

The next time the problem occurs, try to get the results of the command:

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mount

The % changes so rapidly its hard to execute the command right before it drops off. But here are 2 examples taken as quickly as possible when I saw the % at 30% (first one) and 70+%. They may be identical, I didn't compare

33%

$ mount
/dev/sda7 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (rw)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,size=10%,mode=0755)
none on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=5242880)
none on /run/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /run/user type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=104857600,mode=0755)
none on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
systemd on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,none,name=systemd)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=wayne)
/dev/sda5 on /media/wayne/storage type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions,blksize=4096)

70+%

$ mount
/dev/sda7 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (rw)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,size=10%,mode=0755)
none on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=5242880)
none on /run/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /run/user type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=104857600,mode=0755)
none on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
systemd on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,none,name=systemd)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=wayne)
/dev/sda5 on /media/wayne/storage type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,default_permissions,blksize=4096)

[austin.texas]

one thing I notice is that a process called mount.ntfs is consuming up to 100% CPU during some of these episodes.

I really don't see anything wrong with your mount of /dev/sda5. That is the only thing that could be related to "mount.ntfs".
Does the problem only occur when that partition is mounted?
You could use these instructions to mount the "storage" partition, instead of doing it manually. Maybe that would give you different results. It might be worth a try.

[bad medicine]

I always have that mounted so I don't know if it happens when its not mounted. I have my browser and email profiles in there so I can't do much without it mounted. But I do know that getting slowed down by it is a recent development.

If it gets annoying enough I'll that fix you linked, but I'm too lazy to do it unless I really need to