linux-kernel - unexpected high load since 2.6.35

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Message-ID: <4C573041.1070103@gmx.net>
Date:	Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:53:21 +0200
From:	"MadLoisae@....net" <MadLoisae@....net>
To:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: unexpected high load since 2.6.35

Hi Guys,

I've updated from linux 2.6.34.1 to 2.6.35. With 2.6.34.1 and before I 
had on my box a load average of about 0.4 to 0.5. Now with the same 
processes / hardware I have got between 1.2 and 1.3.
In top I can see nothing is going on - CPU is still about 70% idle.
I am using vmware server 1.0.10 on it, the modules are the same as in 
2.6.34.1. If running, vmware "eats" about 25% CPU (there is only one 
machine running) or adds about 0.25 to 0.3 onto load - not more than 
before 2.6.35.
If I stop vmware and remove the modules the load decreases of about 0.3 
- this was also with 2.6.34, I had without  vmware a load between 0.05 
and 0.1.

Attached my dmesg of 2.6.34.1 and 2.6.35 as well as my actual kernel-config.
Altough I have compiled in with 2.6.35 wireless lan support I have 
actually not the hardware. So the complete WIFI-stack is not used, no 
modules are loaded.

Hardware / software:
Debian lenny
CPU: Via Nehemiah 1GHz, one CPU
1GB DDR-RAM, no swap configured
primary ide channel: not in use
secondary master: Transcend compactflash 16GiB, 1 partition, ext3 (/)
secondary slave: HDD Western Digital 320Gib, 4 partitions, ext4 (/home, ...)
4 Realtek RTL8139, 2 of them in use (eth0, eth1)
6 or 8 USB-Ports, none of them in use
PCMCIA sockets, not in use
Via AC97 sound, not in use
Terratec Cinergy 1200 DVB-C, in use with vdr
serial line, in use with APC-USV

There are no interrupt errors:
           CPU0      
  0:    3946346    XT-PIC-XT        timer
  1:          2    XT-PIC-XT        i8042
  2:          0    XT-PIC-XT        cascade
  3:          2    XT-PIC-XT     
  4:       6757    XT-PIC-XT        serial
  7:     163510    XT-PIC-XT        yenta, uhci_hcd:usb2, eth0
  8:          2    XT-PIC-XT        rtc
  9:          0    XT-PIC-XT        acpi
 10:          0    XT-PIC-XT        uhci_hcd:usb4, VIA8233
 11:    1385932    XT-PIC-XT        yenta, ehci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb3, 
saa7146 (0), eth1
 12:          4    XT-PIC-XT        i8042
 14:          0    XT-PIC-XT        pata_via
 15:      25173    XT-PIC-XT        pata_via
NMI:          0   Non-maskable interrupts
LOC:          0   Local timer interrupts
SPU:          0   Spurious interrupts
PMI:          0   Performance monitoring interrupts
PND:          0   Performance pending work
ERR:          0
MIS:          0

atop also does not display any other values than with 2.6.34 except the 
higher load:
PRC | sys   0.38s | user   1.80s | #proc    142 | #zombie    0 | 
#exit      1 |
CPU | sys      3% | user     17% | irq       0% | idle     77% | 
wait      2% |
CPL | avg1   1.18 | avg5    1.22 | avg15   1.18 | csw     8090 | intr    
3914 |
MEM | tot  993.3M | free  230.5M | cache 546.3M | buff   19.9M | slab   
20.6M |
SWP | tot    0.0M | free    0.0M |              | vmcom 581.4M | vmlim 
496.6M |
DSK |         sda | busy      2% | read       0 | write      8 | avio   
28 ms |
NET | transport   | tcpi     289 | tcpo     372 | udpi       0 | 
udpo       0 |
NET | network     | ipi      289 | ipo      278 | ipfrw      0 | 
deliv    289 |
NET | eth1     0% | pcki     262 | pcko     345 | si   12 Kbps | so  187 
Kbps |
NET | eth0     0% | pcki     133 | pcko       0 | si    6 Kbps | so    0 
Kbps |
NET | lo     ---- | pcki      27 | pcko      27 | si    1 Kbps | so    1 
Kbps |

At this moment vmware was not running, only a few xterm-windows and 
thunderbird over vnc. The high load is not I/O-load, CF as HDD are 
nearly idle theo whole time (below 5blocks/second read / written). There 
is nearly no network traffic (below 1kbps in/out). The DVB-C card 
acutally does nothing.

Any ideas what I can search for?

Thanks!

kind regards
Alois

View attachment "config.2.6.34.1" of type "text/plain" (63156 bytes)

View attachment "config.2.6.35" of type "text/plain" (64963 bytes)

View attachment "dmesg.2.6.25" of type "text/plain" (33922 bytes)

View attachment "dmesg.2.6.34.1" of type "text/plain" (33615 bytes)