Kernel nrjQL 3.15.8-99 with better HyperThread and Realtime!

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NicCo
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Kernel nrjQL 3.15.8-99 with better HyperThread and Realtime!

Post by NicCo »

A new technology in the BFS scheduler, it would improve: responsiveness and realtime for all PC with HT (HyperThread) cpu
and the kernel will perform in perfect realtime behaviour... , (despite this may cost 0.1 less cpu throughput)


this News has been announced just yesterday, I feel this Topic extremely interesting, read here:
http://ck-hack.blogspot.it/2014/08/smth ... uling.html
......
An even more dramatic example is what happens with realtime tasks, which these days most audio backends on linux use (usually through pulseaudio). Running a realtime task concurrently with a SCHED_NORMAL nice 0 task on a single core means the realtime task will get 100% CPU and the nice 0 task will get zero CPU time. Enable hyperthreading and suddenly the realtime task only runs at 60% of its normal speed even with a heavily niced +19 task running in the background.
......

I have studied immediately the thing and I've already prepared and properly configured our nrjQL flavours, sent to ABF rebuild, now all rpms are available, the different experimental rpms have as release number -99
Kernel-3.15.8-99-ONE > https://abf.rosalinux.ru/kernels_3_15x_ ... 5.8-99-ONE
Build tasks completed > https://abf.rosalinux.ru/kernels_3_15x_ ... uild_lists

This is an experimental nrjQL branch with more responsiveness and realtime behaviour, although the overall throughput may be slightly decreased - all this will be noticeable only when we have cpu equipped with HT (HyperThread) > SMT/Hyperthreading, nice and scheduling policies

I've already asked to our friend Mario Moles (our professional realtime tester), if he can execute asap some massive realtime tests with comparisons

If it works fine, we may be also in time to insert this mode in the kernel for 2014.1, just changing the release number from -99 to -1 or -2 (bump version)



DOWNLOADS
For OpenMandriva 2014 and all ROSA Linux:

3.15.8-1 > for Kernel nrjQL standard
http://abf-downloads.rosalinux.ru/kerne ... epository/

3.15.8-99 > for Kernel nrjQL (HT/SMT improved)
http://abf-downloads.rosalinux.ru/kerne ... epository/



-------
I hope that someone amongst you will install the official 3.15.8-1 and the experimental 3.15.8-99 (ht) rpms into your PCs with HT, make your comparisons with some tests, please, report me Your feedback about...
--------

thanks
bye, NicCo
.
--- Professional experience ---
Kernel designer, engineer, maintainer and tester for ROSA Desktop and OpenMandriva Lx O.S.

--- currently I'm playing with ---
LTS Kernels > Linux 4.1.12-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.18.17-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.14.46-nrjQL
EOL Kernels > Linux 3.19.8-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.17.8-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.15.10-nrjQL

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andreas
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Re: Kernel nrjQL 3.15.8-99 with better HyperThread and Realt

Post by andreas »

Installed nrjQL x64 flavor on my desktop and it's working smoothly on my desktop. My virtual machines look more responsives. Didn't test the realtime flavor.
I had one freeze with several chrome and firefox windows open. I never had such freezes in the past but being just one and difficult to reproduce, I cant't address it to the kernel.
AndreaS

Procio Intel i7-4930k, mobo Asus X79-Deluxe, Adaptec raid 7805, Nvidia Quadro 6000 - Rosa Fresh R3 X64

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NicCo
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Re: Kernel nrjQL 3.15.8-99 with better HyperThread and Realt

Post by NicCo »

andreas wrote:My virtual machines look more responsives. Didn't test the realtime flavor.
What virtualizer? VirtualBox, VMware, others?
.
--- Professional experience ---
Kernel designer, engineer, maintainer and tester for ROSA Desktop and OpenMandriva Lx O.S.

--- currently I'm playing with ---
LTS Kernels > Linux 4.1.12-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.18.17-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.14.46-nrjQL
EOL Kernels > Linux 3.19.8-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.17.8-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.15.10-nrjQL

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andreas
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Re: Kernel nrjQL 3.15.8-99 with better HyperThread and Realt

Post by andreas »

NicCo wrote:
andreas wrote:My virtual machines look more responsives. Didn't test the realtime flavor.
What virtualizer? VirtualBox, VMware, others?
Vmware, 3 virtual machines, 2 threads 4GB each.
AndreaS

Procio Intel i7-4930k, mobo Asus X79-Deluxe, Adaptec raid 7805, Nvidia Quadro 6000 - Rosa Fresh R3 X64

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NicCo
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Re: Kernel nrjQL 3.15.8-99 with better HyperThread and Realt

Post by NicCo »

andreas wrote:Vmware, 3 virtual machines, 2 threads 4GB each.
no more freeze with kernel ht? I hope...

just to know, how many cpus/cores do you configure for each guest vms?
with an I7 cpu generally i configure from 1 to 4 cores, preferabbly 2 cores

a number ever not more than a half of cpus/cores that the hw has globally
so with i7 (4 cores + 4HT) for all the vms i use a max value of 4 cores,
i have the impression that using more than this it may cause slowdowns,
firstly to linux os then consequently to all the running vms
.
--- Professional experience ---
Kernel designer, engineer, maintainer and tester for ROSA Desktop and OpenMandriva Lx O.S.

--- currently I'm playing with ---
LTS Kernels > Linux 4.1.12-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.18.17-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.14.46-nrjQL
EOL Kernels > Linux 3.19.8-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.17.8-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.15.10-nrjQL

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andreas
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Re: Kernel nrjQL 3.15.8-99 with better HyperThread and Realt

Post by andreas »

I normally use 1 core + 1 HT, that, in my case for three open windows is half the available hw with three open virtual machines (6 cores + 6HT)
AndreaS

Procio Intel i7-4930k, mobo Asus X79-Deluxe, Adaptec raid 7805, Nvidia Quadro 6000 - Rosa Fresh R3 X64

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NicCo
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Re: Kernel nrjQL 3.15.8-99 with better HyperThread and Realt

Post by NicCo »

andreas wrote:I normally use 1 core + 1 HT, that, in my case for three open windows is half the available hw with three open virtual machines (6 cores + 6HT)
WOW, I see, you have 12 cores, GREAT!, you are very very good as tester! You can help me properly with this HT test

From your testing, you think that it would be good preparing/configuring new kernel 3.15.9 with HT/SMT_Nice as default?
Have you had no more crashes/freezes with Kernel 3.15.8 HT versions (apart the first one that you have informed me)?

I have this intentions, because I have found none regressions and or freezes / oops, also in the PCs w/o HT capabilities


Kernel 3.15.9 stable patch is expected for this evening or night, likely we can have the 3.15.9 rpms for early tomorrow...
.
--- Professional experience ---
Kernel designer, engineer, maintainer and tester for ROSA Desktop and OpenMandriva Lx O.S.

--- currently I'm playing with ---
LTS Kernels > Linux 4.1.12-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.18.17-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.14.46-nrjQL
EOL Kernels > Linux 3.19.8-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.17.8-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.15.10-nrjQL

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Re: Kernel nrjQL 3.15.8-99 with better HyperThread and Realt

Post by andreas »

Yes I guess you can add the patch stable. When I had the freeze, more than ten windows were open, some of them with more than one tab and possibly with a couple of streams. So in my opinion the only freeze I had can be addressed to the browsers and their flash plugins more than to the kernel.
AndreaS

Procio Intel i7-4930k, mobo Asus X79-Deluxe, Adaptec raid 7805, Nvidia Quadro 6000 - Rosa Fresh R3 X64

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NicCo
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Re: Kernel nrjQL 3.15.8-99 with better HyperThread and Realt

Post by NicCo »

Code: Select all

$ uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 3.15.9-nrjQL-desktop-0.rc1.0.rc1.1rosa.lts #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Aug 7 10:02:31 CEST 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Currently I'm using 3.15.9 rc1 (ht/smt_nice variant), and I'm waiting for kernel 3.15.9 stable release,


tomorrow, when 3.15.9 stable will be released, i'm going to prepare it with the following 3 new things:
  • 1>ht/smt_nice (bfs 0.450 ) by default
    Spoiler:  for a better multitasking and realtime
  • 2>ASPM improvement from kernel 3.17
    Spoiler:  ASPM: for a much better Power Save

    Linux 3.17 To Fix Up ASPM, Bring Other PCI Changes
    http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=n ... px=MTc0NzE

    ASPM -- the PCI Express Active State Power Management feature -- continues to be a pain for Linux kernel developers with issues still coming about with this power-saving feature.

  • 3> x86_16bit enabled to fix a wine issue with 16 bit code
    Spoiler:  to fix a known wine issue with 16 bit code

    x86_16bit segments
    http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/X86_16BIT.html
    This option is required by programs like Wine to run 16-bit protected mode legacy code on x86 processors.

    it was a known issue, you can read from crossover changelog
    http://www.codeweavers.com/products/faq/change_log/
    • Certain Linux kernel versions (3.14 at least) broke support for running 16-bit code. CrossOver cannot overcome this limitation on its own. CrossOver now detects the situation and informs the user about it, and will also succeed in creating a win98 bottle on such a kernel.
    ========================
    new tested defconfigs for 3.15.9rc
    ========================

    # i586
    CONFIG_X86_THERMAL_VECTOR=y
    CONFIG_VM86=y
    + CONFIG_X86_16BIT=y
    + CONFIG_X86_ESPFIX32=y
    CONFIG_TOSHIBA=m

    # x86_64
    CONFIG_X86_THERMAL_VECTOR=y
    + CONFIG_X86_16BIT=y
    + CONFIG_X86_ESPFIX32=y
    CONFIG_TOSHIBA=m
    CONFIG_I8K=m

.
--- Professional experience ---
Kernel designer, engineer, maintainer and tester for ROSA Desktop and OpenMandriva Lx O.S.

--- currently I'm playing with ---
LTS Kernels > Linux 4.1.12-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.18.17-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.14.46-nrjQL
EOL Kernels > Linux 3.19.8-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.17.8-nrjQL <<< Linux 3.15.10-nrjQL

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