Dealing apt-get tasks is really slow under btrfs

[František Zatloukal]

Dealing apt-get tasks is really slow under btrfs filesystem. It is usually about on 500% time of ext4. Tested with stock mount options and my custom (compress=lzo autodefrag) - no difference. Tested on x86_64 and x86 system too. Tested on two different machines.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: apt-utils 0.8.16~exp12ubuntu7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-22.35-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-22-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Apr 9 20:57:09 2012
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta amd64 (20120330)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=cs_CZ.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: apt
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

I'm assuming that you're talking about the usual problem with btrfs that package installations/removals/etc take a long time. This is caused by dpkg synchronising the file system after a file was written. This turns out to be very slow on btrfs, but needed for reliability. You can work around the problem using the eatmydata package, but this is not really recommended.

[Bart (dmitriy-murzin)]

I have the exact same problem (Ubuntu 12.04.1 x86)