Comment 39 for bug 517021

I would like to add that I don't think that the original bug reported with this bug report, is identical with the way this gvfs-metadata bug behaves in its later version as running rm -rf ~/.local/share/gvfs-metadata stops the infinite disk writing for just few minutes and that it starts again. Not only does it put the HDD under a strain (especially SSDs), it also kills the battery on laptop devices quicker especially when an ordinary HDD is used.

The finding that the bug is easily reproducible with the Super Start firefox extension is interesting. I'm using a similar extension on both my machines where this bug appears; it's Speed DIal [FWD] in my case. Some previous bug reports mention that the bug is triggered when using HTML5 Video Everywhere - another firefox plugin.

Is it possible that some of the libraries used by firefox produce files (or do something else) that than somehow confuse gvfs-metadata and force it to go into infinite writing loop?! If so, can this be also a firefox bug? Not that gvfs-metadata shouldn't be able to handle such situations.