From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S264304AbTFVPnp (ORCPT ); Sun, 22 Jun 2003 11:43:45 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264358AbTFVPnp (ORCPT ); Sun, 22 Jun 2003 11:43:45 -0400 Received: from c17870.thoms1.vic.optusnet.com.au ([210.49.248.224]:4736 "EHLO mail.kolivas.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S264304AbTFVPnn convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Sun, 22 Jun 2003 11:43:43 -0400 From: Con Kolivas To: Felipe Alfaro Solana Subject: Re: [PATCH] sleep_decay for interactivity 2.5.72 - testers needed Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 01:58:45 +1000 User-Agent: KMail/1.5.2 Cc: Andreas Boman , linux kernel mailing list , Mike Galbraith References: <5.2.0.9.2.20030619171843.02299e00@pop.gmx.net> <200306222345.52676.kernel@kolivas.org> <1056296401.712.9.camel@teapot.felipe-alfaro.com> In-Reply-To: <1056296401.712.9.camel@teapot.felipe-alfaro.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-15" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200306230158.45201.kernel@kolivas.org> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 01:40, Felipe Alfaro Solana wrote: > On Sun, 2003-06-22 at 15:45, Con Kolivas wrote: > > > Feel free to test it and comment. Things to look for - the dreaded > > > audio skip under load, and X remaining interactive during sustained use > > > under load. > > I must say this seems to be getting better, but I still prefer Mike's > patches. With the latest sleep decay patch and 2.5.72-mm3, I can still > easily starve XMMS audio for a long time (~5 seconds) on my 700Mhz > Pentium III laptoņ (running RHL9 and KDE 3.1.2) simply by running "while > true; do a=2; done" on a konsole window. Dragging a window fast enough > also starves XMMS for ~5 seconds just until the scheduler adjusts the > priorities. > > XMMS is running with an effective priority of 15 (that's what top says). > "while true; do a=2; done" starts with a priority of 15 (which causes > XMMS to stop playing sound), then it is detected as a CPU hog and every > second its priority is increased by one. When its priority reaches 20, > XMMS starts playing again. > > When I move windows around fast enough. the X server starts with a > priority of 15, starving XMMS. If I keep moving windows around for a > long time, X's priority starts increasing by one, until it reaches 20. > At this moment, it stops disturbing XMMS audio playback. > > I've been playing with scheduler parameters, mainly by reducing > MAX_SLEEP_AVG to (HZ) and STARVATION_LIMIT to (HZ). This seems to help a > lot, although I can still make XMMS skip sound every once a bit. > However, mplayer is a really hard one: I have been unable to make it > skip sound yet. Yes Mike's patches are definitely better. My patches are designed for the 2.4-ck patchset which has other workarounds that augment this patch; however these workarounds are harder to stomach for mainstream kernels (read nasty hacks). I thought I'd offer the not so nasty sleep_decay patch in 2.5 form for perusal and comments since people are more willing to test 2.5 patches. Con