Re: QUEUE_FLAG_CLUSTER: not working in 2.6.24 ?

[Mark Lord <liml@rtr.ca>]

Jens Axboe wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 13 2007, Mark Lord wrote:
> > Mark Lord wrote:
> > > Jens Axboe wrote:
> > > > On Thu, Dec 13 2007, Mark Lord wrote:
> > > > > Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> > > > > > On Thu, Dec 13, 2007 at 01:48:18PM -0500, Mark Lord wrote:
> > > > > > > Problem confirmed.  2.6.23.8 regularly generates segments up to 
> > > > > > > 64KB for libata,
> > > > > > > but 2.6.24 uses only 4KB segments and a *few* 8KB segments.
> > > > > > Just a suspicion ... could this be slab vs slub?  ie check your configs
> > > > > > are the same / similar between the two kernels.
> > > > > ..
> > > > >
> > > > > Mmmm.. a good thought, that one.
> > > > > But I just rechecked, and both have CONFIG_SLAB=y
> > > > >
> > > > > My guess is that something got changed around when Jens
> > > > > reworked the block layer for 2.6.24.
> > > > > I'm going to dig around in there now.
> > > > I didn't rework the block layer for 2.6.24 :-). The core block layer
> > > > changes since 2.6.23 are:
> > > >
> > > > - Support for empty barriers. Not a likely candidate.
> > > > - Shared tag queue fixes. Totally unlikely.
> > > > - sg chaining support. Not likely.
> > > > - The bio changes from Neil. Of the bunch, the most likely suspects in
> > > >  this area, since it changes some of the code involved with merges and
> > > >  blk_rq_map_sg().
> > > > - Lots of simple stuff, again very unlikely.
> > > >
> > > > Anyway, it sounds odd for this to be a block layer problem if you do see
> > > > occasional segments being merged. So it sounds more like the input data
> > > > having changed.
> > > >
> > > > Why not just bisect it?
> > > ..
> > >
> > > Because the early 2.6.24 series failed to boot on this machine
> > > due to bugs in the block layer -- so the code that caused this regression
> > > is probably in the stuff from before the kernels became usable here.
> > ..
> >
> > That sounds more harsh than intended --> the earlier 2.6.24 kernels (up to
> > the first couple of -rc* ones failed here because of incompatibilities
> > between the block/bio changes and libata.
> >
> > That's better, I think! 
>
> No worries, I didn't pick it up as harsh just as an odd conclusion :-)
>
> If I were you, I'd just start from the first -rc that booted for you. If
> THAT has the bug, then we'll think of something else. If you don't get
> anywhere, I can run some tests tomorrow and see if I can reproduce it
> here.
..

I believe that *anyone* can reproduce it, since it's broken long before
the requests ever get to SCSI or libata.  Which also means that *anyone*
who wants to can bisect it, as well.

I don't do "bisects".

But I will dig a bit more and see if I can find the culprit.

Cheers

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