Very Computer

by **Craig Robinso** » Sun, 30 Mar 2003 15:10:09

Hello there, I would appreciate any help any of you guys can give..

Having built 3 identical machines based on:

MSI 845GE Max-L mainboard
P4 (533) 2.4GHz CPU
512Mb PC2700 DDR
Maxtor DiamondMax9 80GB

... we're experiencing very strange and severe performance problems with the systems.

They all have RH8 installed, we have tried both the default kernel and the latest 2.4.20. The problem manifests itself in overall slow system performance. I'll give an example below:

When running 'make menuconfig', this normally takes about a second to make and load, however on these machines it takes about 20-30 seconds! We've got a Celeron which does it faster.

A bit of background on what we've tried:

-HD's are running 32bit I/O and UDMA, infact hdparm tests report some very nice figures.
-There is no excessive HD activity, infact HD activity seems normal.
-Onboard Sound and all USB is disabled, and on the 2.4.20 we're using, these have been removed from the kernel.
-We've tried various combinations of just about every BIOS setting which could effect this, so we're resigned to thinking this is some sort of OS/Kernel/Support issue.

The best way to describe the problem is; it's like trying to use the system while it's under excessive load. Obviously there is no load on the system however, the problem occurs when using the system from idle.

We have tried a number of different kernels and also tried fresh
installs of Redhat8 and Redhat 7.3, both make the same problems.

Kernels tried:
2.5.66
2.4.21-grsec-xfs
2.4.20

All bring up the same results.

We have run tests on the memory and cpu and each seem to
running fine (CPU is very quick actually..)

If anyone needs any more info feel free to ask, we're beginning to tear our hair out on this one, it's very frustrating... ANY help at all is really appreciated.

Here is some info:

cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 2
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
stepping : 7
cpu MHz : 2405.506
cache size : 512 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm
bogomips : 4784.26

cat /proc/meminfo
total: used: free: shared: buffers: cached:
Mem: 525225984 215515136 309710848 0 93630464 74813440
Swap: 1069244416 0 1069244416
MemTotal: 512916 kB
MemFree: 302452 kB
MemShared: 0 kB
Buffers: 91436 kB
Cached: 73060 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 190012 kB
Inact_dirty: 2200 kB
Inact_clean: 4036 kB
Inact_target: 39248 kB
HighTotal: 0 kB
HighFree: 0 kB
LowTotal: 512916 kB
LowFree: 302452 kB
SwapTotal: 1044184 kB
SwapFree: 1044184 kB
Committed_AS: 63376 kB

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 9964 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 14 1543 12289725 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 1544 2563 8193150 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 2564 9964 59448532+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 2564 2690 1020096 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 2691 2820 1044193+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda7 2821 9964 57384148+ 83 Linux

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by **Alan Co** » Sun, 30 Mar 2003 16:50:06

Check the mtrr ranges. The odd junk bios gets this wrong and leaves
you with parts of main memory uncached. The symptoms you see might
be from that if they are all identical boxes.

Alan

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by **Craig Robinso** » Sun, 30 Mar 2003 19:10:10

Hello Alan,

Many thanks for the reply..

cat /proc/mtrr shows things, but not sure what it SHOULD be...(output
below)

Running 2.5.66 now seems to have speeded up things considerably,
however, I still consider this slow for a 2.4Ghz machine (we have some
2Ghz under alot of load that will still compile things quicker..)

So any suggestions and of course the help you have already provided
are appreciated.

Craig

--

[/usr/src]# cat /proc/mtrr
reg00: base=0x00000000 ( 0MB), size= 256MB: write-back, count=1
reg01: base=0x10000000 ( 256MB), size= 128MB: write-back, count=1
reg02: base=0x18000000 ( 384MB), size= 64MB: write-back, count=1
reg03: base=0x1c000000 ( 448MB), size= 32MB: write-back, count=1
reg04: base=0x1e000000 ( 480MB), size= 16MB: write-back, count=1
reg05: base=0x1f000000 ( 496MB), size= 8MB: write-back, count=1
reg06: base=0xe0000000 (3584MB), size= 64MB: write-combining, count=1

-

AC> Check the mtrr ranges. The odd junk bios gets this wrong and leaves
AC> you with parts of main memory uncached. The symptoms you see might
AC> be from that if they are all identical boxes.

AC> Alan

--
Best regards,

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by **Alan Co** » Mon, 31 Mar 2003 18:00:20

> [/usr/src]# cat /proc/mtrr
> reg00: base=0x00000000 ( 0MB), size= 256MB: write-back, count=1
> reg01: base=0x10000000 ( 256MB), size= 128MB: write-back, count=1
> reg02: base=0x18000000 ( 384MB), size= 64MB: write-back, count=1
> reg03: base=0x1c000000 ( 448MB), size= 32MB: write-back, count=1
> reg04: base=0x1e000000 ( 480MB), size= 16MB: write-back, count=1
> reg05: base=0x1f000000 ( 496MB), size= 8MB: write-back, count=1

Looks right for a machine with 504Mb of RAM. How does your box run
if you boot with mem=504M ?

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by **Daniel Bluem** » Wed, 02 Apr 2003 20:25:15

It would be handy if you posted the kernel boot logs, /proc/interrupts
and lspci -v with stock 2.4.20. This is a quite recent chipset.

Dan

> Hello there, I would appreciate any help any of you guys can give..

> Having built 3 identical machines based on:

> MSI 845GE Max-L mainboard
> P4 (533) 2.4GHz CPU
> 512Mb PC2700 DDR
> Maxtor DiamondMax9 80GB

> ... we're experiencing very strange and severe performance problems with the systems.

> They all have RH8 installed, we have tried both the default kernel and the latest 2.4.20. The problem manifests itself in overall slow system performance. I'll give an example below:

> When running 'make menuconfig', this normally takes about a second to make and load, however on these machines it takes about 20-30 seconds! We've got a Celeron which does it faster.

> A bit of background on what we've tried:

> -HD's are running 32bit I/O and UDMA, infact hdparm tests report some very nice figures.
> -There is no excessive HD activity, infact HD activity seems normal.
> -Onboard Sound and all USB is disabled, and on the 2.4.20 we're using, these have been removed from the kernel.
> -We've tried various combinations of just about every BIOS setting which could effect this, so we're resigned to thinking this is some sort of OS/Kernel/Support issue.

> The best way to describe the problem is; it's like trying to use the system while it's under excessive load. Obviously there is no load on the system however, the problem occurs when using the system from idle.

> We have tried a number of different kernels and also tried fresh
> installs of Redhat8 and Redhat 7.3, both make the same problems.

> Kernels tried:
> 2.5.66
> 2.4.21-grsec-xfs
> 2.4.20

> All bring up the same results.

> We have run tests on the memory and cpu and each seem to
> running fine (CPU is very quick actually..)

> If anyone needs any more info feel free to ask, we're beginning to tear our hair out on this one, it's very frustrating... ANY help at all is really appreciated.

> Here is some info:

> cat /proc/cpuinfo
> processor : 0
> vendor_id : GenuineIntel
> cpu family : 15
> model : 2
> model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
> stepping : 7
> cpu MHz : 2405.506
> cache size : 512 KB
> fdiv_bug : no
> hlt_bug : no
> f00f_bug : no
> coma_bug : no
> fpu : yes
> fpu_exception : yes
> cpuid level : 2
> wp : yes
> flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm
> bogomips : 4784.26

> cat /proc/meminfo
> total: used: free: shared: buffers: cached:
> Mem: 525225984 215515136 309710848 0 93630464 74813440
> Swap: 1069244416 0 1069244416
> MemTotal: 512916 kB
> MemFree: 302452 kB
> MemShared: 0 kB
> Buffers: 91436 kB
> Cached: 73060 kB
> SwapCached: 0 kB
> Active: 190012 kB
> Inact_dirty: 2200 kB
> Inact_clean: 4036 kB
> Inact_target: 39248 kB
> HighTotal: 0 kB
> HighFree: 0 kB
> LowTotal: 512916 kB
> LowFree: 302452 kB
> SwapTotal: 1044184 kB
> SwapFree: 1044184 kB
> Committed_AS: 63376 kB

> fdisk -l

> Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 9964 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/hda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
> /dev/hda2 14 1543 12289725 83 Linux
> /dev/hda3 1544 2563 8193150 83 Linux
> /dev/hda4 2564 9964 59448532+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
> /dev/hda5 2564 2690 1020096 83 Linux
> /dev/hda6 2691 2820 1044193+ 82 Linux swap
> /dev/hda7 2821 9964 57384148+ 83 Linux

> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in

> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

by **Rogier Wolf** » Wed, 02 Apr 2003 21:00:16

> > [/usr/src]# cat /proc/mtrr
> > reg00: base=0x00000000 ( 0MB), size= 256MB: write-back, count=1
> > reg01: base=0x10000000 ( 256MB), size= 128MB: write-back, count=1
> > reg02: base=0x18000000 ( 384MB), size= 64MB: write-back, count=1
> > reg03: base=0x1c000000 ( 448MB), size= 32MB: write-back, count=1
> > reg04: base=0x1e000000 ( 480MB), size= 16MB: write-back, count=1
> > reg05: base=0x1f000000 ( 496MB), size= 8MB: write-back, count=1

> Looks right for a machine with 504Mb of RAM. How does your box run
> if you boot with mem=504M ?

504Mb RAM? That sounds like a 512Mb ram with 8Mb "shared"
video-ram. 845? Sounds like one of those "everything integrated"
chipsets. performance problems? Do you happen to have the video in a
high-bandwidth mode?????

Roger.

--

*-- BitWizard writes Linux device drivers for any device you may have! --*
* The Worlds Ecosystem is a stable system. Stable systems may experience *
* excursions from the stable situation. We are currently in such an *
* excursion: The stable situation does not include humans. ***************
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by **H. Peter Anvi** » Tue, 08 Apr 2003 17:20:14

In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel

Quote:
> 504Mb RAM? That sounds like a 512Mb ram with 8Mb "shared"
> video-ram. 845? Sounds like one of those "everything integrated"
> chipsets. performance problems? Do you happen to have the video in a
> high-bandwidth mode?????

Sure enough it is, and I can personally vouch for the fact that my
845GE system (a Shuttle-X box) got a lot nicer after I dropped a
Radeon 9000 into the AGP slot :)

-hpa
--

"Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."
Architectures needed: ia64 m68k mips64 ppc ppc64 s390 s390x sh v850 x86-64
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Very Computer

845GE Chipset severe performance problems

845GE Chipset severe performance problems

845GE Chipset severe performance problems

845GE Chipset severe performance problems

845GE Chipset severe performance problems

845GE Chipset severe performance problems

845GE Chipset severe performance problems

845GE Chipset severe performance problems