On Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:30:21 -0700 Theo de Raadt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > On Fri, 7 Nov 2008 13:16:38 -0500 > > Damian Gerow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > Theo de Raadt wrote: > > > : > The load average on my machine is inexplicably high; when idle, it > > > sits up > > > : > between 0.6 and 0.7. > > > : > > > : Oh my god, the horror. Nothing is wrong with your machine at all. > > > : However, I have a diff which will probably keep you happy. > > > > > > Not sure if you caught my last paragraph, but I did say that nothing was > > > wrong with the system at all, I'm just curious as to why the average is > > > high. > > > > > > > > > > The simple explanation is found in Mark Zimmerman's reply: > > " > > I bet you could get your load average to drop if you forced your cpu > > to run full speed even when doing nothing. I am guessing that this is > > not really what you want. > > " > > Wrong. > > > I guess you are assuming the load average is calculated against some > > a-priori max available cpu-cycles when, from Theo's posts, it looks > > like it is being calculated against current available cycles. > Ok. So considering the speed with which this patch appeared I'm going to assume there's more here than meets the eye. Just the same it looked like a sampling (when/where) issue to me. > Wrong. > > > When your cpu is in a power-save mode it has less cycles available, > > so the minimal load you place on it still consumes a higher fraction > > of what is available. > > Wrong.