From owner-freebsd-ppc@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Feb 19 01:24:01 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1DF4C106564A for ; Sun, 19 Feb 2012 01:24:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kpatterson.home@gmail.com) Received: from mail-yx0-f182.google.com (mail-yx0-f182.google.com [209.85.213.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C66788FC13 for ; Sun, 19 Feb 2012 01:24:00 +0000 (UTC) Received: by yenl12 with SMTP id l12so2631249yen.13 for ; Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:24:00 -0800 (PST) Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of kpatterson.home@gmail.com designates 10.236.127.145 as permitted sender) client-ip=10.236.127.145; Authentication-Results: mr.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of kpatterson.home@gmail.com designates 10.236.127.145 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=kpatterson.home@gmail.com; dkim=pass header.i=kpatterson.home@gmail.com Received: from mr.google.com ([10.236.127.145]) by 10.236.127.145 with SMTP id d17mr21363729yhi.131.1329614640136 (num_hops = 1); Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:24:00 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=from:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:subject:date:message-id :to:mime-version:x-mailer; bh=l+edjVLki9FA5VxShQstaHM9bmblLiW16D2mlaaQ9uM=; b=E+X4LOwy4V6cP1FFrBTtyU1wdOZZY58dKc1TW8sIkm04YQWobeCyPMLAAzIjH9z2BB H/Lq+JMVLzrEb5bUjIbPx2d6Ky9txUAcfm2xgSfZRAvXRaIsE/oVcESDpYN0PA/fMQ/1 b9TL8yeGqaRVN1hdwb1yNFi4fqLLrGK0TVM1o= Received: by 10.236.127.145 with SMTP id d17mr16342190yhi.131.1329612973934; Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:56:13 -0800 (PST) Received: from [10.64.14.69] (campus.hartland.edu. [12.47.113.114]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id p63sm34380800yhj.22.2012.02.18.16.56.11 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:56:13 -0800 (PST) From: "Kevin H. Patterson" Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:56:09 -0500 Message-Id: <3934AD65-E01C-4DDD-8BDC-F52C6AE3655F@khptech.com> To: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1251.1) X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1251.1) Subject: FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE on PowerMac Dual G5 X-BeenThere: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the PowerPC List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2012 01:24:01 -0000 Hello, I've taken an interest lately in running FreeBSD on the powerpc64 = architecture. I have access to a dual 2.5 GHz PowerMac G5, and I've = successfully got FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE up and running on it. Only one thing seems amiss so far... it feels *very* SLOW. I realize = this is an older machine, but it feels much too slow for a dual G5. = Compiling seems to take forever, and top shows ~50% or more "system" CPU = usage when doing almost anything other than sitting idle. Furthermore, = the system fans never speed up, but run at the lowest speed even when = the system is under full load. I have tried both enabling and disabling = powerd support, with no effect. For a quick sanity check, I installed ubench (0.32) from ports. The = numbers were quite disappointing: 109870 CPU / 50527 MEM multiprocessor, = and 55433 CPU / 30863 MEM single-processor. For comparison, I ran ubench (0.32 from MacPorts) under Mac OS X 10.5.8 = on the same machine. This time, the fans do ramp up, and the numbers are = *WAY* better: 277207 CPU / 317119 MEM multi-processor, and 141021 CPU / = 284113 MEM single-processor. As you can see, all is not well. I am wondering what is slowing FreeBSD = down on this machine. I have tried both GENERIC and my own kernel = config. It feels like the CPU and or bus speed is clocked down perhaps = to the most energy-saving level. Maybe this is where openfirmware leaves = it after boot? Also interesting is to note the drastic = *single-processor* ubench difference between macosx and freebsd. To me = this looks like a low clock-speed smoking gun. I also noticed that the kernel build includes flags like -msoft-float = and -mno-altivec...=20 I am interested in any build or config tweaks that might be in order. I = am also more than happy to debug and get to the bottom of this. Any = ideas? Sincerely, Kevin H. Patterson KHPtech kevpatt@khptech.com