Arch Linux

marcus

Member

Registered: 2012-09-26

Posts: 34

[solved] High system load on sandy bridge cpu with linux-3.16.3-1..

Hi everyone,

starting with linux-3.16.3-1, my notebook constantly has a 1-minute loadavg of at least 1, even in single-user-mode (rescue.target). On prior versions, it's usually around 0.5 while I'm working (X, browser, mail, many terminals).

The notebook is a 1st gen. Asus Zenbook.
lscpu:

Architecture:          x86_64
CPU op-mode(s):        32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order:            Little Endian
CPU(s):                4
On-line CPU(s) list:   0-3
Thread(s) per core:    2
Core(s) per socket:    2
Socket(s):             1
NUMA node(s):          1
Vendor ID:             GenuineIntel
CPU family:            6
Model:                 42
Model name:            Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2557M CPU @ 1.70GHz
Stepping:              7
CPU MHz:               806.238
CPU max MHz:           2700.0000
CPU min MHz:           800.0000
BogoMIPS:              3393.71
Virtualization:        VT-x
L1d cache:             32K
L1i cache:             32K
L2 cache:              256K
L3 cache:              3072K
NUMA node0 CPU(s):     0-3

My kernel cmd-line is fairly standard, except for efi booting and encryption:

cryptdevice=/dev/sda2:volumegroup:allow-discards root=LABEL=root rw rootfstype=ext4 rootflags=defaults,rw add_efi_memmap initrd=\initrd.img cryptkey=LABEL=keydrive:ext4:/keyfile

I've downgraded to linux-3.16.2-1 for now, to circumvent the issue.

Anyone having similar problems or advice?

Thanks,
Marcus

Last edited by marcus (2014-10-23 10:16:54)

coruun

Member

Registered: 2014-10-23

Posts: 26

Re: [solved] High system load on sandy bridge cpu with linux-3.16.3-1..

Hi!

I noticed the same problem on my i7-2760QM and it seems to persist with linux-3.17.1-1.

Atleast for me, I found a workaround for this problem by disabling the kernel module "rtsx_usb_ms" which cares for some Realtek USB Memstick things. You can check, if this will affect you by executing

# ps -e -o state,pid,cmd | grep ^D

If there is a process with a name related to this module, you could try to disable it (or unload it with "rmmod").

There is also Debian Bug#765717.

Best Regards!

marcus

Member

Registered: 2012-09-26

Posts: 34

Re: [solved] High system load on sandy bridge cpu with linux-3.16.3-1..

Thanks coruun, that did the trick.

Marking as solved.