Re: CD-blanking leads to machine freeze with current -git [was: Re: CD writing in future Linux try #2 [ was: Re: CD writing in future Linux (stirring up a hornets' nest) ]]

[Kyle Moffett <mrmacman_g4@mac.com>]

On Feb 10, 2006, at 14:39, Gene Heskett wrote:
> On Friday 10 February 2006 14:19, Phillip Susi wrote:
> > Marc Koschewski wrote:
> > > I just tried blanking a CD-RW with the latest -git tree. The  
> > > machine just became unresponsive and then froze. When it became  
> > > unresponsive the clock in GNOME still displayed the current time  
> > > but I could not focus any windows anymore. Then I had to hard  
> > > reboot the machine. The logs say nothing. I repeat: nothing.
> > >
> > > Does anyone have similar problems?
> >
> > Instead of rebooting, just wait for the blanking to finish.  My  
> > guess is that your burner and hard drive are both on the same ide  
> > channel, and so you can not access the disk while the burner is  
> > blanking.  If this is the case, put each drive on their own ide  
> > channel.
>
> It takes hard drive access to switch window focus? Yes, thats a  
> question.

Depends on your programs and RAM.  If the program you try to switch  
to (or, say, part of X or your window manage) is swapped out for some  
reason, then yes, changing focus may cause said program to hang until  
it can swap the data in.  Usually that's a small fraction of a  
second, but if your IDE bus is waiting for a burn, then it could be  
the duration of the burn.

Cheers,
Kyle Moffett

--
Premature optimization is the root of all evil in programming
  -- C.A.R. Hoare



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