[gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??

[gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??

[Denis Shcherbakov]

Dear gentoo-dev,

If some of you recall, I wrote to the list about a system halt resulting
from running C++ codes and it possibly having to do with nVidia graphics
or XFree 4.2.1.

Well, the problem persists in text mode also.  It happens when 3 or more
CPU-intensive processes run simultaneously on the machine.  I have an SMP
kernel (2.4.19-gentoo-r7) with 2 Intel Xeon 2.2-GHz processors equipped
with hyperthreading technology.

I have 4 processors initialized at boot time, and 4 processors show up in
"top".  This is probably because of hyperthreading, as otherwise there
should be only two.

How do I turn off hyperthreading?  Do you think hyperthreading is what's
breaking my system and it could be more stable without hyperthreading?
Can a certain process be confined only to a certain processor?

Thanks for any help!
Denis


--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

RE: [gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??

[Riyad Kalla]

Denis,
That sounds like the server at work I'm using, nice machine..

Anywya, there was a thread on something like this in the forums, and it
basically turned out to be the SMP Gentoo kernel, the guy went to
vanilla kernel and everything worked just dandy. Can you verify this?
Maybe the kernel team needs to focus on something?

Can you run 4 threads of Seti@Home to see if it kills the machine? That
should be a good test as it will saturate your CPUs

Best,
-Riyad

-----Original Message-----
From: Denis Shcherbakov [mailto:deniss@Princeton.EDU] 
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 8:47 PM
To: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
Subject: [gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??



Dear gentoo-dev,

If some of you recall, I wrote to the list about a system halt resulting
from running C++ codes and it possibly having to do with nVidia graphics
or XFree 4.2.1.

Well, the problem persists in text mode also.  It happens when 3 or more
CPU-intensive processes run simultaneously on the machine.  I have an
SMP
kernel (2.4.19-gentoo-r7) with 2 Intel Xeon 2.2-GHz processors equipped
with hyperthreading technology.

I have 4 processors initialized at boot time, and 4 processors show up
in
"top".  This is probably because of hyperthreading, as otherwise there
should be only two.

How do I turn off hyperthreading?  Do you think hyperthreading is what's
breaking my system and it could be more stable without hyperthreading?
Can a certain process be confined only to a certain processor?

Thanks for any help!
Denis


--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list


--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

RE: [gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??

[Ciaravino, Tido]

[-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2290 bytes --]

i've been tracking similar issues with the new 1.4 boot CDs

see gentoo bugzilla bug 11095 (and vote for it!!!)

short version:
i've gotten it to work properly with the vanilla-sources
and xfs-sources - but something in the gentoo-sources
causes my machine to lock hard (regardless of hyperthreading)

My boxes are Dell PE2650 with dual 2.4G xeon 2Gig Ram & aacraid (xfs on top)
(hyperthreading can be turned on/off in the bios)

Hope this helps,

odiT

-----Original Message-----
From: Riyad Kalla [mailto:rsk@u.arizona.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 10:50 PM
To: 'Denis Shcherbakov'; gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
Subject: RE: [gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??


Denis,
That sounds like the server at work I'm using, nice machine..

Anywya, there was a thread on something like this in the forums, and it
basically turned out to be the SMP Gentoo kernel, the guy went to
vanilla kernel and everything worked just dandy. Can you verify this?
Maybe the kernel team needs to focus on something?

Can you run 4 threads of Seti@Home to see if it kills the machine? That
should be a good test as it will saturate your CPUs

Best,
-Riyad

-----Original Message-----
From: Denis Shcherbakov [mailto:deniss@Princeton.EDU] 
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 8:47 PM
To: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
Subject: [gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??



Dear gentoo-dev,

If some of you recall, I wrote to the list about a system halt resulting
from running C++ codes and it possibly having to do with nVidia graphics
or XFree 4.2.1.

Well, the problem persists in text mode also.  It happens when 3 or more
CPU-intensive processes run simultaneously on the machine.  I have an
SMP
kernel (2.4.19-gentoo-r7) with 2 Intel Xeon 2.2-GHz processors equipped
with hyperthreading technology.

I have 4 processors initialized at boot time, and 4 processors show up
in
"top".  This is probably because of hyperthreading, as otherwise there
should be only two.

How do I turn off hyperthreading?  Do you think hyperthreading is what's
breaking my system and it could be more stable without hyperthreading?
Can a certain process be confined only to a certain processor?

Thanks for any help!
Denis


--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list


--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

[-- Attachment #1.2: Type: text/html, Size: 4070 bytes --]

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/plain, Size: 37 bytes --]

--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

RE: [gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??

[Denis Shcherbakov]

Hm.  I guess this is the kernel issue then, huh.

Tido- I have a very similar machine.  Not Dell, though.  It's got a Dual
Tyan mobo in it, 2 2.2-GHz Intel Xeons (with hyperthreading), 2 GB of
RDRAM, and a couple IDE hard drives.

Yea - I think there are possibly some sort of scheduling conflicts
happening on my machine.  I use 2.4.19-gentoo-r7, and it was stable until
I started running codes from a C++ numerical package.  I asked the guys
who wrote it, and they are saying that they run these codes all the time
on SMP machines with stock RedHat 7.x installations and Debian boxes with
no incidental hard-lock failures like I have seen.  I have updated glibc
and libc to the latest gentoo ebuilds, where I thought the problem was
initially.

Now since a lot of people are blaming it on the 2.4.19-gentoo-r7 kernel, I
might as well join the list, if this software is proved stable on other
distros using stock SMP kernel from kernel.org.

I guess maybe I should just go with the vanilla's now, since they have
been reported not to have these kinds of issues.

Denis

On Fri, 20 Dec 2002, Ciaravino, Tido wrote:

i've been tracking similar issues with the new 1.4 boot CDs

see gentoo bugzilla bug 11095 (and vote for it!!!)

short version:
i've gotten it to work properly with the vanilla-sources
and xfs-sources - but something in the gentoo-sources
causes my machine to lock hard (regardless of hyperthreading)

My boxes are Dell PE2650 with dual 2.4G xeon 2Gig Ram & aacraid (xfs on top)
(hyperthreading can be turned on/off in the bios)

Hope this helps,

odiT

-----Original Message-----
From: Riyad Kalla [mailto:rsk@u.arizona.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 10:50 PM
To: 'Denis Shcherbakov'; gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
Subject: RE: [gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??


Denis,
That sounds like the server at work I'm using, nice machine..

Anywya, there was a thread on something like this in the forums, and it
basically turned out to be the SMP Gentoo kernel, the guy went to
vanilla kernel and everything worked just dandy. Can you verify this?
Maybe the kernel team needs to focus on something?

Can you run 4 threads of Seti@Home to see if it kills the machine? That
should be a good test as it will saturate your CPUs

Best,
-Riyad

-----Original Message-----
From: Denis Shcherbakov [mailto:deniss@Princeton.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 8:47 PM
To: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
Subject: [gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??



Dear gentoo-dev,

If some of you recall, I wrote to the list about a system halt resulting
from running C++ codes and it possibly having to do with nVidia graphics
or XFree 4.2.1.

Well, the problem persists in text mode also.  It happens when 3 or more
CPU-intensive processes run simultaneously on the machine.  I have an
SMP
kernel (2.4.19-gentoo-r7) with 2 Intel Xeon 2.2-GHz processors equipped
with hyperthreading technology.

I have 4 processors initialized at boot time, and 4 processors show up
in
"top".  This is probably because of hyperthreading, as otherwise there
should be only two.

How do I turn off hyperthreading?  Do you think hyperthreading is what's
breaking my system and it could be more stable without hyperthreading?
Can a certain process be confined only to a certain processor?

Thanks for any help!
Denis


--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list


--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list



--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

RE: [gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??

[ben]

It's not hyperthreading, I"ve tried both this week (same specs as you, but
with 4GB Ram) in my efforts to get my machine to boot a SMP gentoo-sources
kernel.  so far it appears to be something in 2.4.19-gentoo-r10 - r9 boots
fine.  I was going to spend the evening examining the differences between
these two.



--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

RE: [gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??

[Ciaravino, Tido]

[-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 885 bytes --]

if you find it let me know
(and add it to bug 11095)

it has worked with vanilla-sources (no patches)
and xfs-sources

This should clear the gentoo-sources patches that are in common with the
xfs-sources patches (which are quite a few if memory serves)

Checking the rest should be a pain...

good luck,

odiT


-----Original Message-----
From: ben [mailto:ben@stonehenge-net.com]
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2002 7:02 PM
To: Ciaravino, Tido
Cc: 'Riyad Kalla'; 'Denis Shcherbakov'; gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
Subject: RE: [gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??


It's not hyperthreading, I"ve tried both this week (same specs as you, but
with 4GB Ram) in my efforts to get my machine to boot a SMP gentoo-sources
kernel.  so far it appears to be something in 2.4.19-gentoo-r10 - r9 boots
fine.  I was going to spend the evening examining the differences between
these two.


[-- Attachment #1.2: Type: text/html, Size: 1780 bytes --]

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/plain, Size: 37 bytes --]

--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

RE: [gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??

[oford]

I'm running that kernel on a dual P3 1GHz with no issues.  Tyan mobo w/
2GB pc133.  If my .config would be of assistance just let me know.  Not
sure if the P4 arch is the only problem.

./Owen
On Fri, 2002-12-20 at 20:06, Ciaravino, Tido wrote:
> if you find it let me know
> (and add it to bug 11095)
> 
> it has worked with vanilla-sources (no patches)
> and xfs-sources
> 
> This should clear the gentoo-sources patches that are in common with the
> xfs-sources patches (which are quite a few if memory serves)
> 
> Checking the rest should be a pain...
> 
> good luck,
> 
> odiT
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ben [mailto:ben@stonehenge-net.com]
> Sent: Friday, December 20, 2002 7:02 PM
> To: Ciaravino, Tido
> Cc: 'Riyad Kalla'; 'Denis Shcherbakov'; gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
> Subject: RE: [gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??
> 
> 
> It's not hyperthreading, I"ve tried both this week (same specs as you, but
> with 4GB Ram) in my efforts to get my machine to boot a SMP gentoo-sources
> kernel.  so far it appears to be something in 2.4.19-gentoo-r10 - r9 boots
> fine.  I was going to spend the evening examining the differences between
> these two.
> 
> ----
> 

> --
> gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list




--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-dev] SMP kernel halts system - hyperthreading??

[Marko Mikulicic]

Riyad Kalla wrote:
> Denis,
> That sounds like the server at work I'm using, nice machine..
> 
> Anywya, there was a thread on something like this in the forums, and it
> basically turned out to be the SMP Gentoo kernel, the guy went to
> vanilla kernel and everything worked just dandy. Can you verify this?
> Maybe the kernel team needs to focus on something?
> 
> Can you run 4 threads of Seti@Home to see if it kills the machine? That
> should be a good test as it will saturate your CPUs
> 
> Best,
> -Riyad

I have a 2x2.4Ghz Xeon with Hyperthreading enabled on a 2.4.19-xfs 
kernel and everything works great.
  However hyperthreading can be disabled in the BIOS. (when I bought the 
machine HT was disabled indeed ....). Dennis, do you have a E7500 
motherboard ?

Marko



--
gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list