From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S264441AbTKMWkz (ORCPT ); Thu, 13 Nov 2003 17:40:55 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264446AbTKMWkz (ORCPT ); Thu, 13 Nov 2003 17:40:55 -0500 Received: from heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net ([207.217.120.189]:6532 "EHLO heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S264441AbTKMWkv convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Thu, 13 Nov 2003 17:40:51 -0500 From: Guy Organization: C To: Nick Piggin Subject: Re: 2.6 scheduler and "fast user switching" Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003 16:11:46 -0500 User-Agent: KMail/1.5.4 Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org References: <200311130430.06882.fsos_guy@earthlink.net> <3FB366DB.80508@cyberone.com.au> In-Reply-To: <3FB366DB.80508@cyberone.com.au> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Content-Description: clearsigned data Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200311131611.51951.fsos_guy@earthlink.net> X-ELNK-Trace: d501ffacebf681585e89bb4777695beb702e37df12b9c9efe1ace5b41f285a82f84cda661d8bc317350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Thursday 13 November 2003 06:11, Nick Piggin wrote: > Guy wrote: > >1} I've seen Nick Piggin's suggestion of nicing X server to > > -10. At the moment, the only way I know to do this is > > something like > > > ># XSESSION=fluxbox nice --adjustment=-10 startx -- :N > > If you're not using my patches then nice causes scheduling > latency problems so don't do this even if you can. Con's > scheduler work actually makes interactivity good at the default > priority. I don't use this on my reference 2.4.20 kernel. I only tried it to see what would happen. This is how I know that I can only do this when I'm root. I didn't time anything or do extensive testing. Just enough to see that the child processes were also picking up the same niceness. It did occur to me to remember {DOH!} the 'renice' command. It's been awhile since I was a *nix admin on an old Sequoia box. I have been thinking about trying CK's patchset. > >A} My default security is that only 'root' can perform nice > > with negative values. I am reluctant to play with security > > for such a crticial command. > > Debian does this for you. I guess X runs as suid root anyway so > its not a big security problem. See comment above. PBSAK > >B} All child threads inherit the new nice value. So in the > > example just above, this means all applications started from > > the GUI desktop run at a nice value of -10. I believe > > enhancing the X server nice value this way defeats the > > purpose of nicing it to begin with. Obviously, despite my > > readings and attempts at research, I'm must be missing > > something here. > > Debian manages to only renice the X server. If something like > this were required in a distro kernel I guess they would do it > for you nicely. See comment above. PBSAK > >2} I expect to travel down to Florida for Xmass to visit > > family. One of the things I had hoped to do was to set up my > > mother's computer as an X server and hang a thin client > > terminal {read: older PC} off of it. This would allowed my > > mother and brother to share a reasonably modern system at the > > same time. > > > >This is not me just being cheap. I'm interested in setting up > >diskless workstations aound a good central X server. I see > > such setups as appropriate for a number of situations. If the > > X server requires 'nicing' in a single user environment, what > > happens in an LTSP environment? > > I think the server runs on the clients... or something ;) The X server on the 'server' is responsible for what to display and where to display it. The X server on the 'client' is responsible for interpreting that info for the specific client machines hardware. Since the 'server' is also responsible for any needed file serving yada-yada-yada, I'm not certain how nicing the X server will play out. But I'm sure I'll learn soon! However see comment above. PBSAK > >Despite my enthusiasm for 2.6, I find it difficult to get > >everything to 'just work'. I still see problems in the area of > >nForce based mobos {stupid proprietary nVidia!}, broken > > BIOSes, and scheduler issues like the above. > > Obviously make sure all your software is up to date with > Documentation/Changes, and remember we can't help with closed > drivers. If you still have problems please send in a report. > Hope this helps Yes, it helps. FWIW, The BIOS is already the lastest available from Asus {Sept. 2003}. I'm seeing the same nForce{2,3} problems that other people are seeing with regards to all services on the chip except IDE sharing a single interrupt with ACPI assigning still other device cards to the very same interrupt. This is no longer true for me under -test9. :-) I suppose I should find the recent nForce3 thread and post both my BIOS options and my -test9 config file. However, 2.4.20 also has all the nForce services except IDE sharing the same interrupt. And that works fine. I do make an effort to keep up to date. ;-) I saw yesterday and plan on loading -test9-mm3 tonight. I even tried the forcedeth driver and was unable to boot. I haven't reported that because I haven't had time to follow it up with more info other than "It won't boot." I try not to make useless posts. When I have more info regarding that, I will post it. Thank you Nick. Later! -- Recyle computers. Install Gentoo GNU/Linux.