Constant i/o traffic on automounted ssd

Support
1

Hello
I have a somewhat strange problem with my SSD that is automounted via systemd following the instructions, I found in the tutorial here.

The mounting and access is all working well, but I observe and hear a constant activation of the SSD.
Disconnecting the drive via

sudo systemctl disable --now home-christian-passport.automount

immediately stops traffic, and i also don’t hear the drive getting active again. My assumption is that I have set an option wrong, but for the live of me I can’t figure it out

[Unit]
Description=passportEXT

[Mount]
What=/dev/disk/by-uuid/8cab75e7-0d58-4e4c-b7d7-518aacb65c4b
Where=/home/christian/passport
Type=ext4
Options= rw,noatime
#TimeoutSec=seconds

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

[Unit]
Description=Automount PassportEXT

[Automount]
Where=/home/christian/passport
TimeoutIdleSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

I have added the KDE tag to this as I’m running an XFCE DE on a machine that came preinstalled with plasma. I mention that as I have found a couple of entries mentioning a similar behavior with khelper, but neither of those were offering a solution.

While I don’t think the INXI output will give reasonable info,

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.28-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.15-x86_64
    root=UUID=6df714e4-3531-4c3a-b021-525f88beda09 rw quiet apparmor=1
    security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.16.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.29 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm
    v: 4.16.1 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.30.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: BESSTAR TECH model: UM700 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: 5.14 date: 11/04/2021
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Ryzen 7 3750H with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx bits: 64
    type: MT MCP arch: Zen/Zen+ note: check family: 0x17 (23)
    model-id: 0x18 (24) stepping: 1 microcode: 0x8108109
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 384 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x64 KiB L2: 2 MiB desc: 4x512 KiB L3: 4 MiB
    desc: 1x4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1295 high: 1567 min/max: 1400/2300 boost: enabled
    scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: schedutil cores: 1: 1393 2: 1567
    3: 1294 4: 1318 5: 1235 6: 1201 7: 1178 8: 1177 bogomips: 36744
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass
    mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1
    mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2
    mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Picasso/Raven 2 [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Mobile Series]
    driver: amdgpu v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports:
    active: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1,DP-2,DP-3 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:15d8
    class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 compositor: xfwm v: 4.16.1 driver:
    X: loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0.0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22")
    s-diag: 582mm (22.93")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-1 model: HP V24 serial: <filter>
    built: 2021 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 92 gamma: 1.2
    size: 531x299mm (20.91x11.77") diag: 618mm (24.3") ratio: 16:9 modes:
    max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD Radeon Vega 10 Graphics (RAVEN DRM 3.42.0
    5.15.28-1-MANJARO LLVM 13.0.1)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 21.3.7 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 04:00.1
    chip-ID: 1002:15de class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor driver: snd_pci_acp3x
    v: kernel alternate: snd_rn_pci_acp3x,snd_pci_acp5x pcie: gen: 3
    speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 04:00.5 chip-ID: 1022:15e2 class-ID: 0480
  Device-3: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: Realtek
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 04:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403
  Device-4: C-Media Audio Adapter (Unitek Y-247A) type: USB
    driver: cmedia_hs100b,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus-ID: 3-2.1:4
    chip-ID: 0d8c:0014 class-ID: 0300
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.28-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.20 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wireless 7265 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:095a class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Ethernet I225-V driver: igc v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 link-max: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s port: N/A
    bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:15f3 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 3-2.2:5 chip-ID: 8087:0a2a class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: see --recommends
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.3 TiB used: 204.5 GiB (8.7%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Kingston model: OM8PDP3512B-A01
    size: 476.94 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s
    lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: EDFK0S03 temp: 45.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 type: USB vendor: Western Digital
    model: WD My Passport 25E1 size: 1.82 TiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 1021 scheme: GPT
  ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB model: General USB Flash Disk
    size: 14.57 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: SSD
    serial: <filter> rev: 1.00 scheme: MBR
  SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 476.64 GiB size: 468.09 GiB (98.21%)
    used: 204.5 GiB (43.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 288 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 26.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 49.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 274 Uptime: 19m wakeups: 0 Memory: 13.67 GiB
  used: 1.57 GiB (11.5%) Init: systemd v: 250 tool: systemctl Compilers:
  gcc: 11.2.0 clang: 13.0.1 Packages: pacman: 1676 lib: 422 flatpak: 0
  Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.3.14
2

You understand that it will constantly umount after 10sec idle and therefore “deactivate” the SSD? And if a program needs to access it while it was 10sec idle it will activate again.

3 Likes
3

Now that you point this out I do understand this. Thank you very much for your help.

1 Like
4

baloo the KDE indexer is most likely the cause of the repeated activations.

Move the device mount point to an outside structure - e.g. /data/passport - (remember to rename the unit files)

5

Thank you for the advice, is baloo only indexing the home directory? Dies it also affect symbolic links?

6

Removable devices is not indexed - but - not all USB attached devices is regarded removable.

You can verify if the a devices is removable by attaching the device - open a terminal and run

lsblk

Look at the column RM if it has the number 1 it is removable.

Depending on your habits and needs you adjust the search settings - in System Settings → Search

There you have File Search and Plasma Search - the latter is also reachable from KRunner settings.

7

Again thank you very much for the useful feedback. I decided to follow most of the advice given, such as the location of the mount point, as well as the time till disconnect.

In also reinstalled Manjaro, as the preinstall on the mini pc came with plasma, which I din’t really like that much any longer, so with straight xfce install baloo is history as well.

Let me repeat how much I appreciate the helpful feedback that i have received from everyone.

8

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