/srv/irclogs.ubuntu.com/2005/07/26/#ubuntu-kernel.txt

lamont__fabbione: you around?12:52
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jbaileyzul: pong02:05
fabbionemorning05:32
fabbionelamont: i am now05:32
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fabbioneinfinity: ping?10:41
infinitypong?10:44
fabbioneinfinity: so.. let's talk about flavours :)10:44
fabbionedid you get all your hw in place?10:44
infinityI seem to be much better off hardware-wise than I was a month ago, yes.10:44
fabbioneinfinity: i think it's time to test the k7 - 686 thingy and possibly other combinations10:45
infinityOne ppc32 (1.0 GHz G3), one amd64 (2.0 GHz Athlon64) and one i386 (2.0GHz Pentium-M)10:45
fabbionei am pretty sure we can10:45
fabbionei am pretty sure we can't drop 686 vs 686-smp or similar10:45
infinityAssuming we don't run into driver instability issues, yes.10:46
fabbioneaccording to bugzilla some smp kernels are suffering some weird extra bugs10:46
infinityGiven that I'm pretty sure ipw2200 locks up my 686 machine occasionally, I wonder if it'll get worse if I go SMP...10:46
fabbioneinfinity: ipw2200 is broken for N millions other reasons10:46
infinityI've noticed.10:46
infinityAt least it mostly works for me right now.10:47
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fabbionewhat we need to see are performance issues :)10:47
fabbioneif any10:47
fabbioneand imho there are none10:47
infinityI'm doubting we'll see any worth noting.10:47
fabbioneall the other arches are down to N and N-smp10:47
fabbioneonly i386 is still bloated10:48
infinityOkay, how many i386 flavours do we have?10:48
infinityAnd how many do we ideally want?10:48
fabbione5 10:48
fabbionewith the tendency to increase soon10:48
fabbioneif we get 686-xen0 686-xenU10:48
fabbioneso i am on the idea of killing k7 completely10:49
infinityCan we build -i386 with arch=i486 tune=pentium, or something similar?10:49
fabbionehi Janew10:49
fabbioneinfinity: that's what the 686/k7 selection does at the end10:49
infinityk7 is hard to test, as I don't have a real k7... I might be able to dig up someone who does.10:49
fabbionemy k7 is half broken even with 386 kernels10:50
infinity?10:50
fabbioneinfinity: we still need a clean 386 .. that should be really 486 by now10:50
fabbioneinfinity: hw problems :)10:50
infinityYeah.  I don't have a 486 anymore, but I can test on a Pentium-MMX.  That's as slow as it gets.10:51
infinity(Are we carrying the 486 emulation patch in our 386 kernels, BTW?)10:51
fabbioneinfinity: nope...10:51
infinityOr do we just not support anything < 486?10:51
infinityKay.10:51
MithrandirI have k7s just fine.10:51
fabbionewe dropped real 386 support a while ago10:51
JaneWhi fabbione10:51
infinityMithrandir : Hi, you just signed up to do some 686 vs k7 performance testing, then. :)10:51
fabbioneMithrandir: can you run a 686 kernel on it and tell us if there is any noticable performance issue?10:52
Mithrandirfabbione: sure.  Urgently? (please say no)10:52
fabbionebrb i need more coffee10:52
fabbioneMithrandir: well asap.. within yesterday is fine10:52
fabbioneMithrandir: kidding.. sometime within monday or tuesday if possible10:53
infinityfabbione : Is there actually a reason for the amd64-{generic,k8,xeon} split at well, or just people looking for that 2% performance boost again?10:53
Mithrandirfabbione: I'll see what I can do.  Most of my systems are still boxes on the floor around here.10:53
infinityI have no xeon to test on, but I can do the opposite thing of testing the xeon kernel on my k8 and see if it sucks.10:55
MithrandirI don't think I have any xeons, but I could ask around at hardware.no and see.10:57
Mithrandirinfinity: I think the xeon and k8 kernels won't necessarily work on both kinds of hardware.10:57
infinityThat's a theory I'd like backed up with proof.10:57
fabbioneinfinity: i have no idea...10:58
infinity(Keep in mind that we have a "generic" amd64 kernel which apparently works on both, so dropping k8 /and/ xeon would be the sane option if the performance hit isn't terribly noticeable)10:59
fabbioneabout xeon/k810:59
fabbioneand generic i *think* works on emt64 too10:59
infinityWell, that's the point, yes.10:59
infinityIt's the kernel we use in the amd64/em64t installer, so it better work on both.10:59
fabbioneeven if i saw Debian spawning the usual 24 flavours on svenl's ppc wave10:59
fabbioneamd64-k8-smp:CONFIG_SMP=y11:00
fabbioneamd64-xeon:CONFIG_SMP=y11:00
fabbionethat's the only thing...11:00
fabbionewell more or less11:00
fabbione# disable it for opteron optimized builds because it pulls in ACPI_BOOT11:01
fabbioneconfig X86_HT11:01
fabbione        bool11:01
fabbione        depends on SMP && !MK811:01
fabbione        default y11:01
fabbioneMK8 = k811:01
fabbioneso there are differences11:01
MithrandirI've asked fs who does the amd64 kernels in Debian about the reason too11:02
infinityNo terribly large differences.11:02
fabbioneok11:02
fabbionewell HT can make a difference.. and associate to ACPI11:02
infinityamd64 and amd64-smp would probably cover all our bases if amd64-smp also had HT enabled, and still works fine on k8.11:03
fabbionethe latter makes me feel not particularly conmfortable11:03
fabbioneyou mean generic and generic-smp :)11:03
infinityWell, no, there'd be no need for the "generic" moniker if there were no non-generic ones. :)11:03
fabbionebut yeah i agree 2 flavours should be more than enough11:03
infinityIf you can build an amd64-smp with HT enabled, I can spin it with elmo on a buildd.11:04
infinityThat's the best way to find out if it's broken.11:04
fabbioneinfinity, Mithrandir: can you 2 focus today and tomorrow to do this research between cpu diffs?11:04
fabbioneinfinity: i can spin it.. that's no problem, but where is elmo?11:04
fabbionehe needs to go to a DC to reboot a buildd...11:05
fabbiones/a/the11:05
infinityYes, he and I already have a date to do amd64 kernel testing.11:05
fabbioneok.. and when is that supposed to be?11:05
infinityWe want to make sure breezy's kernels are all capable of running the buildds for breezy+1, so it's something that needs to be done anyway.11:05
fabbionebecause 2.6.12 on concordia is giving the same problems as 2.6.10 on the buildd...11:05
infinityEarly next week is when I was planning on pinging him back about it.11:05
infinityconcordia's still going down?11:05
fabbioneno11:06
fabbionebut it's segfault-o-rama11:06
infinityNot quite the same problems, then.11:06
infinityThe buildds actually crash.11:06
fabbionei can't even build the kernel there11:06
infinityWe'd prefer they didn't.11:06
fabbionesame synmptomps of G5 on ppc32 kernels11:06
infinityFun.11:06
fabbionejust much worst11:06
fabbioneand dmesg full of the same crap you pasted to me11:07
infinityWell, if you want to try to spin a bunch of test images, we can make a play-date.11:07
fabbionebut yeah.. it's not going down.. that's true11:07
fabbionei can't spin images without concordia..11:07
fabbionei can give you a config...11:07
fabbionebut you can as well just edir amd64-generic locally11:07
infinityVery true.11:07
infinityHe and I will play then, and get back to you.11:08
infinityDo you have changes queued up to linux-source, or is -3.3 still the "best known" version?11:08
fabbioneinfinity: 4.4 is on the way11:09
fabbionebut i was hoping to get amd64 sorted out before11:10
fabbioneotehrwise it will be a neat FTBFS11:10
infinityAn FTBFS never killed anyone.11:11
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fabbioneit will kill my patience because i need the ABI files out of the build11:11
infinityIf you can roll up what you're planning to release, that's the source elmo and I will play with.11:11
fabbionebefore be able to upload a fixed version11:12
fabbioneinfinity: ok.. i will try to do that asap11:12
fabbionei need to finish to cleanup the udeb creation11:12
infinityJust roll a prerelease and toss it on chinstrap.11:12
fabbionebut it is possible to build the debs11:12
fabbioneinfinity: see /topic :)11:12
fabbionegrab the source and apply some baz magic :P11:12
infinityYeah, yeah.  Will do.11:13
fabbioneeheh11:13
fabbionedon't worry11:13
fabbionei will give you the diff.gz11:13
fabbionei am still working on staff11:13
fabbioneinfinity: also.. another question.. are we going to drop gcc-3.3 from breezy?11:15
fabbionedoko: can gcc-3.3 actually build ppc64 binaries?11:15
infinityHow are the kernel builds with gcc-3.4 looking?11:15
fabbionenot good11:15
infinityFeh.11:15
infinityThen I guess we need 3.311:15
fabbionethey build.. but it seems that some stuff is miscompiled11:16
infinityNot surprised at all.11:16
fabbionei386/ppc seems to be ok11:16
fabbionebut all the other arches are showing regressions11:16
infinityWe don't have time to fix that sort of breakage.11:16
fabbionenope11:16
infinityDebian does, we don't.11:16
fabbionenot at all11:16
fabbioneand jumping to 4.0 is no solution11:16
infinitySo we need 3.3 in main, and we should probably use it to compile everything but ppc64.11:16
dokofabbione: hmm, I don't know. do you really care?11:16
fabbionedoko: yes i do care :)11:16
fabbioneread above...11:16
infinityAnd compile ppc64 with 3.4 (I assume?)11:16
fabbioneinfinity: i am more happy to use the same compiler everywhere11:17
infinityI don't think 3.3 will generate a pcc64 kernel to save its life.  But yo ucan try.11:17
fabbioneisn't gcc-3.3 still in main?11:18
fabbionegcc-3.3 -m64 -o hello.o -c hello.c11:20
fabbionecc1: error: invalid option `64'11:20
fabbionei guess it doesn't11:20
Mithrandir11:20 < fs> Mithrandir: hyperthreading, no IOMMU, and compiled with -march=nocona11:21
fabbioneMithrandir: meaning of?11:22
Mithrandirthe xeons doesn't have an IOMMU11:23
fabbioneso we need xeons11:23
fabbionebut i think we can kill k8* and make generic and generic-smp11:24
fabbionethat will remove one flavour11:24
fabbionei am not even sure it's worth the pain11:26
fabbionebut k7* should go11:26
fabbioneinfinity: we can probably cheat there11:27
fabbioneset M486 that is common11:27
fabbioneand call it 68611:27
fabbionethat should work on k7 too11:27
fabbionek7 has a different cache shifting level11:28
fabbioneso there is a bit of performance impact11:28
fabbioneconfig X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT11:28
fabbione        int11:28
fabbione        default "7" if MPENTIUM4 || X86_GENERIC11:28
fabbione        default "4" if X86_ELAN || M486 || M38611:28
fabbione        default "5" if MWINCHIP3D || MWINCHIP2 || MWINCHIPC6 || MCRUSOE || MEFFICEON || MCYRIXIII || MK6 || MPENTIUMIII || MPENTIUMII || M686 11:28
fabbione|| M586MMX || M586TSC || M586 || MVIAC3_2 || MGEODEGX111:29
fabbione        default "6" if MK7 || MK8 || MPENTIUMM11:29
Mithrandirwould that be hard to detect runtime?11:30
Mithrandirusing cpuid or something?11:30
fabbionecflags-$(CONFIG_M686)           += -march=i68611:30
fabbionecflags-$(CONFIG_MK7)            += $(call cc-option,-march=athlon,-march=i686 $(align)-functions=4)11:30
fabbioneMithrandir: eh.. it depends. let me check11:31
fabbionethese kind of patches are sort of intrusive11:32
infinityDefaulting to 6 and seeing if it hurts Pentium4 and PentiumII would be my preference.11:32
infinityBut that's cause I own a Pentium-M. :)11:32
fabbionei don't like playing with L1 cache at random11:33
fabbionei am pretty sure who did that stuff knows more than us11:34
fabbioneinclude/asm-i386/cache.h:#define L1_CACHE_SHIFT (CONFIG_X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT)11:34
fabbioneinclude/asm-x86_64/cache.h:#define L1_CACHE_SHIFT       (CONFIG_X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT)11:34
fabbionearch/ia64/sn/kernel/bte.c:      BUG_ON(!(len < ((BTE_LEN_MASK + 1) << L1_CACHE_SHIFT)));11:36
fabbionearch/ia64/sn/kernel/bte.c:      transfer_size = ((len >> L1_CACHE_SHIFT) & BTE_LEN_MASK);11:36
fabbioneit's stuff like this i have no idea it can be mangled at boot time, early enough to make it working11:36
infinityWell, given than all those options work on all CPUs, just to varying degrees, it can't be that bad to fiddle with it.11:37
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fabbioneinfinity: i am not completely sure about that...11:38
fabbionethe option is to a certain value...11:38
fabbionechanging the value at runtime, might require a flush of cache 11:38
fabbionei think at least..11:38
infinityOh, yes, changing it at runtime could blow things up.  I meant that defaulting to something sane enough for everyone at build time wouldn't kill us.11:39
fabbionenot sure...11:39
infinityGiven that 7 is the default for generic, and 4 is the default for 386, and both those options work everywhere...11:40
fabbionelet's make it 5.511:40
infinityRock.11:40
infinityThen round up to 6, and I win.11:41
infinityAs do all k7 and Pentium-M owners.11:41
fabbioneand 686 lose11:41
infinityAnd, really, anyone buying a new 686 system that isn't k7 or Pentium-M sucks anyway. :)11:41
fabbionegiven i have only 686.. you lose11:41
infinity(But we don't know how much you lose by without testing)11:41
fabbioneexcactly11:42
fabbioneand given the -ENOTIME...11:42
infinityRight now, our 686 kernels are already slower than they should be on k7 and pentium4, I don't see much difference here, except that we probably improve both those situations.11:42
=== infinity -> dinner
fabbioneok let see what's the outcome from Mith's tests on k711:46
fsbetter kill 686, crappy stuff anyways ;)11:57
fshi fabbione =)11:57
fswhy the flavour reduction at all?11:57
fsthe k8 and xeon flavours do different cache aligning, too11:58
fabbionehi fs :)11:58
fabbionefs: -ETOOMANYFLAVOURS11:58
fabbionewe are experiencing problems with users not being able to understand what to install11:58
fabbionereducing the set of options will make it simpler11:58
fsthat drives users in compiling more own kernels, as they want a best fitting kernel for their arch11:59
fswell, thats an argument11:59
fsbut why not just explain what to install instead?11:59
fabbionefs: we do.. and it's a FAQ..11:59
fabbionestill people don't understand :)11:59
fabbionealso11:59
fabbionethere are some bugs that are coming up only in specific flavours...11:59
fabbioneprobably due to compilation options?12:00
fsI see12:00
fabbioneso that would also reduce the amount of things to debug12:00
fabbioneso getting to a smaller set of kernels, will reduce a lot of problems12:01
infinityUbuntu's target audience is (generally) not the sort of group that would compile their own kernels for optimal performance anyway.12:01
fabbioneto a certain degree12:01
infinityAnd the few tha treall want to can use make-kpkg and I won't yell at them.12:02
fabbioneinfinity: tell that to glxgears and daniels :)12:02
infinityI still build my own kernels in most situations too (though, I use a stock kernel on my laptop)12:02
fabbionei think we should upload a fake glxgears that multiply by 10 automatically12:02
infinityOr just drop the glxgears binary completely.12:02
infinityOr include a real OpenGL benchmark for people who seem to think they need one.12:03
fabbioneehhehe12:03
fabbionei prefer to cheat.. it's more fun12:03
infinityBut, really, our target market is a "win32 killer", and I haven't noticed Windows installing a sozen different kernels depending on your CPU.12:04
infinity(THough they may do on-the-fly cache tuning, depending on CPU)12:04
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zuldamn idiots02:12
fabbionehey zul02:16
fabbionesup?02:16
zulnot much...idiot is taking my nick again02:28
zuli think ill drop a huge megaton bomb on his ass02:41
Mithrandiryou could just register your nick and ghost him02:41
zuli have and did02:58
infinityThe same guy takes my nick every time I fall offline (which is usually for a very short period, once or twice per month)03:23
infinityI can't understand the fascination with it, since he always gets punted shortly after.03:23
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HohlraumSorry to barge in.. would someone happen to know what version of 2.6 the hoary installer is using?  i've got some dell 1850 and 2850 hardware that needs the drivers included with newer versions of 2.605:20
mjg592.6.1005:20
Hohlraumvery cool.. i think that might be the magic version that those drivers were included in. excellent. thanks!05:26
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lamontfabbione: I remembered why I was looking for you...08:20
fabbionelamont: ah cool08:21
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