On Sat, Aug 13, 2005 at 04:51:07PM +1000, Con Kolivas wrote: > I'm sorry to say this doesn't appear to skip any ticks on my single P4 with > SMP/SMT enabled.
Con, I had enabled skipping ticks only in default_idle routine. So if you have a different idle route (which I suspect is the case), it will not skip ticks (since dyn_tick_reprogram_timer will not be called). Can you try this patch? --- linux-2.6.13-rc6-root/arch/i386/kernel/process.c | 7 ++++--- linux-2.6.13-rc6-root/kernel/dyn-tick.c | 8 ++++++-- 2 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff -puN kernel/dyn-tick.c~dynamic-tick-smp-fix kernel/dyn-tick.c --- linux-2.6.13-rc6/kernel/dyn-tick.c~dynamic-tick-smp-fix 2005-08-13 15:53:56.000000000 +0530 +++ linux-2.6.13-rc6-root/kernel/dyn-tick.c 2005-08-13 15:56:12.000000000 +0530 @@ -37,16 +37,18 @@ spinlock_t dyn_tick_lock; /* * Arch independent code needed to reprogram next timer interrupt. - * Gets called with IRQs disabled from cpu_idle() before entering idle loop. + * Gets called from cpu_idle() before entering idle loop. */ unsigned long dyn_tick_reprogram_timer(void) { int cpu = smp_processor_id(); - unsigned long delta; + unsigned long delta, flags; if (!DYN_TICK_IS_SET(DYN_TICK_ENABLED)) return 0; + local_irq_save(flags); + if (rcu_pending(cpu) || local_softirq_pending()) return 0; @@ -76,6 +78,8 @@ unsigned long dyn_tick_reprogram_timer(v write_sequnlock(&xtime_lock); + local_irq_restore(flags); + return delta; } diff -puN arch/i386/kernel/process.c~dynamic-tick-smp-fix arch/i386/kernel/process.c --- linux-2.6.13-rc6/arch/i386/kernel/process.c~dynamic-tick-smp-fix 2005-08-13 15:53:56.000000000 +0530 +++ linux-2.6.13-rc6-root/arch/i386/kernel/process.c 2005-08-13 15:55:20.000000000 +0530 @@ -104,10 +104,9 @@ void default_idle(void) { if (!hlt_counter && boot_cpu_data.hlt_works_ok) { local_irq_disable(); - if (!need_resched()) { - dyn_tick_reprogram_timer(); + if (!need_resched()) safe_halt(); - } else + else local_irq_enable(); } else { cpu_relax(); @@ -202,6 +201,8 @@ void cpu_idle(void) if (cpu_is_offline(cpu)) play_dead(); + dyn_tick_reprogram_timer(); + __get_cpu_var(irq_stat).idle_timestamp = jiffies; idle(); } _ I have tested this patch on my Laptop (P4) that HZ goes down to ~25 with dyn-ticks enabled (but Power consumption goes _up_ as Ted had noted earlier - I need to try some of the ACPI patches that were pointed out in the thread). -- Thanks and Regards, Srivatsa Vaddagiri, Linux Technology Center, IBM Software Labs, Bangalore, INDIA - 560017 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/