Comment 128 for bug 330824

I think I am bitten by this, too, on AMD64, with a root fs converted from ext3 to ext4 using

tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/DEV

linux-image-2. 2.6.28-11.42

I have not found a way yet to trigger, "rm -rf" on ten thousand files once did not.

On an irregular basis I can see any app doing I/O to freeze for about 3 minutes.
Causing apps to do I/O (opening files etc) during that period freezes them, too.
I can continue working with anything that does not require/trigger disk I/O.
So this in fact seems to be a kernel lock on any disk I/O.

Periods between I/O freezes vary, it may be hours and sometimes only minutes.
Heavy disk I/O is not required.
There is nothing suspicous in any of the log files in /var/log/