Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 22

Thread: Linux Desktop Responsiveness Patches

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Beans
    4,757

    Linux Desktop Responsiveness Patches

    Original post in phoronix: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item&px=ODQ3OQ

    Someone seems to claim a fix for a long standing issue in desktop responsiveness in Linux.

    Upstream Patches:
    Here in 2.6.35 and Here in zen-kernel.

    It basically ensures that high cost allocations don't thwart the resposiveness of low cost allocations. So you can copy a large file from a Hard disk to a Pendrive, and rest assured your system won't lock up (ymmv).

    So I'm curious if anyone has tried it out? Do you notice any improvements?

    Attaching a combined patch for 2.6.32 kernels. Applies cleanly to the linux-2.6.32.orig.tar.gz tarball in Debian's repository.


    Regards
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by ibuclaw; August 7th, 2010 at 03:25 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Florianopolis, Brazil
    Beans
    1,354
    Distro
    Ubuntu Development Release

    Re: Linux Desktop Responsiveness Patches

    All the patches have been ACKed, I suspect they will go into .36 soon, then testing will reveal if they cause any regressions and if they really do improve the situation.

    I am actually surprised nobody put up a ppa yet.
    On strike during the Oneiric cycle due to ungratefulness of Ubuntu.


  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Finland
    Beans
    398
    Distro
    Ubuntu

    Arrow Re: Linux Desktop Responsiveness Patches

    I thought this was precisely the advantage Linux has always held... that running multiple applications simultaneously wouldn't make the system unresponsive.

    Sometimes I might be completely oblivious to the fact that a process has gone haywire because even though the CPU usage is capped I can't tell if I am not running a another intensive process that displays a progress bar.

    My audio player will never ever skip even if the system is dying.

    Which DE does this bug supposedly affect or all?

    edit: read the link, I guess I must be running an older kernel than affected...
    Last edited by blueturtl; August 7th, 2010 at 06:47 PM.
    Eternally confused.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Beans
    4,757

    Re: Linux Desktop Responsiveness Patches

    Quote Originally Posted by blueturtl View Post
    I thought this was precisely the advantage Linux has always held... that running multiple applications simultaneously wouldn't make the system unresponsive.

    Sometimes I might be completely oblivious to the fact that a process has gone haywire because even though the CPU usage is capped I can't tell if I am not running a another intensive process that displays a progress bar.

    My audio player will never ever skip even if the system is dying.

    Which DE does this bug supposedly affect or all?

    edit: read the link, I guess I must be running an older kernel than affected...
    When I say YMMV, I honestly do mean exactly that. Some people swear that copying a large file from A to B will cause all light processes to be put "on hold" whilst the copying is undergoing. Others perhaps suffer from system jitters when running two or three tasks at once when suddenly all the system cache is expended and memory is now being juggled about to and from swap, causing heavy delays when performing light desktop activities - clicking on a menu, changing directory in the file browser, refreshing a webpage.

    If you don't suffer from these sorts of symptoms, great! If you do, salvation may be on the way to tend to your heavy desktop needs...

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Tuxland
    Beans
    Hidden!
    Distro
    Ubuntu Development Release

    Re: Linux Desktop Responsiveness Patches

    I don't remember ever having this problem. Is there a reproducible way to trigger it?
    Proud GNU/Linux zealot and lover of penguins
    "Value your freedom or you will lose it, teaches history." --Richard Stallman

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Beans
    4,757

    Re: Linux Desktop Responsiveness Patches

    Quote Originally Posted by phrostbyte View Post
    I don't remember ever having this problem. Is there a reproducible way to trigger it?
    According to https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12309

    Code:
    dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/test bs=1M count=1M

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Beans
    221
    Distro
    Kubuntu

    Re: Linux Desktop Responsiveness Patches

    It helps a great deal.
    Now during KDE startup still the system is responsive.
    The same when there is heavy Hard disk reading.

    Before with the original Ubuntu kernel I could notice severe slowdown when there was heavy hard disk input/out.

    So it seems the patch works well.
    I had to apply the patch manually.

    I have an AMD system with a 785G chipset.
    Kubuntu 10.04
    Low consumption Desktop:
    AMD AthlonIIx4 605e 45W, AMD Radeon HD 4550 ,320GB laptop 7200rpm, idle System Consumption (without monitor): 44 Watts

  8. #8

    Re: Linux Desktop Responsiveness Patches

    I have an Acer Aspire One netbook with the absolutely pathetic 16 GB SSD. The interface grinds to a halt with any disk usage, so I'm very interested in these patches. Even light browsing gives me ~30 second waits.

    I want to install UNR 10.10 - with these patches. How do I apply them? What do I do about normal kernel updates?

    Thanks,

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Beans
    4,305

    Re: Linux Desktop Responsiveness Patches

    To be honest, SSDs have great read speed and terrible write speed, so they choke on writes. I think you would be better off running using the deadline scheduler so reads have higher priority, and find ways to reduce writes such as mounting using noatime. I can help you with that if interested, you should probably start a new thread and link me to it.

    As for patching, I am not quite sure I could walk you through it so I will leave that to someone else since a few experienced folks are subscribed to this thread. I would ask them if they drop by; did it land in .36? I believe you can use a mainline build of .36 for Ubuntu if it is included.
    http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Beans
    4,757

    Re: Linux Desktop Responsiveness Patches

    As far as I'm aware, it did land in the mainline for the 10.10 release.

    I'll have a quick dig about though just to be sure...

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •