From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 14 Aug 2001 07:53:21 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 14 Aug 2001 07:52:36 -0400 Received: from alfik.ms.mff.cuni.cz ([195.113.19.71]:6404 "EHLO alfik.ms.mff.cuni.cz") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 14 Aug 2001 07:52:13 -0400 Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2001 12:06:04 +0000 From: Pavel Machek To: Daniel Phillips Cc: Mike Black , tridge@valinux.com, marcelo@conectiva.com.br, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, riel@conectiva.com.br, Andrew Morton Subject: Re: 2.4.8preX VM problems Message-ID: <20010811120604.C35@toy.ucw.cz> In-Reply-To: <20010801105419.8F078424A@lists.samba.org> <020001c11a803297110@csihq.com> <01080120392200.00933@starship> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0.1i In-Reply-To: <01080120392200.00933@starship>; from phillips@bonn-fries.net on Wed, Aug 01, 2001 at 08:39:22PM +0200 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Hi! > > I have come to the opinion that kswapd needs to be a little smarter > > -- if it doesn't find anything to swap shouldn't it go to sleep a > > little longer before trying again? That way it could gracefully > > degrade itself when it's not making any progress. > > > > In my testing (on a dual 1Ghz/2G machine) the machine "locks up" for > > long periods of time while kswapd runs around trying to do it's > > thing. If I could disable kswapd I would just to test this. > > Your wish is my command. This patch provides a crude-but-effective > method of disabling kswapd, using: > > echo 1 >/proc/sys/kernel/disable_kswapd > > I tested this with dbench and found it runs about half as fast, but > runs. This is reassuring because kswapd is supposed to be doing > something useful. Why not just killall -STOP kswapd? What is expected state of system without kswapd, BTW? Without kflushd, I give up guaranteed time to get data safely to disk [and its usefull for spindown]. What happens without kswapd? Pavel -- Philips Velo 1: 1"x4"x8", 300gram, 60, 12MB, 40bogomips, linux, mutt, details at http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/velo/index.html.