Created attachment 30632 [details] cfs debug info logs (includes .config) I noticed that the system becomes sluggish sometimes, top shows me a bunch of 'kworker' processes at ~40-60% CPU usage. "sluggish" means for me high latency, i.e. slow at moving mouse in X, switching processes, etc. This happens for example if I do 'winetricks ie6', or 'winetricks ie7' just as it is about to finish installing them. I'll try to find out exactly what that script (or wine) does that triggers this issue. I launched 'sudo perf top' and it has shown me this: 4953.00 62.9% delay_tsc [kernel] Usually delay_tsc is at 10%, and there is no noticable latency then (although why should delay_tsc spend so much time? Does it have to do something with audio? I have mplayer running all the time...) Attaching my .config Here is a snapshot of top when this happens: 4412 root 20 0 182m 34m 4260 D 23 0.9 96:53.35 Xorg 683 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 17 0.0 0:02.79 kworker/0:0 9634 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 16 0.0 3:29.24 kworker/1:2 5572 edwin 20 0 830m 187m 9016 S 14 4.7 14:18.05 claws-mail 676 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 11 0.0 0:01.24 kworker/2:2 687 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 6 0.0 1:21.54 kworker/3:1 I did a 'perf sched record', but 'perf sched replay doesn't reproduce the issue for me (also it uses 1 CPU 100% while original case was several CPUs used each one a bit). I've run the cfs-debug-info script too, will attach its output.
The symptom looks similar to: Bug 16265 - Why is kslowd accumulating so much CPU time? https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16265 kslowd was replaced with kworker sometime ago: | commit 991ea75cb1df7188d209274b3d51c105b4f18ffe | Author: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org> | Date: Tue Jul 20 22:09:02 2010 +0200 | | drm: use workqueue instead of slow-work There are two patches committed for the bug #16265. One provides a module parameter to "disable polling". Another is for "automatic workaround". Obviously the "automatic workaround" is not working for us. But setting the module parameter worked for me. drm/kms: Add a module parameter to disable polling http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=e58f637bb96d5a0ae0919b9998b891d1ba7e47c9 Try booting with drm_kms_helper.poll=N or setting the param at /sys/module/drm_kms_helper/parameters/poll . It might work for you too.
(In reply to comment #1) > Try booting with drm_kms_helper.poll=N or setting the param at > /sys/module/drm_kms_helper/parameters/poll . It might work for you > too. Thanks, but I'm having trouble reproducing this on a fresh boot. kworker shows up for only a second or so in top, and then it is gone. Looking at the dmesg I attached to this bugreport I see this: [24541.100953] [drm:radeon_dvi_detect] *ERROR* DVI-I-1: probed a monitor but no|invalid EDID I don't have that message now, I don't know under what circumstances that DVI-I-1 probing occured, I tried 'xset dpms force off', waiting 30s, or turning monitor off from the button. Still that message didn't show up. I guess the kworker high CPU usage occurs only after it failed to probe the DVI-I-1 connector. Regarding the 'automatic workaround', if you are refering to 7b334fcb45b757ffb093696ca3de1b0c8b4a33f1, that only implements it for intel cards, so obviously it won't work on radeon cards!
> Regarding the 'automatic workaround', if you are refering to > 7b334fcb45b757ffb093696ca3de1b0c8b4a33f1, that only implements it > for intel cards, so obviously it won't work on radeon cards! Yes, that's the one. And I see now that it doesn't do anything for radeon. I have an intel graphics system and the patch does not work for it either. But I must say that my problem is more benign than the symptoms reported by you and #16265 -- e.g. mouse stalls. I noticed the problem through audio playback glitches.
(In reply to comment #1) > Try booting with drm_kms_helper.poll=N or setting the param at > /sys/module/drm_kms_helper/parameters/poll . It might work for you > too. Awesome! I was looking for a workaround for ages (since 2.6.34 where I suffered by udev drm polling storm which changed to kslowd cpu hogging in 2.6.35 and the same problem with kworker in 2.6.36) My system is snappy again! Thanks!
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 16265 ***