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    SubjectA few questions and issues with dynticks, NOHZ and powertop
    Hey!

    Before I'm off hiding some Easter eggs, here are some questions and
    issues related to "dynticks", NOHZ, and powertop:

    1) single-CPU systems, SMP-capable kernel and RCU
    2) dual-core CPU[*] and select_nohz_load_balancer()
    3) USB, autosuspend failure, excessive ticks
    4) SynPS/2 touchpad and hundreds of IRQs per second
    5) powertop: 1 + 1 = 1


    1) single-CPU systems, SMP-capable kernel and RCU

    CONFIG_TREE_RCU=y
    CONFIG_RCU_FANOUT=64
    CONFIG_RCU_FAST_NO_HZ=y

    Booting a SMP-capable kernel with "nosmp", or manually offlining one CPU
    (or -- though I haven't tested it -- booting a SMP-capable kernel on a
    system with merely one CPU) means that in up to about half of the calls to
    tick_nohz_stop_sched_tick() are aborted due to rcu_needs_cpu(). This is
    quite strange to me: AFAIK, RCU is an excellent tool for SMP, but not really
    needed for UP? And all updates seem to be local to the CPU anyway.
    Therefore, I'd presume that rcu_needs_cpu() should return 0 on
    one-CPU-systems. Or could RCU switch between TINY_RCU on UP and TREE_RCU on
    SMP (using alternatives or whatever)?


    2) dual-core CPU[*] and select_nohz_load_balancer()
    [*] (Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7250)

    # CONFIG_SCHED_SMT is not set
    CONFIG_SCHED_MC=y
    CONFIG_SCHED_HRTICK=y

    CONFIG_SCHED_MC is igored, as mc_capable() returns 0 on a one-socket,
    dual-core system. Quite surprisingly, even under moderate load (~98.0% idle)
    while writing this bugreport, up to half of the calls to
    tick_nohz_stop_sched_tick() are aborted due to select_nohz_load_balancer(1):

    if (atomic_read(&nohz.load_balancer) == -1) {
    /* make me the ilb owner */
    if (atomic_cmpxchg(&nohz.load_balancer, -1, cpu) == -1)
    return 1;

    I'm not really sure, but I guess this is caused by the following phenomenon
    under minor load but still, every once in a while, parallel work for both
    CPUs:

    CPU #0 CPU #1

    <active> <active>
    <idle> <active>
    tick_nohz_stop_sched_tick(1) <active>
    select_nohz_load_balancer(1) <active>
    => becomes ilb owner <idle>
    => tick is not stopped tick_nohz_stop_sched_tick(1)
    => CPU goes to sleep for 1 tick => as it isn't the ILB owner, tick
    <sleep for 1 tick> is stopped .
    ---> scheduler_tick() <sleeeeeeeep>
    tick_nohz_stop_sched_tick(0)
    <still idle>
    tick_nohz_stop_sched_tick(1)
    select_nohz_load_balancer(1)
    => is ilb owner, all CPUs idle,
    may go to sleep.

    If both CPUs have hardly anything to do, letting the _active_ CPU do ilb
    allows us to enter deep sleep states earlier, and longer:

    current ILB model (* = ILB)

    tick ---------- tick -------- tick ----- IRQ
    CPU0: active|IDLE(C2)--|*|IDLE (C3) |
    CPU1: active....| IDLE (C3) |
    core: .......???| C2 | C3 |

    ILB-by-active-CPU-on-light-load:

    tick ---------- tick -------- tick ----- IRQ
    CPU0: active|IDLE(C3) |
    CPU1: active....*| IDLE (C3) |
    core: .......????| C3 |


    3) USB: built-in UHCI and a built-in 0a5c:2101 Broadcom Corp. A-Link
    BlueUsbA2 Bluetooth module; built-in EHCI and a built-in 0ac8:c302 Z-Star
    Microelectronics Corp. Vega USB 2.0 Camera.

    usbcore.autosuspend is enabled (= 2), of course.

    Recent USB suspend statistics
    Active Device name
    100.0% USB device 7-1 : BCM92045NMD (Broadcom Corp)
    100.0% USB device 1-2 : Vega USB 2.0 Camera. (Vimicro Corp.)
    100.0% USB device usb7 : UHCI Host Controller (Linux 2.6.34-rc3 uhci_hcd)
    100.0% USB device usb1 : EHCI Host Controller (Linux 2.6.34-rc3 ehci_hcd)

    Booting into /bin/bash on a SMP kernel booted with "nosmp" leads to ~ 10
    wakeups per second; disabling the cursor helps halfway (~ 5 wakeups); and
    manually unbinding the USB host drivers from the USB host devices finally
    lead to ~ 1.1 wakeups per second. What's keeping USB from suspending these
    unused devices here?


    4) SynPS/2 touchpad:
    Why does moving the touchpad lead to sooo many IRQs? I can't look as fast
    as the mouse pointer seems to get new data:
    62,5% (473,1) <interrupt> : PS/2 keyboard/mouse/touchpad


    5) powertop and hrtimer_start_range_ns (tick_sched_timer) on a SMP kernel
    booted with "nosmp":

    Wakeups-from-idle per second : 9.9 interval: 15.0s
    ...
    48.5% ( 9.4) <kernel core> : hrtimer_start (tick_sched_timer)
    26.1% ( 5.1) <kernel core> : cursor_timer_handler (cursor_timer_handler)
    20.6% ( 4.0) <kernel core> : usb_hcd_poll_rh_status (rh_timer_func)
    1.0% ( 0.2) <kernel core> : arm_supers_timer (sync_supers_timer_fn)
    0.7% ( 0.1) <interrupt> : ata_piix
    ...

    Accoding to http://www.linuxpowertop.org , the count in the brackets is how
    many wakeups per seconds were caused by one source. Adding all _except_
    48.5% ( 9.4) <kernel core> : hrtimer_start (tick_sched_timer)
    up leads to the 9.9; adding also the 9.4 leads to 19.3 wakeups-from-idle per
    second. However, http://www.linuxpowertop.org says:

    > "Should "Wakeups-from-idle per second" equal the sum of the
    > wakeups/second/core listed on the "Top causes for wakeups" list?
    >
    > It should be higher, since there are some causes for wakeups that are nearly
    > impossible to detect by software."


    Best, and Happy Easter,

    Dominik


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