Former title: SSD having issues after I filled up its storage
I wrote this poorly last time so here’s a more clear description: Hey all, so I filled my SSD up on Linux Mint and it’s running sluggishly. I deleted more than half of my storage but there’s still issues. It can read / write fast according to my inexperienced testing and I have trimmed it (to my knowledge) but there’s still issues. Loading up programs now takes 30 seconds (even something like VLC which typically took like 0.5 seconds). Loading new audio files into VLC can take 10 seconds. I have checked my system monitor and nothing seems out of place. Also, when the program starts running, it runs perfectly. The computer itself is fast but loading anything new takes ages. Does anyone have any ideas? It’s a new laptop, not even two months old.
Edit: This is somehow, and strangely, a Flatpak issue apparently? It was triggered either by a full SSD or the new Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon update.
Edit 2: Interesting experiment result
‘it took 30 seconds but this got outputted and then the file ran: dave@dog: ~$ flatpak run org.x.Warpinator Gtx-Message: 14:29:03.389: Failed to load module “xapp-gtk3-module” Using landlock for incoming file isolation’
It appears there’s either a xdg-desktop-portal-gtk and/or xdg-desktop-portal-gnome error and I’m not alone, Mint and Arch users are both reporting it as of recent strangely???
This was a real sneaky fu(ker as it dodged all logical system testing. The only reason I caught it was cause it was suspicious how fast system programs booted and how flatpaks booted like sh(t. Not sure if I’m even right about the module, but I’m highly suspicious
Some comment mentioned this and it explained it well: Random shot, because it’s probably not an issue on Mint like it was on Arch a few months ago, but xdg-desktop-portal problems can cause apps to take forever to load, but run fine once loaded.
edit: Try removing xdg-desktop-portal-gtk and/or xdg-desktop-portal-gnome
It still sounds to me like something’s up with the disk. Can’t think of any solutions to suggest but I would run a SMART health check on it:
sudo apt install smartmontools
sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda
If you prefer a graphical tool, you can do the same thing with GNOME Disks, which also has options for disk benchmarking.
In the resulting report, the overall health state should be “PASSED”, the “Type” column should show “Pre-fail” and “Old age” values, and the “Media-Wearout-Indicator” should be close to 100. If the overall health state is “FAILED”, then you will want to back up your files immediately and consider getting a new SSD.
wait i think ive had a breakthrough, all system packages SEEM to run fine but all flatpak applications are effected. this seems to be flatpak related
just tested it, vlc system package opens in .2 seconds but flatpak opens in 30 seconds.
Definitely flatpak related then. Try running one of your flatpak apps from the terminal, and post the output here; might help pinpoint the issue. You can list the ones you have installed with flatpak list, then flatpak run .
Who’d have ever thought that having 47 copies of a library instead of using a shared library wouldn’t work out great. 🙄
ive tried that actuqllt, it said there was no dev/sda. it did aay there was a dev/nvme0. scanned it and it ‘passed’ but i can try again
I had this problem with flatpaks, I changed the dbus implementation to dbus-broker (in endeavouros) and it fixed the issue. It may be the same problem.
I installed dbus-broker and the package manager checked the dependencies and removed the unnecessary stuff. After that I applied the dbus-broker services:
systemctl enable dbus-broker.service
sudo systemctl --global enable dbus-broker.service
And then restarted.
Idk if it might break things in mint, so I would be cautious.
I had this issue as well, but my file system was broken when i was trashing a OS, I did not know it was xdg-desktop-portal-gtk or xdg-desktop-portal-gnome I think it was Debian with cinnamon or maybe LMDE.
Flatpak on Arch? Is what you want not in the AUR?
I’m sorry, I found your response confusing. Arch is a Linux distro, I know flatpak is available for it. If there’s a bug with flatpak, I would expect it to be pretty much the same across most GNU based Linux systems. My question, however, was why use flatpak on Arch Linux at all, as the AUR has pretty much everything including the kitchen sink… unless you are developing flatpaks, I guess, in which then it would make sense to me.
You don’t owe me an explanation, it just sounded odd to me to be needing flatpak when there was AUR, was all.
How long ago did you delete everything?
SSD’s dont work like old HD’s depending on the generation of tech it might be storing multiple values per cell which means when you “filled” the SSD you put a charge into every single storage cell on the drive.
Garbage collection and TRIM will slowly over time clear out all the cells flagged as deleted but if one bit is still valid in a cell that was holding 3-4 other bits it cant overwrite that, or relocate it.
That means that your files/videos and such stay fragmented and may never get put back together sequentially or in a way that the controller can optimize again for speed.
The only fix, may be running a factory wipe from the Drive MFG’s tool set, that should fully blank each cell and let you re-install and make it feel fresh again.
Be warned though, you have already done a full drive write once at least, this would be another. You can expect some dead cells and while there is over provisioning that should provide replacements you could see a loss in usable space sooner than later.
i deleted everything ywsterday, and i trimmed today. i was unaware of the dead cell issue. is there a way to disk defragment an ssd?
