Re: 2.6.14-rc5-rt3 - `IRQ 8'[798] is being piggy

[Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com>]

On 10/21/05, Lee Revell <rlrevell@joe-job.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-10-21 at 11:52 -0700, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > On 10/21/05, Lee Revell <rlrevell@joe-job.com> wrote:
> > > On Fri, 2005-10-21 at 10:40 -0700, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > > > On 10/21/05, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > Hi,
> > > > >    Maybe I'm catching something here? Maybe not - no xruns as of yet,
> > > > > but I've never seen these messages before. Kernel config attached.
> > > > >
> > > > >    dmesg has filled up with these messages:
> > > > >
> > >
> > > This isn't a real problem.  You enabled CONFIG_RTC_HISTOGRAM.  Don't do
> > > that.
> > >
> > > Lee
> >
> >
> > Right, but the 'piggy' messages are a real prblem, aren't they?
>
> No I don't think so.  CONFIG_RTC_HISTOGRAM is a hack, designed to work
> with a specific test program that runs SCHED_FIFO and poll()s on the
> RTC.  VLC apparently poll()s on the RTC but does not run SCHED_FIFO.  So
> of course there will be delays.
>
> Now that the kernel has good soft realtime support and non-root RT
> scheduling, these apps really need to adopt a correct soft RT design
> like JACK.  AFAICT they don't even bother to try to get SCHED_FIFO for
> the time-sensitive rendering threads.  I can't even get totem-xine (the
> default "Sound and Movie Player" for Gnome) to keep the audio and video
> in sync.  mplayer only plays smoothly if I run it at nice -10.  Etc.
>
> The Linux kernel is pretty good for RT these days but compared to OSX or
> even Windows the apps are a joke.
>
> Lee

Lee,
   Indeed, you are correct. Apparently under character devices I had
turned on the RTC histogram feature. With that off I am not only
getting the maximum latency values we expect.

   Now I'll have to let it run for hours/days to see if I catch any
info on these xruns, should I get another rash of them. Yesterday they
came only after about 14 hours of work. I had none the previous two
days.

Thanks,
Mark