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[Xen-devel] xenpm: opensolaris HVM domU stops getting timer interrupts w

To: xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Xen-devel] xenpm: opensolaris HVM domU stops getting timer interrupts when C3 used
From: Frank Van Der Linden <Frank.Vanderlinden@xxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:55:24 -0700
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I've been looking at Xen (3.4.2) power management, and have been trying out different settings. One machine I tried was a Toshiba M30 laptop, which has an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU:

CPU0: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     P8400  @ 2.26GHz stepping 06
CPU1: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     P8400  @ 2.26GHz stepping 06

When dom0 initialized power management, the messages printed are as follows:

Set CPU acpi_id(0) cpuid(0) Px State info:
_PCT: descriptor=0, length=0, space_id=127, bit_width=0, bit_offset=0, reserved=0, address=0 _PCT: descriptor=0, length=0, space_id=127, bit_width=0, bit_offset=0, reserved=0, address=0
 _PSS: state_count=4
 State0: 2261MHz 35000mW 10us 10us 0x927 0x927
 State1: 2260MHz 35000mW 10us 10us 0x4822 0x4822
 State2: 1600MHz 16000mW 10us 10us 0x617 0x617
 State3: 800MHz 14300mW 10us 10us 0x8611 0x8611
 _PSD: num_entries=5 rev=0 domain=0 coord_type=252 num_processors=1
 _PPC: 0
xen_pminfo: @acpi_cpufreq_cpu_init,HARDWARE addr space
CPU 0 initialization completed
Set CPU acpi_id(1) cpuid(1) Px State info:
_PCT: descriptor=0, length=0, space_id=127, bit_width=0, bit_offset=0, reserved=0, address=0 _PCT: descriptor=0, length=0, space_id=127, bit_width=0, bit_offset=0, reserved=0, address=0
 _PSS: state_count=4
 State0: 2261MHz 35000mW 10us 10us 0x927 0x927
 State1: 2260MHz 35000mW 10us 10us 0x4822 0x4822
 State2: 1600MHz 16000mW 10us 10us 0x617 0x617
 State3: 800MHz 14300mW 10us 10us 0x8611 0x8611
 _PSD: num_entries=5 rev=0 domain=1 coord_type=252 num_processors=1
 _PPC: 0
xen_pminfo: @acpi_cpufreq_cpu_init,HARDWARE addr space
CPU 1 initialization completed
cpuid.MWAIT[.eax=40, .ebx=40, .ecx=3, .edx=3122220]
Monitor-Mwait will be used to enter C-1 state
cpuid.MWAIT[.eax=40, .ebx=40, .ecx=3, .edx=3122220]
Monitor-Mwait will be used to enter C-1 state

It seems to mostly work ok, except that an OpenSolaris HVM domU slows down to a crawl. When I examined it, I noticed that it wasn't getting any timer interrupts. Or, almost none; occasionally the interrupt count for the timer jumps, but mostly it stays frozen.

If I limit the maximum C state to C2, things seem ok, but when C3 is used, the problems pops up pretty quickly, though not immediately: if I initialize the maximum C state to 1, but then change it to C3 when the domU is already running, it won't immediately slow down, it might take about a minute, during which time the xenpm utility already is showing that C3 is being used. So a switch to C3 isn't guaranteed to cause the problem, but it eventually will.

I tried other HVM domains, such as Windows, and they don't seem to have the problem. But, they might be more "tickless" than OpenSolaris is.

I haven't looked at the PM code much yet, and I haven't tried -unstable, but there don't seem to be any changes in -unstable that would fix this.

Is this a known problem? Any hints for diagnosing the problem?

- Frank


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