Re: 2.6.10: kswapd spins like crazy

[Nick Piggin <nickpiggin@yahoo.com.au>]

Andrew Morton wrote:
> Nick Piggin <nickpiggin@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> 
>>Oh, attached should be a minimal fix if you would like to try it out.
>>
>>
>>...
>>--- linux-2.6/mm/vmscan.c~vmscan-minfix	2005-02-04 11:52:37.000000000 +1100
>>+++ linux-2.6-npiggin/mm/vmscan.c	2005-02-04 11:53:32.000000000 +1100
>>@@ -575,6 +575,7 @@ static void shrink_cache(struct zone *zo
>> 			nr_taken++;
>> 		}
>> 		zone->nr_inactive -= nr_taken;
>>+		zone->pages_scanned += nr_scan;
>> 		spin_unlock_irq(&zone->lru_lock);
>> 
>> 		if (nr_taken == 0)
>>
> 
> 
> Any theories as to why these pages aren't being activated and aren't being
> reclaimed?
> 
> 

No none yet, which is what we should get to the bottom of. I must be
overlooking something, but the only ways I can see should be due to
transient conditions like page locked or under writeback. laptop_mode?

Terje, what is /proc/sys/vm/laptop_mode set to?