Subject: RE: Nice and not so nice
To: None <abs@anim.dreamworks.com, gunnar@bitcon.no>
From: Ross Harvey <ross@ghs.com>
List: port-i386
Date: 08/20/1999 12:55:12
> [ re: nice seti@home could be nicer ]
> From: Gunnar Helliesen <gunnar@bitcon.no>
>
> David Brownlee wrote:
> > I believe Ross fixed this between 1.3 and 1.4 (at the same time as
> > cleaning up some serious alpha related scheduler problems).
> > If you could update to 1.4.1 ...
> This is a busy server serving a community of 5000 people on mailing
> lists, a web site and ftp server. I don't take upgrading it lightly...
> ;-)
>
> I guess I'll just have to live without SETI@home until I read here and
> elsewhere that 1.4.x is considered solid as a rock and all the wrinkles
> are ironed out.
Yes, I did fix this back in 2/99. It's in 1.4*.
However, I completely agree that if you have a server that is under noticable
load and is in any way important and for which you are happy with a particular
version of NetBSD's stability: do not upgrade casually or to get a non-critical
improvement.
You could backpatch the scheduler mods into your 1.3.2 kernel:
ftp.netbsd.org:/pub/NetBSD/arch/alpha/misc/schedpatch1
ftp.netbsd.org:/pub/NetBSD/arch/alpha/misc/schedpatch2
Notes:
1. it will help if you put your kernel under a directory called
`syssrc' and run the patch from there, or edit the patch
2. the `#include <sys/sched.h>' will reject, and needs to be edited in
by hand to kern/kern_synch.c
3. I _may_ be able to pull this up to the netbsd-1-3 branch next
weekend; you could then check that out with anoncvs
ross.harvey@computer.org