Bug 363749

Summary:	sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.37-r4: powertop reports: High [kernel scheduler] Load balancing tick
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Plero H <plero_hero>
Component:	[OLD] Core system	Assignee:	Gentoo Kernel Bug Wranglers and Kernel Maintainers <kernel>
Status:	RESOLVED NEEDINFO
Severity:	normal	CC:	jer, mobile+disabled
Priority:	Normal
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	AMD64
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---
Attachments:	powertop's output when idle (im off g15daemon off) kernel config dmesg output lsmod output powertop's output when idle (im on, g15daemon on) powertop's output with load powertop's output when almost idle 2.6.38-r2 2.6.38 kernel config powertop's output under load 2.6.38-r2

Description Plero H 2011-04-15 18:48:58 UTC

using gentoo-sources-2.6.37-r4 powertop reports many wakeups from
"[kernel scheduler] Load balancing tick" on idle and on load

maybe related to this?
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/524281

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.emerge gentoo-sources-2.6.37-r4
2.use this kernel
3.observe powertop
Actual Results:  
many wakeups from
"[kernel scheduler] Load balancing tick"

Expected Results:  
few wakeups from "[kernel scheduler] Load balancing tick"

emerge --info
Portage 2.1.9.42 (default/linux/amd64/10.0/desktop/kde, gcc-4.4.5, glibc-2.11.3-r0, 2.6.37-gentoo-r4 x86_64)                                                                       
=================================================================                                                                                                                  
System uname: Linux-2.6.37-gentoo-r4-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-2_Duo_CPU_E6550_@_2.33GHz-with-gentoo-1.12.14                                                                         
Timestamp of tree: Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:15:01 +0000                                                                                                                                 
app-shells/bash:     4.1_p9                                                                                                                                                        
dev-java/java-config: 2.1.11-r3                                                                                                                                                    
dev-lang/python:     2.7.1-r1, 3.1.3-r1                                                                                                                                            
dev-util/cmake:      2.8.4                                                                                                                                                         
sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.14-r1                                                                                                                                                    
sys-apps/sandbox:    2.4                                                                                                                                                           
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.65-r1                                                                                                                                                 
sys-devel/automake:  1.9.6-r3, 1.10.3, 1.11.1                                                                                                                                      
sys-devel/binutils:  2.20.1-r1                                                                                                                                                     
sys-devel/gcc:       4.4.5                                                                                                                                                         
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1                                                                                                                                                        
sys-devel/libtool:   2.2.10                                                                                                                                                        
sys-devel/make:      3.81-r2                                                                                                                                                       
sys-kernel/linux-headers: 2.6.36.1                                                                                                                                                 
virtual/os-headers:  0                                                                                                                                                             
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64"                                                                                                                                                            
ACCEPT_LICENSE="*"                                                                                                                                                                 
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"                                                                                                                                                       
CFLAGS="-march=core2 -O2 -pipe"                                                                                                                                                    
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/config /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt /usr/share/openvpn/easy-rsa"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/php/apache2-php5.3/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php5.3/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php5.3/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/splash /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c"
CXXFLAGS="-march=core2 -O2 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--with-bdeps y"
FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs distlocks fixlafiles fixpackages news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch"
FFLAGS=""
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.cc.uoc.gr/mirrors/linux/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.cc.uoc.gr/mirrors/linux/gentoo/ http://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/linux/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/linux/gentoo/ http://files.gentoo.gr ftp://files.gentoo.gr "
LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed"
LINGUAS="en el en_US"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/var/lib/layman/kde-sunset /var/lib/layman/keks-overlay /var/lib/layman/rion /var/lib/layman/kde /var/lib/layman/science"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.de.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X a52 aac acl acpi amd64 bash-completion berkdb bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdda cddb cdr cli consolekit cracklib crypt css cups cxx dbus djvu dri dts dv dvd dvdr dvdread emboss encode evo exif fam ffmpeg firefox flac fontconfig fortran g15 gdbm gdu gif gimp gphoto2 gpm gtk iconv imagemagick ipv6 jpeg kde ladspa lame lcms ldap libnotify libsamplerate lm_sensors mad matroska mikmod mmx mng modules mono mp3 mp4 mpeg msn mtp mudflap multilib musepack musicbrainz ncurses nls nptl nptlonly nsplugin ogg opengl openmp pam pango pcre pdf perl phonon plasma png policykit ppds pppd pulseaudio python qt3support qt4 quicktime raw rdesktop readline rss samba scanner sdl semantic-desktop session smp sox spell sse sse2 sse3 ssl ssse3 startup-notification svg symlink sysfs tcpd theora threads tiff truetype udev unicode usb vaapi vcd vdpau vnc vorbis vpx wma-fixed wxwidgets wxwindows x264 xattr xcb xcomposite xine xinerama xml xorg xulrunner xv xvid yahoo zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic auth_digest authn_anon authn_dbd authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock dbd deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers ident imagemap include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation proxy proxy_ajp proxy_balancer proxy_connect proxy_http rewrite setenvif so speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias proxy_scgi authn_alias cgi cgid reqtimeout" CAMERAS="canon ptp2" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="g15" LINGUAS="en el en_US" PHP_TARGETS="php5-3" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" SANE_BACKENDS="epson2" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia v4l" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" 
Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS

Comment 1 Plero H 2011-04-15 18:51:25 UTC

Created attachment 270129 [details]
powertop's output when idle (im off g15daemon off)

powertop -d -t 10

output

Comment 2 Plero H 2011-04-15 18:53:01 UTC

Created attachment 270131 [details]
kernel config

my kernel config

Comment 3 Plero H 2011-04-15 18:54:55 UTC

Created attachment 270133 [details]
dmesg output

dmesg output

Comment 4 Plero H 2011-04-15 18:56:30 UTC

Created attachment 270135 [details]
lsmod output

Comment 5 Plero H 2011-04-15 19:10:02 UTC

Created attachment 270137 [details]
powertop's output when idle (im on, g15daemon on)

booting with nohz=off, highres=off no problem arise.

Comment 6 Plero H 2011-04-15 19:13:57 UTC

Created attachment 270139 [details]
powertop's output with load

mprime on two cores

Comment 7 Stratos Psomadakis (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2011-04-19 10:19:52 UTC

Can you try 2.6.38 and see if you get the same results?

Comment 8 Plero H 2011-04-19 23:03:54 UTC

Created attachment 270599 [details]
powertop's output when almost idle 2.6.38-r2

using gentoo-sources-2.6.38-r2
firefox & transmission in the background. I don't think it changed.

Comment 9 Plero H 2011-04-19 23:05:32 UTC

Created attachment 270601 [details]
2.6.38 kernel config

Comment 10 Plero H 2011-04-19 23:11:05 UTC

Created attachment 270605 [details]
powertop's output under load 2.6.38-r2

mprime on 2 cores.

Comment 11 Stratos Psomadakis (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2011-08-20 16:29:12 UTC

Did you notice different behavior with older kernels (ie 2.6.36)?

I noticed that you have CONFIG_HZ=1000 in your config. Did you have the same setting in older kernels (in case you had fewer scheduler interrupts with older kernels).

Thanks.