linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] i386 tsc: remove xtime_lock'ing around cpufreq notifier

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Date:	Thu, 12 Apr 2007 19:17:26 +0200
From:	Andi Kleen <ak@...ell.com>
To:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:	Daniel Walker <dwalker@...sta.com>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	johnstul@...ibm.com, tglx@...utronix.de
Subject: Re: [PATCH] i386 tsc: remove xtime_lock'ing around cpufreq notifier


> OK, so I resurrected x86_64-mm-sched-clock-share.patch and
> x86_64-mm-sched-clock64.patch.  The x86_64 box hangs on boot when using
> netconsole and printk timestamps too.  Removing "time" from the kernel boot
> command line prevents that.

It's not worse than before for you CPU. The old code did 

#ifndef CONFIG_NUMA
        if (!cpu_khz || check_tsc_unstable())
#endif
                /* no locking but a rare wrong value is not a big deal */
                return (jiffies_64 - INITIAL_JIFFIES) * (1000000000 / HZ);


So if it worked before it still will.

> This explains why the hang only happens with
> x86_64-mm-log-reason-why-tsc-was-marked-unstable.patch applied, too: that
> patch must be triggering a printk inside xtime_lock.
> 
> Does someone want to cook up a lockless printk_clock() for i386 and x86_64?

With the fall back case changed back to jiffies sched_clock will be fully lockless.

-Andi
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