Arch Linux

PeteMo

Member

From: H'Burg, VA

Registered: 2006-01-26

Posts: 191

Website

system less responsive after udev/kernel upgrade

Yeah, another udev/kernel upgrade question.  After upgrading udev and the kernel yesterday my terminal is less responsive.  For example, scrolling is slow and jerky, and uses an inordanite amount of cpu.  ls /usr/bin will cause the cpu usage to spike ~70% which is much higher than normal.  I can cause the cpu to go to 100%  by scrolling quickly in vim.  I do not see this in firefox, however.  Scrolling there is responsive and does not use any additional cpu beyond what it took before the update.

I really don't know where to start to troubleshoot this - the only thing I have noticed is that the speedstep-centrino module is not loading any longer. 

pmorris@arch:~ $ sudo modprobe speedstep-centrino
FATAL: Error inserting speedstep_centrino (/lib/modules/2.6.15-ARCH/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/speedstep-centrino.ko): Device or resource busy

This is on an ibm thinkpad T40p.  I am still getting cpu scaling, but the system is generally less responsive.  It may be taking longer to scale up the cpu frequency on demand.  Any help is appreciated.  Thanks.

mic64

Member

Registered: 2005-03-03

Posts: 173

Re: system less responsive after udev/kernel upgrade

Hi

yepp noticed that too.
Normally I can work on the pc or even watch HDTV Stuff when another process needs 100%.
Not yet anymore. PC behaves like crap..

mic64

tpowa

Developer

From: Lauingen , Germany

Registered: 2004-04-05

Posts: 2,322

Re: system less responsive after udev/kernel upgrade

perhaps a bug in how udev loads the cpufreq modules. can you tell me which modules you would need? then just blacklist the modules you don't need. /lib/modules/2.6.15-ARCH/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq is the path were you find all cpufreq modules that are probbed.

qwerty

Member

Registered: 2004-12-17

Posts: 183

Re: system less responsive after udev/kernel upgrade

I've noticed that too but everything is ok with my cpufreq modules... playing an mp3 with xmms takes something like 50% of cpu....

PeteMo

Member

From: H'Burg, VA

Registered: 2006-01-26

Posts: 191

Website

Re: system less responsive after udev/kernel upgrade

perhaps a bug in how udev loads the cpufreq modules. can you tell me which modules you would need? then just blacklist the modules you don't need...

Thanks, this worked.  Prior to the upgrade I was using the speedstep-centrino module, and loading it in the modules array in /etc/rc.conf.  After the upgrade the acpi-cpufreq module was being autoloaded at boot prior to my trying to load the speedstep-centrino module, hence the "device or resource busy" failure when I tried to load the speedstep module.  After blacklisting all modules listed in /lib/modules/2.6.15-ARCH/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq except the speedstep-centrino, things are working fine.  The correct module is loaded at boot time.

Is there a cleaner method to achieve this other than blacklisting all unwanted modules?

tpowa

Developer

From: Lauingen , Germany

Registered: 2004-04-05

Posts: 2,322

Re: system less responsive after udev/kernel upgrade

you need to help me on this issue because i have not such a hardware, it would be cool if you could write me a mail and then we can talk on irc, that's the best way to solve such things.
greetings
tpowa

mmccaskill

Member

From: NC

Registered: 2005-02-21

Posts: 163

Re: system less responsive after udev/kernel upgrade

Any status update on this? I too am having to blacklist everything except speedstep_centrino

tpowa

Developer

From: Lauingen , Germany

Registered: 2004-04-05

Posts: 2,322

Re: system less responsive after udev/kernel upgrade

the udev version 085 does not autoload the speedstep modules anymore.
Atm you have to blacklist the stuff you don't need.

PeteMo

Member

From: H'Burg, VA

Registered: 2006-01-26

Posts: 191

Website

Re: system less responsive after udev/kernel upgrade

I've actually narrowed down the modules needed to be blacklisted.  If I blacklist acpi-cpufreq and p4-clockmod in /etc/rc.conf, then the speedstep-centrino module is loaded  as specified in my modules array.

Good to hear though, that the new udev version will take care of this.

Alethos

Member

Registered: 2006-01-05

Posts: 84

Re: system less responsive after udev/kernel upgrade

Because I dont like creating new posts with the same type heading I'll post my question here. I just did a clean install on my laptop (been messing around a lot and had scrap it..shame on me, I know) and udev is now taking a little over 60 seconds each time i boot the machine, where before it ~10 seconds. What the heck happened...or more importantly how do I go about speeding this up?

tpowa

Developer

From: Lauingen , Germany

Registered: 2004-04-05

Posts: 2,322

Re: system less responsive after udev/kernel upgrade

have you tried the stuff from testing repository?
we changed udev a bit perhaps it solves your problems.
but update everything not only udev if you give testing a shot.
greetings
tpowa

Alethos

Member

Registered: 2006-01-05

Posts: 84

Re: system less responsive after udev/kernel upgrade

thanks for the info, I'll try and give testing a shot.

[edit]

whoa...that did the trick...back to a couple of seconds (<10) for udev. much obliged.