[arch-general] [signoff] kernel26 2.6.35.2-1

[David C. Rankin]

On 08/15/2010 12:07 PM, Isaac Dupree wrote:
> On 08/14/10 17:46, Tobias Powalowski wrote:
>> Latest kernel is in testing,
>> please signoff for both arches.
>
> Signoff x86_64 , it seems to be working fine for me
>
> (I had the impression that it might be heating up my laptop more than normal,
> but then I was doing backups last night, and I'm feeling a part of my laptop
> that I'm not sure if it's normally warm anyway. Is there a way to measure this?
> The estimated battery life from GNOME looks pretty normal, if that's an
> indication of heating by way of power-usage.)
>
> -Isaac
>

Isaac,

	I do think you have a valid point on the heat issue. The fans on my laptop are 
notably louder with 2.6.35. Not by a bunch, but from quiet to a low 
"ssshhhhsshhhsshhh" that you cannot mistake. But given it runs great, it is a 
big step forward from my 2.6.34 woes...

	What type of video card do you have? I have a radeon rs690m that linux has 
never quite figured out. I'm curious if the new way the module handling is done 
doesn't mess up what little advances in idle downclocking that have been made. I 
know for a fact that in the 2.6.33 timeframe, the video-ati driver and the way 
the kernel handled it was spot-on. No fan noise and near fglrx performance.

	Now I know glxgears is not a performance measure, but it is a valid comparison 
between software configs on the same box. With fglrx, I get ~1100 FPS with the 
default glxgears window and dead silent fans. With video-ati, I get ~685 FPS 
which is *great* for the video-ati driver but with 2.6.35, I also get the fan 
noise. ( a year ago, good with video-ati or video-radeonhd was 300 FPS and the 
laptop was so hot it was nearly unusable without the fglrx driver).

	So performance is good and usable with video ati, but the fan noise with 2.6.35 
is annoying and I can feel the excess heat in the palm-rest. It isn't near as 
bad as the hand-frying temps from a year ago, but it is something that was much 
better in 2.6.33 and now the temps/fan noise has crept up again.

	The kicker is temp issues are hard to chase down. Something is putting more 
demand on the processor in the 2.6.35 setup, but what?? This is a desktop 
independent issue because I can use gnome, kde3, fluxbox, etc.. and the fan 
noise and temp is consistent across the desktp. It could be anywhere in the 
system from a regression in the video-ati driver to a runaway loop in the kernel 
itself. I have no idea where to even began isolating this one other than booting 
to maintenance mode and adding modules one-at-a-time (which I would probably 
have to get much smarter on)

	If you can identify anything on your box that seems to influence the idle temps 
or fan noise, please document what you see and I'll collect the information and 
add it to what I have to hopefully narrow down where the additional heat is 
coming from.

-- 
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
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