Strange files, slow resopnse, evolution problem with recent updates

[John Austin]

On Mon, 2009-09-21 at 14:03 +0100, John Austin wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I have just returned from holiday and updated F11 to latest state
> Server Centos 5.3 also updated
> 
> There was no problem afaik before the upgrades !!!!
> 
> My F11 client uses kdm, xfce, evolution ...
> and my home directory is an nfs4 mount from the server
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 1. My backup script fails - refusing to copy files of the type
> 
> cp: cannot open `/home/ja/.local/share/applications/defaults.list.3PEP0U' for reading: Permission denied
> 
> naxos ~ 78# ls -l /home/ja/.local/share/applications/defaults.list.I4ZS0U
> ---------- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-05-08 03:02 /home/ja/.local/share/applications/defaults.list.I4ZS0U
> 
> cp: cannot open `/home/ja/.kde/share/config/kconf_updaterc.lockGuIM8a.tmp' for reading: Permission denied
> 
> naxos ~ 87# ls -l /home/ja/.kde/share/config/kconf_updaterc.lockGuIM8a.tmp
> ---------- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-02-01 03:34 /home/ja/.kde/share/config/kconf_updaterc.lockGuIM8a.tmp
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 
> With zero length and 000 permissions
> naxos ~ 86# find . -type f -size 0 -perm 000 |grep  ".kde/share/config/*" |wc
>   11336   11336  532781
> 
> Even more with just zero length
> naxos ~ 84# find . -type f -size 0 |grep  ".kde/share/config/*" |wc
>   23783   23783 1117791
> 
> The vast majority of the files are associated with kde !
> naxos ~ 5# ja_null_files_ls |wc -l
> 43087
> naxos ~ 6# ja_null_files_ls |grep .kde |wc -l
> 43008
> 
> There are a lot of these files in my home directory! 240,000 at one stage !!!!
> They take a very long time to delete
> 
> The dates are strange some being in years 1970 and some 2038
> 
> ############################################################
> Update
> My nfs4 mounted home directory is saved on a SSD disk
> with noatime set
> Removing the noatime seems to get rid of the 2038 dated file problem
> other problems described here are still present
> ############################################################
> 
> Why have these files appeared or have they always been there
> If so why does my simple cp now treat them differently
> 
> 
> 2. Evolution is now having great difficulty in reading/saving/deleting/filtering files
> 	Is this to do with problem 1 ?
> 	Also - when creating new message in evo a box pops up with
> Could not save to autosave file "".
> Error saving to autosave because "Could not open autosave file".
> 
> 3. Thunar has great difficulty in showing thumbnails
> and deselects thumbnails when changing directory
> pcmanfm seems to work OK
> 
> Is it a kde, nfs ... problem ?
> 
> Any suggestions welcome
> 
> John
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> PS
> I have 4 little scripts to investigate with
> 
> For 1970 dated files 
> naxos ~ 1# cat bin/ja_null_files_ls
> #!/bin/bash
> find $HOME -type f -size 0  -mtime +10000 -print0 | xargs -0 ls -l
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> For 2038 dated files
> naxos ~ 2# cat bin/ja_null_files_ls_future
> #!/bin/bash
> find $HOME -type f -size 0  -newermt "2030-02-01"  -print0 | xargs -0 ls -l
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> Second pair of scripts have rm instead of ls -l
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> naxos ~ 9# ja_null_files_ls |less
> ---------- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-04-13 14:24 /home/ja/.evolution/.evolution-composer.autosave-3Q3D0U
> ---S--srw- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-04-11 04:20 /home/ja/.evolution/.evolution-composer.autosave-ATZC0U
> ---------- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-04-18 16:02 /home/ja/.evolution/.evolution-composer.autosave-DFFE0U
> ---S--srw- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-04-19 08:56 /home/ja/.evolution/.evolution-composer.autosave-EKHJ0U
> ---------- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-04-12 14:56 /home/ja/.evolution/.evolution-composer.autosave-GPAN0U
> ---------- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-04-17 22:57 /home/ja/.evolution/.evolution-composer.autosave-GUYR0U
> ---------- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-04-11 21:30 /home/ja/.evolution/.evolution-composer.autosave-GWOH0U
> ---S--srw- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-04-20 01:59 /home/ja/.evolution/.evolution-composer.autosave-JXSW0U
> ---S--srw- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-04-15 01:59 /home/ja/.evolution/.evolution-composer.autosave-OAMW0U
> ---S--srw- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-04-14 07:59 /home/ja/.evolution/.evolution-composer.autosave-QAJS0U
> ---S--srw- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-04-17 05:51 /home/ja/.evolution/.evolution-composer.autosave-RTTF0U
> ---------- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-04-16 12:45 /home/ja/.evolution/.evolution-composer.autosave-S9ZU0U
> ---S--srw- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-04-15 19:31 /home/ja/.evolution/.evolution-composer.autosave-ZYQT0U
> ---------- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-01-14 17:26 /home/ja/.kde/share/config/kconf_updaterc06fevc.new
> ---------- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-01-14 22:22 /home/ja/.kde/share/config/kconf_updaterc0A5kOa.new
> ---------- 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-01-18 12:39 /home/ja/.kde/share/config/kconf_updaterc0EZsJa.new
> --w-rw---x 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-01-14 22:15 /home/ja/.kde/share/config/kconf_updaterc0I2gOa.new
> -r--rwx-wx 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-01-18 14:51 /home/ja/.kde/share/config/kconf_updaterc0Ii9Yb.new
> ---xrwx-wx 1 ja sysadmin 0 1970-01-13 17:19 /home/ja/.kde/share/config/kconf_updaterc0JJLgc.new
> ...
> 
> 
Problem explained, I think - not tested yet - a somewhat surprising
answer!

Centos 5.3/4 / RHEL 5.3/4 are shipping a buggered kernel !

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=524520

John