What are the $%& boxes waiting for? :(

[Matt Graham]

On 2014-03-24 08:32, kitepilot at kitepilot.com wrote:
>>> I have several Linux boxes (different distros, no common 
>>> denominator)
>>> that for no apparent reason have the processor(s) go into a 
>>> 'waiting' state
>>> rather way too often.
>>> Darn it, how do I find out what in the #$%@ World are those 
>>> processors
>>> waiting for?   :(

They're waiting for Godot?  :-)  I don't have any processes in this 
state on the Linux boxes here.  How do these processes look in the 
output from "ps auxw"?  If not ps, which tool are you using that tells 
you a process is waiting?  Almost every process in the output from ps 
auxw should show S (sleeping) and 1 or 2 should be in R (running).

>> My guess based on nothing is that you have the ACPI stuff turned on
> My 'knowledge' stands that ACPI ON is 'good', isn't it? Can you
> elaborate? There are no laptops involved, so I certainly don't need
> 'power management features enabled'

ACPI, when it works properly, is something you want to have on.  You 
probably *do* want power management features if only so that your CPUs 
can throttle themselves back to 1/3 max speed when they're not needed 
and thus keep your electric bill lower.

-- 
Crow202 Blog: http://crow202.org/wordpress
There is no Darkness in Eternity
But only Light too dim for us to see.