announce: v2.6.20-rt1 yum repository and kernel rpms

[Curtis Doty]

10:34am Ingo Molnar said:
> 
> in case you are interested in really bleeding-edge kernel rpms for 
> fc7/fc6/fc5, i've created the -rt kernel yum repository, which provides 
> the -rt kernel in rpmized form for i686 and x86_64, updated 
> daily/bi-daily. The package is named 'kernel-rt' so it does not conflict 
> with the Fedora kernel package - you can always revert to the Fedora 
> kernel.
> 
> The -rt kernel has the following main features: it closely tracks Linus' 
> -git tree, has KVM, high-res timers, dynticks, fully preemptible kernel, 
> preempt-rcu, plus all the usual upstream stuff that the Fedora kernel 
> has enabled. (The yum repository pointers at the end of the 
> announcement.)
> 

What fun, :-) thank you for your efforts.

I happen to have a G4 Proliant on my bench this morning so I fired up 
kernel-rt-2.6.20-1.rt2 and compared it to kernel-2.6.18-1.2869.

The first thing I notice in userland is the load average and cpu util 
under procps stuff is unusually high. Is this just an artifact of RT 
kernel's better perspective/granularity?

Normally quiet daemons, such as udevd and irqbalance, are suddenly 
registering significant clicks. About 3x to 4x what they were before.

Also, running some very simple tools such as tload drive the load average 
above 1 on the rt kernel. Excessive observer bias?

../C