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Having emerged gentoo-sources 2.6.12-r3, the system was rebooted to use the new
kernel and although it worked with no unusual errors in syslog, the startup time
has increased substantially. Using wvdial to connect to my ISP (ppp0, 56kbps
external modem) results in slow program operation, taking a couple of minutes to
even begin dialling. Starting X after boot works, but it just sits there, taking
its sweet time to even show the initial cursor.

Went back to using 2.6.12-r2 on the same system with no problems in any area. Am
including the diff of the output to /var/log/messages between -r3 and -r2.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. emerge =gentoo-sources-2.6.12-r3, make kernel as normal (copying old .config
over to new kernel)
2. reboot
3. watch as 1.83ghz athlon laptop pretends to be clocked at 183mhz or so

Actual Results:  
System operated, but slower than should be expected.

Expected Results:  
Should be about as quick to boot up and run programs as -r2 is.

(emerge --info taken while running -r2, but then nothing in here should have
changed between kernel revisions, save for uname)

Portage 2.0.51.22-r1 (default-linux/x86/2005.0, gcc-3.4.4, glibc-2.3.5-r0,
2.6.12-gentoo-r2 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.12-gentoo-r2 i686 mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP2500+
Gentoo Base System version 1.6.12
dev-lang/python:     2.3.5, 2.4.1-r1
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.9
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.59-r7
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.5
sys-devel/binutils:  2.16.1
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.18-r1
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.11-r2
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config
/usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/web2c /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoconfig distlocks fixpackages sandbox sfperms strict userpriv
usersandbox"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/
ftp://mirrors1.netvisao.pt/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.gentoo-pt.org/pub/gentoo/ "
LANG="en_GB.utf8"
LC_ALL="en_GB.utf8"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="x86 3dnow 3dnowext X a52 aac aalib acpi aim alsa apm audiofile avi
bash-completion bcmath berkdb bidi bitmap-fonts bmp bzlib canna cdparanoia cdr
cjk crypt curl dga directfb divx4linux dv dvd dvdr dvdread encode fbcon ffmpeg
flac freewnn ftp gd gd-external ggi gif glut gnutls gpm gtk gtk2 iconv icq
ieee1394 imagemagick imap ipv6 java javascript jikes joystick jpeg libcaca
libwww lzo mad matroska mikmod mime ming mmx mmxext mng motif mozilla mp3 mpeg
msn mythtv ncurses nls nptl ogg oggvorbis openal opengl oscar oss pam pcmcia
pcre pdflib perl png python qt quicktime readline recode samba scanner sdl slang
sndfile spell sse ssl tcltk tcpd tetex tga theora tiff truetype truetype-fonts
type1-fonts unicode usb vcd vorbis wifi win32codecs xml xml2 xpm xv xvid yahoo
yim zlib video_cards_ati userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc"
Unset:  ASFLAGS, CTARGET, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS

diff gentoo-r2.log gentoo-r3.log
(if the same configuration works on -r2, perhaps the diff is a good place to
find what's troubling the system)
3c3
< chibisuke Linux version 2.6.12-gentoo-r2 (root@chibisuke) (gcc version 3.4.4
(Gentoo 3.4.4, ssp-3.4.4-1.0, pie-8.7.8))
---
> chibisuke Linux version 2.6.12-gentoo-r3 (root@chibisuke) (gcc version 3.4.4
(Gentoo 3.4.4, ssp-3.4.4-1.0, pie-8.7.8))
32c32
< chibisuke CPU 0 irqstacks, hard=c03da000 soft=c03d9000      
---
> chibisuke CPU 0 irqstacks, hard=c03d7000 soft=c03d6000      
39c39
< chibisuke Memory: 450000k/457664k available (1927k kernel code, 7104k
reserved, 796k data, 164k
---
> chibisuke Memory: 450012k/457664k available (1920k kernel code, 7092k
reserved, 791k data, 164k
90d89
< chibisuke inotify device minor=63        
124a124
> chibisuke PCI: setting IRQ 0 as level-triggered     
129a130
> chibisuke spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7.       
155a157
> chibisuke ReiserFS: hda3: replayed 6 transactions in 0 seconds   
164c166
< chibisuke ACPI: Thermal Zone [THRM] (97 C)     
---
> chibisuke ACPI: Thermal Zone [THRM] (94 C)     
168a171
> chibisuke Linux video capture interface: v1.00      
170a174,175
> chibisuke usbcore: registered new driver spca5xx      
> chibisuke
/var/tmp/portage/spca5xx-20050501/work/spca5xx-20050501/drivers/usb/spca5xx.c:
spca5xx driver 00.56.02 registered      
214c219
< chibisuke Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x0018, PCI irq 11   
---
> chibisuke Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x0098, PCI irq 11   
221a227
> chibisuke ieee1394.agent: ... no drivers for IEEE1394 product 0x/0x/0x   
230d235
< chibisuke ieee1394.agent: ... no drivers for IEEE1394 product 0x/0x/0x   
238c243
< chibisuke dictd: :I: 11422 starting dictd 1.10.0/rf on Linux 2.6.12-gentoo-r2
Sun Jul
---
> chibisuke dictd: :I: 13491 starting dictd 1.10.0/rf on Linux 2.6.12-gentoo-r3
Sun Jul
285a291,296
> chibisuke psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost synchronization,
throwing 2 bytes away. 
> chibisuke psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1  
> chibisuke psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1  
> chibisuke psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1  
> chibisuke psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1  
> chibisuke psmouse.c: TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 - driver resynched.

Are you using the same .config for both kernels?
Please post a unified diff of the dmesg output (capture to files, then use diff -u)

Do you have megaraid or ite8212 storage hardware?

Created an attachment (id=62560) [details]
diff -u of messages between -r2 and -r3

The .config files are the same except for what 'make oldconfig' changed
(summarised):

+# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IT821X is not set
-CONFIG_INOTIFY=y

Attached unified diff of file output.

I haven't got any such hardware, no.

You don't appear to be loading the spca5xx driver in the -r2 instance. Does it
help if you don't load then when trying -r3?

This particular issue existed before that particular driver was installed: I
was
running -r2 when I emerged spca5xx, and it installed under -r3's modules, which
I wasn't using at the time since it caused this mentioned issue.

Of course, memory be darned, I removed the module anyway, and it actually sped
the init up to be of similar speed to -r2. Seemed like a good start. However,
wvdial still takes forever to dial out as compared to instaneously under -r2,
and X still steals the display and sits there doing nothing when it is run, so
it's only helped the init. I could test more programs under -r3, if it'd help.

Ok, thats quite odd as I don't see any changes inbetween -r2 and -r3 which
might
have such an effect.

The next step is to revert the changes, one by one, recompiling/rebooting after
every change, to see if there has been any difference. I understand if you
don't
have enough time as this is a big thing to ask.. (maybe you could just try
some?)

Here are the patches you need to revert one-by-one:

http://dev.gentoo.org/~dsd/gentoo-sources/trunk/2.6.12/2315_ide-no-lba.patch
http://dev.gentoo.org/~dsd/gentoo-sources/trunk/2.6.12/1002_linux-2.6.12.2.patch
http://dev.gentoo.org/~dsd/gentoo-sources/trunk/2.6.12/4345_it8212.patch
http://dev.gentoo.org/~dsd/gentoo-sources/trunk/2.6.12/4350_megaraid-update.patch
http://dev.gentoo.org/~dsd/gentoo-sources/trunk/2.6.12/4351_megaraid-compatibility.patch

I've listed the most likely ones at the top, so hopefully the problematic one
will appear earlier. (you might like to revert the 3 at the end in the same go,
as they are very unlikely to have effect.)

To revert a patch:
Download it, then:
# cd /usr/src/linux
# patch -p1 -R -i /path/to/patch

Then recompile, install, reboot as normal. Then try the next patch, etc.

Thanks!

By design this had to produce results, and it did; whatever problem I'm having
is contained within 1002_linux-2.6.12.2.patch, as removing this patch fixes the
issue, thanks.

If that's the case, this might not be a gentoo issue specifically, so I
pre-emptively checked bugzilla.kernel.org and found this:
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4824

My symptoms aren't so severe, but the machine architecture and setup mentioned
are rather similar to mine. (XP-M 2500+, Compaq Presario 2143EA with ALi IDE
controller and chipset) Presuming the unapplied patch isn't too dissimilar to
the vanilla distribution, the issues might be related, but I'll wait for comment
before I consider going off and editing bits of kernel on a whim. :)

Ok, great! Thanks a lot for investigating that.

Please re-apply the 2.6.12.2 patch:

# cd /usr/src/linux
# patch -p1 -i /path/to/1002_linux-2.6.12.2.patch

Then, download the patch from here to a file:
http://www.kernel.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff_plain;h=44f8e1a20cf3afe10a3744bd9317808a39a242bb;hp=4a89a04f1ee21a7c1f4413f1ad7dcfac50ff9b63

And apply that one in a similar manner. (Note that this time we aren't using -R
argument in the patch command)

Then recompile, install, reboot, and hopefully the system will be fast again.

Yep, running -r3 and all is back up to speed now, thanks a lot. Will this be in
the next gentoo-sources?

Yes

Fixed in gentoo-sources-2.6.12-r4
Fixed in genpatches-2.6.12-7

Forgot to say, thanks a lot for investigating the issue and testing those
patches so quickly. Nice to have it fixed as we're hitting release deadlines
real soon...

Heh, no problem, it didn't take so long. Linux is the friend of those with lots
of free time. :)

Cleaning up, 2.6.12-r3 verified, no recurrence in later revisions. Closing.