Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 08:47:37 -0700 (PDT) From: Danial Thom <danial_thom@yahoo.com> To: Shawn <shawnh@f2s.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Strange pauses and cpu usage - FreeBSD 6.1 Message-ID: <20060528154737.81233.qmail@web33314.mail.mud.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <20060528132805.475e8850@freeBSD>
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--- Shawn <shawnh@f2s.com> wrote: > On Sun, 28 May 2006 01:02:35 -0400 > Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org> wrote: > > > On Sun, May 28, 2006 at 02:18:36AM +0200, > Xavier Chantry wrote: > > > On Sat, May 27, 2006 at 01:14:13AM +0100, > Shawn wrote: > > > > I'm having a strange problem with cpu > usage with my Athlon XP. > > > > Every so often there seems to be a pause > where the system comes > > > > under heavy load for no apparent reason. > If xmms was playing then > > > > I get a buzz sound and the mouse pointer > stops just for a split > > > > second, the same with mplayer and vlc. > Using Opera or firefox > > > > also seems to have a strange effect where > the mouse pointer > > > > freezes while pages load, and if there is > an animated gif on the > > > > page the cpu usage goes to 100%. > > > > > > > > The jabber client Gajim also makes the > cpu get stuck at 100%. > > > > When I used gnome, nautilus did the same > thing until i stopped > > > > and started the process in the system > monitor. I have searched > > > > around and found this tip from the > handbook but it had no effect. > > > > > > > > hint.apic.0.disabled="1" in > /boot/loader.conf > > > > > > > > This happens with the generic kernel and > the one i compiled for > > > > myself. It also lasts for a random amount > of time, sometimes it > > > > is barely noticeable and sometimes it > happens for over a second. > > > > Running neverwinter nights makes the > system pause for 10-20 > > > > seconds seemingly randomly. > > > > > > > > > > My system behaves much better than that, > I've no mouse freeze and no > > > system pauses, but I did have occasonial > sound skips using 4bsd on > > > 6.1. Switching to the ULE scheduler seems > to fix this problem, but > > > other things may behave worse. > > > One year ago, it was actually the opposite, > sound in ULE was really > > > jerky, and mouse pointer too while eg > launching an app. > > > Did you already try both schedulers ? > > > > Check for interrupt sharing with vmstat -i. > Shared interrupts cause > > performance loss especially if it's sharing > with a giant-locked driver > > like USB. > > > > Kris > > I tried switching to ULE and while the sound > skipping seems to have > stopped, the other problems remain. > > vmstat -i gives me: > > interrupt total > rate > irq0: clk 69873 > 984 > irq7: ppc0 2 > 0 > irq8: rtc 8944 > 125 > irq10: atapci0++ 2409 > 33 > irq11: nvidia0++ 5264 > 74 > irq12: pcm0 rl0+ 41 > 0 > irq15: ata1 47 > 0 > Total 86580 > 1219 > > So it seems that net and sound are sharing > irq12, and just before i > see the freeBSD bootloader i can see that irq12 > is used for the usb > controller. Is this my problem? I have no irq > settings in the > BIOS and i tried a device hint for pcm to move > it up to irq13 but had no > luck. > > Forgive me if I am missing something obvious > somewhere along the line, > I only started using freeBSD a few weeks ago > and I am totally new to > BSD in general. > > Thanks for the help! > > ~shawn Setting HZ to 100 should eliminate ~900 unnecessary context switches per second. Danial __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
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