[plug] Weird system pause - please help!

[Marcus Holmes]

Using Debian XFCE, I've suddenly got a strange erratic system hang in the
last week or so.

I've done some sleuthing, and this bit of my .bashrc:
HISTSIZE=1000
HISTFILESIZE=2000
causes a 20-25 second delay in the execution of .bashrc, during which every
other process running also pauses.

There's also the same delay at the end of the .bashrc execution and before
the terminal prompt appears. Renaming .bashrc doesn't affect the delay
before the prompt appears.

Attempting to open a file manager on my home folder also causes this delay
(but not if it opens on any other folder, but opening a terminal in another
folder still causes the delay).

Attempting to google the problem only takes me to endless tutorials on how
to set a delay in bash.

Anyone got any ideas?
My gut is telling me that there's a problem with my home folder that's
causing the disk driver to spin/timeout, but I don't know how to verify
this.

Thanks for any help,

Marcus
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