Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752812AbYCPP1g (ORCPT ); Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:27:36 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751972AbYCPP10 (ORCPT ); Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:27:26 -0400 Received: from smtp.regionline.fi ([85.157.255.99]:57199 "EHLO smtp.regionline.fi" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751926AbYCPP1Z (ORCPT ); Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:27:25 -0400 From: Jan Knutar To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Swap makes X unfair (was Re: Keys get stuck) Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:27:01 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.6.2 Cc: Helge Hafting , Helge Hafting , Mike Galbraith , Hans-Peter Jansen , Jiri Kosina , David Newall , Theodore Tso , "Fred ." References: <20080313151354.GA5252@localhost.ift.unesp.br> <47DA5B36.9060209@mail.aitel.hist.no> In-Reply-To: <47DA5B36.9060209@mail.aitel.hist.no> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <200803161727.02059.jk-lkml@sci.fi> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1422 Lines: 30 On Friday 14 March 2008 13:02, Helge Hafting wrote: > Normally, memory that is used all the time does not get > swapped out. If you use X while the machine is swapping, > you will normally see lots of little delays, not > one longe freeze. So this may have been something else. When it happens to me, the pointer usually updates only about 1 - 2 times per second, which seems to be enough to cause keyboard repeat problems as well. If the swapfile usage is 0 when a big swapout takes place, I usually see about 6M/sec pushed to disc and rarely pointer or keyboard anomalies. After running a few more days though, swapping rates drop to 1.3M per sec or worse. The delays in X get bigger too, sometimes several seconds long. I guess if the kernel swaps out a piece of X that X needs, then it takes much much longer to get it back at that low swap rate, and it ends up manifesting itself as pointer jitter and keyboard repeat problems. The pointer stutter can be considered acceptable, I guess, atleast there the pointer (eventually) jumps to where I expect it to go based on how much I move the mouse... I have to wonder what X is doing to break the keyboard... -- 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/