Re: gnome desktop hangs, nfs, trash can

[William Lachance <wlach nit ca>]

On Wed, 2004-04-07 at 15:04, Calin Tenitchi wrote:
> Thanks for all the great work Gnome developers have done! Amazing stuff...
> 
> We have converted from Windows to Linux (Fedora Core 1/Gnome desktop) 
> but we have some problems with the desktop locking up due to NFS 
> disruptions. Trashcan operations results in unreasonable response time 
> (1-2 minutes) during which the desktop does not respond and is not 
> redrawn. To an untrained eye it looks like Linux has crashed.

We use NFS here to mount the home directories (using autofs) and we
generally don't have any problems with the trash can (or Nautilus in
general) so long as the network isn't overly congested. 

It sounds to me as if the resolution to your problem lies with changing
your server setup to make NFS more responsive. [ I wish I could suggest
replacing NFS with something that didn't suck, but alas there is no
reasonable alternative at the present time AFAIK ]

> Are there any known problems with Gnome hanging when NFS acts up?

I have noticed that Nautilus has effectively frozen on some occasions
while looking for trash folders on randomly mounted NFS volumes. And of
course, if GNOME is looking for some piece of data (e.g.: session state,
a configuration key) in your home directory while NFS is acting up, then
you could have freezes or unresponsive behaviour. 

-- 
William Lachance <wlach nit ca>
Network Integration Technologies