Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753925AbYCMOZI (ORCPT ); Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:25:08 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752099AbYCMOY4 (ORCPT ); Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:24:56 -0400 Received: from embla.aitel.hist.no ([158.38.50.22]:35593 "EHLO embla.aitel.hist.no" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751996AbYCMOYz (ORCPT ); Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:24:55 -0400 Message-ID: <47D937A2.9070305@aitel.hist.no> Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:18:10 +0100 From: Helge Hafting User-Agent: Icedove 1.5.0.10 (X11/20070329) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Mike Galbraith , Jan Knutar , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Hans-Peter Jansen , Jiri Kosina , David Newall , Theodore Tso , "Fred ." Subject: Re: Keys get stuck References: <200803122222.05663.hpj@urpla.net> <1205386933.4797.22.camel@marge.simson.net> <200803131148.22056.jk-lkml@sci.fi> <1205407693.6686.16.camel@marge.simson.net> <20080313120238.GA3860@localhost.ift.unesp.br> In-Reply-To: <20080313120238.GA3860@localhost.ift.unesp.br> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1937 Lines: 53 Carlos R. Mafra wrote: > On Thu 13.Mar'08 at 12:28:13 +0100, Mike Galbraith wrote: > >> [...] >> Swap can definitely keep X off the cpu for extended periods, >> [...] >> > > So I would like to ask if swap letting X (and everything else > in my experience) out of the cpu for extended periods is > considered normal behaviour, in the sense that nobody is > trying to "fix" it (due to it being considered impossible > to fix)...? > Yes, this is perfectly normal. A heavily swapping machine will swap out parts of X. Now, if X has a need for low-latency for keyboard handling, then the X developers can use mlock to lock the X keyboard service in memory, and make it a real-time (or at least high priority) process too. This should avoid the problem even with extreme swapping and/or high cpu load. > Sorry for being off-topic, but I run a minimal Window Maker > desktop in a P4 3.0 GHz with 512 MB of RAM (around 140 MB > being used as per 'free'), and trying to load a 380 MB text > file in xjed editor makes my whole desktop quite unfair... > it takes tens of seconds to switch desktop, type things in > the terminal etc. > > Seems ou use too much memory then. If xjed wastes memory (by bringing the entire file into memory in one go) then you'll get some swapping. > When xjed finishes loading the text file, everything comes > back to "fair" again. > > Is there some law in the nature of computers which says > that when swapping everything else waits for swap to finish > its business? I hope not :-) > No such law, but there are badly implemented software around. If xjed is capable of delaying all X events while loading the file, for example . . . Helge Hafting -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/