[Lenovo ThinkPad X220] Computer unusable under memory pressure with no swap space

[Marius Gedminas]

I've a laptop with 8 gigabytes of RAM, an Intel SSD, and no swap partition (because I don't want to wear out my SSD).

Since I upgraded to Ubuntu 14.10, about once a week my laptop suddenly goes into happy-swap-land:

- HDD led is on all the time
- windows stop redrawing
- mouse cursor doesn't move (or moves about 1/2px per minute max)
- CapsLock takes 60 seconds between keypress and the LED turning on

I just had another episode and gave it 25 minutes to get better. It didn't. I had to Alt-SysRq-S,U,B to get back a working computer.

I had `atop` installed, so I've snapshots of the system state taken every 10 minutes. These show sda being busy 100% of the time, reading 250 MB/s, with all the running processes being responsible for the reads (e.g. Skype read 13.5 GB of data in one 10 minute window). They also show the number of scanned pages jumped up to to 2744e5, and then up to1630e6 and stayed there.

As far as I can tell, this means the kernel decided to free some pages and started evicting mapped library/executable pages which only got read back in the next instant because running programs need those pages to run.

I've no idea why the OOM killer didn't kick in.

I've no idea why the kernel didn't discard some pages from the page cache. atop shows the page cache was 4.1G during all that time and didn't go up or down.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10
Package: linux-image-3.16.0-25-generic 3.16.0-25.33
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-25.33-generic 3.16.7
Uname: Linux 3.16.0-25-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.7-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: mg 3394 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Fri Nov 7 10:10:44 2014
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=bf592a79-5f4e-486d-b69d-7525d492dcc6
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-07-25 (834 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: LENOVO 4291WJF
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-25-generic root=UUID=36079681-53fc-4ca2-80ac-98321c07e8d2 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.16.0-25-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.16.0-25-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.138
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to utopic on 2014-10-24 (13 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 07/18/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 8DET69WW (1.39 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 4291WJF
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr8DET69WW(1.39):bd07/18/2013:svnLENOVO:pn4291WJF:pvrThinkPadX220:rvnLENOVO:rn4291WJF:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 4291WJF
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X220
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Marius Gedminas, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. Could you please test the latest upstream kernel available from the very top line at the top of the page (the release names are irrelevant for testing in your release) following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested exactly shown as:
kernel-fixed-upstream-3.18-rc3

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]