sched/idle/x86: Restore mwait_idle() to fix boot hangs, to improve power...
sched/idle/x86: Restore mwait_idle() to fix boot hangs, to improve power savings and to improve performance In Linux-3.9 we removed the mwait_idle() loop: 69fb3676 ("x86 idle: remove mwait_idle() and "idle=mwait" cmdline param") The reasoning was that modern machines should be sufficiently happy during the boot process using the default_idle() HALT loop, until cpuidle loads and either acpi_idle or intel_idle invoke the newer MWAIT-with-hints idle loop. But two machines reported problems: 1. Certain Core2-era machines support MWAIT-C1 and HALT only. MWAIT-C1 is preferred for optimal power and performance. But if they support just C1, cpuidle never loads and so they use the boot-time default idle loop forever. 2. Some laptops will boot-hang if HALT is used, but will boot successfully if MWAIT is used. This appears to be a hidden assumption in BIOS SMI, that is presumably valid on the proprietary OS where the BIOS was validated. https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=60770 So here we effectively revert the patch above, restoring the mwait_idle() loop. However, we don't bother restoring the idle=mwait cmdline parameter, since it appears to add no value. Maintainer notes: For 3.9, simply revert 69fb3676 for 3.10, patch -F3 applies, fuzz needed due to __cpuinit use in context For 3.11, 3.12, 3.13, this patch applies cleanly Tested-by: Mike Galbraith <bitbucket@online.de> Signed-off-by: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com> Acked-by: Mike Galbraith <bitbucket@online.de> Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.9+ Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de> Cc: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com> Cc: Ian Malone <ibmalone@gmail.com> Cc: Josh Boyer <jwboyer@redhat.com> Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> Cc: Mike Galbraith <efault@gmx.de> Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/345254a551eb5a6a866e048d7ab570fd2193aca4.1389763084.git.len.brown@intel.com [ Ported to recent kernels. ] Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
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