Bug 315997 – www-client/mozilla-firefox-3.6.3: Trace Monkey is disabled on amd64

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Description Richard 2010-04-18 18:31:37 UTC]

Firefox is being built with Trace Monkey disabled by default on AMD64 systems.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Run sunspider in firefox on an x86_64 Gentoo no-multilib system.
2. Run sunspider in firefox on an identically configured x86_32 Gentoo system.
3. Compare the results and notice how the x86_32 Firefox runs circles around the x86_64 Firefox.
Actual Results:  
On my system, I observe 2011.0ms +/- 3.9% from Sunspider with the stock ebuild.

Expected Results:  
If TraceMonkey is enabled through a modified ebuild, I get 1090.6ms +/- 1.6%.

There is a Gentoo forums thread on this topic:

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-6249496.html

It unfortunately advises applying some PGO patches that break PGO builds. I have done a fair amount of testing and determined that applying the PGO patches recommended in that thread has more of a placebo effect than anything else in terms of its affect on performance. The PGO patches actually will break a PGO Firefox build, so there is little point to using them, however, the patch to enable TraceMonkey does bring tangible improvements to AMD64 systems.

I will follow-up with the patches necessary to enable TraceMonkey in portage.

[Comment 1 Richard 2010-04-18 18:33:47 UTC]

Created attachment 228307 [details, diff]
Patch to enable TraceMonkey on x86_64 systems

This is from Arch Linux's firefox package:

http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=22296

[Comment 2 Richard 2010-04-18 18:34:39 UTC]

Created attachment 228309 [details, diff]
Patch to xulrunner-1.9.2.3 ebuild to use TraceMonkey patch

[Comment 3 Richard 2010-04-18 18:35:12 UTC]

Created attachment 228311 [details, diff]
Patch to mozilla-firefox 3.6.3 ebuild to use TraceMonkey patch

[Comment 4 Jory A. Pratt 2010-04-18 18:55:53 UTC]

your patch for ebuild does nothing, if you do not --enable-tracejit, you will not have tracemonkey support. I have all this already worked out on my stable setup, I will handle this when we finish security bump to get firefox/xulrunner secure again.

[Comment 5 Richard 2010-04-18 19:39:01 UTC]

I have done benchmarks and enable-x86_64-tracemonkey.patch is clearing doing something. With modified ebuilds that applies enable-x86_64-tracemonkey.patch, Sunspider times are 1090.6ms +/- 1.6% while the stock ebuild's Sunspider times are 2011.0ms +/- 3.9%.

I recompiled Xulrunner and Firefox without enable-x86_64-tracemonkey.patch and with --enable-tracejit and the modified ebuild is scoring 2264.6ms +/- 18.8% on Sunspider. Is it possible that your information applies to Firefox 3.7.x and not Firefox 3.6.x?

[Comment 6 rob shelton 2010-04-25 00:28:27 UTC]

As the originator of the forum thread, I concur with the conclusion. These Arch Linux TraceMonkey patches give an effective working mozilla-firefox with the expected performance improvements.

I also concur with the removal of the PGO patches. They did give me a very slight performance improvement, but if they cause problems further down the line, then not worth having.

I have been running mozilla-firefox/xulrunner with the TraceMonkey patches since the 29th March on 3 machines, with no crashes.

Will attach my current ebuilds, which are the portage ebuilds with an epatch line to enable TraceMonkey. I will also attach, just in case different, the Arch Linux patch.

[Comment 7 rob shelton 2010-04-25 00:29:46 UTC]

Created attachment 229035 [details]
current xulrunner-1.9.2.3-r1 ebuild with 64bit TM epatch line

[Comment 8 rob shelton 2010-04-25 00:30:16 UTC]

Created attachment 229037 [details]
current mozilla-firefox-3.6.3 ebuild with 64bit TM epatch line

[Comment 9 rob shelton 2010-04-25 00:30:38 UTC]

Created attachment 229039 [details]
arch linux patch that I am presently using

[Comment 10 rob shelton 2010-06-23 12:38:00 UTC]

Same patch continues to work on mozilla-firefox-3.6.4. Only used the enable tracemonkey patch.

[Comment 11 Lars Wendler (Polynomial-C) (RETIRED) 2010-07-21 13:20:45 UTC]

+  21 Jul 2010; Lars Wendler <[e-mail]>
+  +files/801-enable-x86_64-tracemonkey.patch, xulrunner-1.9.2.7.ebuild:
+  Enable tracemonkey on amd64 (bug #315997)
+

+  21 Jul 2010; Lars Wendler <[e-mail]>
+  +files/801-enable-x86_64-tracemonkey.patch, mozilla-firefox-3.6.7.ebuild:
+  Enable tracemonkey on amd64 (bug #315997)
+