Results using ULE

[Conrad Sabatier]

On 09-Feb-2004 Kevin Oberman wrote:
> I have been using ULE on one system for about two weeks. The system is a
> IBM T30 with 512 MB memory running current with ACPI. The video is an
> ATi Radeon M7 with 1400x1050 display.
> 
> Generally, ULE has run OK. It seems to do a bit better than BSD4 when
> the system is heavily loaded. Right now I am encoding a CD and compiling
> OpenOffice. The interactivity and responsiveness of the system is good.
> 
> I have seen some areas, typically when the system is lightly loaded, when
> it works less well. All opinions are from non-quantified observation.
> 
> 1. When logging off Gnome, the screen is progressively darkened after the
> logout window is opened. With BSD4, this darkening was smooth. With ULE,
> it jumps in opacity. (Note that this is often on a totally idle system
> except for logging off Gnome.)
> 
> 2. I see occasional freezes in the system when it is mostly idle. Most
> are very brief, but I had one yesterday that lasted for at least 30
> seconds. No console errors were reported, but all windows owned by a
> gnome-terminal process were frozen. (It is QUITE possible that this is
> really a vte problem and is not related to ULE.)
> 
> In general, I am pleased with the performance of the system since I
> switched over to SCHED_ULE, but I still suspect something is not quite
> right when a UP system is idle.

One thing that really stands out is the peculiar behavior of top.  Several
seconds may go by where all processes are showing zero CPU usage, then suddenly
one of them "comes alive" again.  It's weird.

-- 
Conrad Sabatier <conrads at cox.net> - "In Unix veritas"