[PATCH] update to new VM

From: Rik van Riel (riel@conectiva.com.br)
Date: Sat Sep 16 2000 - 20:20:57 EDT

  • Next message: Patrick Mau: "/proc/sys/vm/freepages not writable."

    Hi Linus,

    after increasing the test base, the following 2 problems have
    been noticed with the VM patch, and are (hopefully) fixed in
    this patch:

    1) if __alloc_pages() is called without __GFP_IO in the
        gfp_mask, we cannot wait for kswapd
            -> use try_to_free_pages() the oldfashioned way instead
    1b) while fixing up the other __GFP_IO problems, I noticed
        programs at schedule points in the VM, sleeping in S state,
        this is fixed by explicitly making them runnable
    2) the VM was badly balanced for low-memory (8MB) machines,
        this has been fixed by making it easier for kswapd to go
        to sleep in refill_inactive() and by waking up kswapd earlier
        at the top of __alloc_pages()

    I'm still not 100% sure if this patch is completely correct,
    but it fixes one serious bug in the current VM inside -test9-pre1
    and I'm leaving for Linux Kongress tomorrow so this is my last
    chance to post anything for the next few days ;(

    If this patch proves stable for everyone and makes 8MB machines
    workable again with the new VM, please include this in the next
    pre-patch. If it doesn't work correctly, I'll somehow find it
    in my email while at Linux Kongress and I'll prepare a new fix.

    regards,

    Rik

    --
    "What you're running that piece of shit Gnome?!?!"
           -- Miguel de Icaza, UKUUG 2000
    

    http://www.conectiva.com/ http://www.surriel.com/

    - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Sep 16 2000 - 20:24:58 EDT