BFQ I/O Scheduler For Linux Sees Big Scalability Improvement

[mrg666]

Tell that to KDE Plasma users where the UI stutters or even freezes for a few seconds when there's heavy storage IO!
Maybe these kind of changes help a bit in those cases too.

I frequently build Linux kernel in the background with 8, 24, and 32 threads on three different computers, Plasma does not stutter on any of them, no freezes ever.

[Nth_man]

I frequently build Linux kernel in the background with 8, 24, and 32 threads on three different computers, Plasma does not stutter on any of them, no freezes ever.

Yes.

> the UI stutters or even freezes for a few seconds when there's heavy storage IO!

That doesn't happen to me since I bought a new computer (it's using Kubuntu 23.10), although sometimes it happened to me using the old computer, so in that PC I started using the `schedtool -D -n 19 -e ionice -c 3` way that RealNC wrote about (upvoted 27 times at least) on https://www.phoronix.com/forums/foru...76#post1377776

(we can also see https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg181789.html)

[Danny3]

I frequently build Linux kernel in the background with 8, 24, and 32 threads on three different computers, Plasma does not stutter on any of them, no freezes ever.

I think it depends on the task.
For me torrenting like crazy with lots of torrents and folders / files in them everything is ok.
But if I multiplex 2-3 MKV files into one with MKVToolnix, then I can' even read even read Phoronix as the scroll down stutters like crazy or it just refuses to work for a few seconds.

[Danny3]

What causes this behavior on KDe system?

AFAIK, the Kwin compositor does some syncing to the disk and it waits for them to finish.
What is writing I don't know and I don't know why it's so important that it blocks until it finishes writing the stuff it wants to write.

[Danny3]

This sounds like the core problem is the UI blocking on IO requests when it instead should be asynchronous

I agree!

[mrg666]

I think it depends on the task.
For me torrenting like crazy with lots of torrents and folders / files in them everything is ok.
But if I multiplex 2-3 MKV files into one with MKVToolnix, then I can' even read even read Phoronix as the scroll down stutters like crazy or it just refuses to work for a few seconds.

What is your distro? If you can install deb files and want to try, I can upload my custom kernel for you.

[geearf]

What is your distro? If you can install deb files and want to try, I can upload my custom kernel for you.

Danny3

I'm curious about your results. I too sometimes have freezes.
Maybe this change or if possible a similar one for Kyber, would help us?

[mrg666]

Danny3

I'm curious about your results. I too sometimes have freezes.
Maybe this change or if possible a similar one for Kyber, would help us?

I am not sure if you meant this to me. But please let me know if you want to try the kernel. I am at 6.7.2 (latest stable). If you are not on a recent GRUB version, there might be a problem with EFI handover protocol.