Re: CONFIG_NO_HZ + CONFIG_CPU_IDLE freeze the system (Was Re: [PATCH] acpi : remove power from acpi_processor_cx structure)

[John Stultz <john.stultz@linaro.org>]

On 09/07/2012 02:35 PM, Daniel Lezcano wrote:
> On 09/07/2012 07:22 PM, John Stultz wrote:
>> On 09/07/2012 07:20 AM, Daniel Lezcano wrote:
>>> On 09/06/2012 11:18 PM, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:
>>>> On Thursday, September 06, 2012, Daniel Lezcano wrote:
>>>>> On 09/06/2012 10:04 PM, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:
>>>>>> On Thursday, September 06, 2012, Daniel Lezcano wrote:
>>>>>>> On 09/06/2012 09:54 AM, Daniel Lezcano wrote:
>>>>>>> I fall into this issue because NETCONSOLE is set, disabling it
>>>>>>> allowed
>>>>>>> me to go further.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Unfortunately I am facing to some random freeze on the system which
>>>>>>> seems to be related to CONFIG_NO_HZ=y and CONFIG_CPU_IDLE=y.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Disabling one of them, make the freezes to disappear.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Is it a known issue ?
>>>>>> Well, there are systems having problems with this configuration,
>>>>>> but they
>>>>>> should be exceptional.  What system is that?
>>>>> It is a laptop T61p with a Core 2 Duo T9500. Nothing exceptional I
>>>>> believe. Maybe someone got the same issue ?
>>>> Is it a regression for you?
>>> Yes, I think so. The issue appears between v3.5 and v3.6-rc1.
>>>
>>> It is not easy to reproduce but after taking some time to dig, it seems
>>> to appear with this commit:
>>>
>>> 1e75fa8be9fb61e1af46b5b3b176347a4c958ca1 is the first bad commit
>>> commit 1e75fa8be9fb61e1af46b5b3b176347a4c958ca1
>>> Author: John Stultz <john.stultz@linaro.org>
>>> Date:   Fri Jul 13 01:21:53 2012 -0400
>>>
>>>       time: Condense timekeeper.xtime into xtime_sec
>>>
>>>       The timekeeper struct has a xtime_nsec, which keeps the
>>>       sub-nanosecond remainder.  This ends up being somewhat
>>>       duplicative of the timekeeper.xtime.tv_nsec value, and we
>>>       have to do extra work to keep them apart, copying the full
>>>       nsec portion out and back in over and over.
>>>
>>>       This patch simplifies some of the logic by taking the timekeeper
>>>       xtime value and splitting it into timekeeper.xtime_sec and
>>>       reuses the timekeeper.xtime_nsec for the sub-second portion
>>>       (stored in higher res shifted nanoseconds).
>>>
>>>       This simplifies some of the accumulation logic. And will
>>>       allow for more accurate timekeeping once the vsyscall code
>>>       is updated to use the shifted nanosecond remainder.
>>>
>>>       Signed-off-by: John Stultz <john.stultz@linaro.org>
>>>       Reviewed-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
>>>       Cc: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
>>>       Cc: Richard Cochran <richardcochran@gmail.com>
>>>       Cc: Prarit Bhargava <prarit@redhat.com>
>>>       Link:
>>> http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1342156917-25092-5-git-send-email-john.stultz@linaro.org
>>>
>>>       Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
>>>
>>> :040000 040000 4d6541ac1f6075d7adee1eef494b31a0cbda0934
>>> dc5708bc738af695f092bf822809b13a1da104b6 M    kernel
>>>
>>> How to reproduce: with a laptop T61p, with a Core 2 Duo. I boot the
>>> kernel in busybox and wait some minutes before writing something in the
>>> console. At this moment, nothing appears to the console but the
>>> characters are echo'ed several seconds later (could be 1, 5, or 10 secs
>>> or more).
>>>
>>> That happens when CONFIG_CPU_IDLE and CONFIG_NO_HZ are set. Disabling
>>> one of them, the issue does not appear.
>> Thanks for bisecting this down and the heads up!
>>
>> Right off I can't see what might be causing this.  Bunch of questions:
>>
>> Is this a 32 or 64 bit kernel?
> It is a 32 bit kernel.

Thanks for your answers! Has this has been seen on 3.6-rc4+ kernels? 
There were a few casting fixes that landed in 3.6-rc4 that would affect 
32bit systems.

In the meantime, I'll try to reproduce on my T61. If you could send me 
your .config, I'd appreciate it.

thanks!
-john