Olivier Langlois's blog

Update 4/06/13:

Cool, A bug fix to this discovered bug has been integrated into Vi0L0 ArchLinux catalyst package:

( 13/106) upgrading catalyst-utils [#####################################] 100%
---------------- I/O BUG -----------------------------------------
There's a bug in fglrx found by lano1106 which generates
great amount of unneeded I/O operations

To activate workaround enable systemd service:
systemctl enable temp-links-catalyst
systemctl start temp-links-catalyst

More infos:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1279977#p1279977
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1280193#p1280193
----------------------------------------------------------------

All I did during the strace session is calling glxinfo.

ano1106@whippet2 ~ $ su
Password:
whippet2 /home/lano1106 # ps -ef | grep X
lano1106 640 617 0 22:28 tty1 00:00:00 xinit /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc -- /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc
root 641 640 0 22:28 ? 00:00:02 /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp :0 vt1
root 2965 2957 0 23:31 pts/2 00:00:00 grep --color=auto X
whippet2 /home/lano1106 # strace -p641 -o/tmp/x_strace2.txt
Process 641 attached
^CProcess 641 detached
whippet2 /home/lano1106 # grep amdpcsdb /tmp/x_strace2.txt
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
open("/etc/ati/amdpcsdb", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 35
whippet2 /home/lano1106 # grep atiapfxx.blb /tmp/x_strace2.txt
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35
open("/etc/ati/atiapfxx.blb", O_RDONLY) = 35

amdpcsdb is about 30 KB long. Considering that glxinfo execution is slightly less than a second long and during that time the file recreated 30 times, that rougly means 1 MB/sec writing on disk if you invoke short opengl applications in a tight loop. It seems to happen on startup of any mesa application.

Say goodbye to your SSD lifespan :-)