[TAG] using smp kernel, get 100% cpu usage one one cpu without any real load on the system

[Thomas Adam]

On 08/10/2007, Ben Okopnik <ben at linuxgazette.net> wrote:
> One of the things that might be worth trying is reducing everything to a
> minimum and seeing if it still happens. That is, try booting into single
> mode and shutting down any non-critical processes, then just letting the
> system "cook" for a little while. If it happens again, you've most
> likely narrowed it down to either a) the kernel or b) the hardware. For
> troubleshooting the former, check out the kernel compilation options (I
> seem to recall a developer/debugging option accessible via 'make
> config'.) For the latter, try a hairdryer aimed at the offending CPU. :)

Yes, and quite often the other main offender is choosing a wrong arch
type for your system.  That'll cause quite often either a high CPU
load or massive amounts of disk access.  In addition, specifying:

``
noapic
''

As a kernel parameter might also help.

-- Thomas Adam