Category Archives: Performance

Kernel – 6.13 Released, OK with Latest Patched VMware, and NVIDIA

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Kernel 6.13 is out, and the announcement is here:   https://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/2501.2/03405.html This compiles/runs OK with the latest (?) VMware 17.6.2 patchset (from https://github.com/64kramsystem/vmware-host-modules-fork/tree/workstation-17.6.2-sav ), and is OK with NVIDIA driver 550.142, and – sometimes – with the very latest 550.144.03, but there seem to be issues with this version (see separate article, coming soon) Robert Gadsdon.    January 22nd, … Continue reading →

VMware – 17.6.x, Issues and Stability…

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Firstly – my apologies for late response to some messages – this (12-year-old) website has been experiencing some issues, and really needs to be updated/rehosted…    I am travelling, away from my main systems, and only have a laptop to test with.. I have been testing the latest VMware Workstation releases from Broadcom – 17.6 and 17.6.1 – … Continue reading →

VMware Workstation – Multiple Patch Forks Since Broadcom..

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I would like to start by thanking Michal Kubeček for his many years of expert support of the VMware vmmon/vmnet modules for later kernel versions.. Since the Broadcom takeover of VMware, his patches have been forked multiple times, for 17.5.2 and now 17.6 support, with varying degrees of success..    I have tested most of these and – … Continue reading →

VMware – Convoluted Guest Freeze Fix…

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I had been struggling for some considerable time with guest (Win10) performance issues with VMware – including application (Photoshop CS6) ‘freezing’ for a time, and overall very sluggish responses.. I had found several articles that suggested cause/effect/fix for this, but none really worked.. I made changes to control khugepaged: …………………….. [root@rglinux820 ~]$ echo never | tee /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag … Continue reading →

Compiler – Fun with CLANG – Kernel, NVIDIA, and VMware…

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I have been carrying out some preliminary tests to see how feasible it is to compile the Linux Kernel, and NVIDIA drivers, and VMware, using the ‘alternative’ to GCC – CLANG.. The kernel compile is relatively easy, and well documented: # make CC=clang HOSTCC=clang -j8 (for a 4-core system) The compile seems to be slower than GCC, … Continue reading →

NVIDIA – 418.56 Released – Kernel 5.1 Fix still Applies, with Slight Tweak..

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NVIDIA have released driver 418.56, and details are here:  https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/1048767/announcements-and-news/-linux-solaris-and-freebsd-driver-418-56-long-lived-branch-release-/ This version has almost the same problems with Kernel 5.1-rc1 as 418.43, but the fix mentioned in the previous article still applies, after the fixes for ‘list_is_first‘ in   ~/kernel/common/inc/nv-list-helpers.h and ~/kernel/nvidia-uvm/uvm8_range_tree.c have been removed, as these are no longer required, and would now cause the compile to … Continue reading →

NVIDIA – New Drivers – OK with Kernel 5.0, Fix for Kernel 4.4

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NVIDIA have released new drivers 418.43 and 410.104, which support Kernel 5.0, and also include a fix for a compile problem with ‘legacy’ Kernel 4.4.168.   There is also a new ‘legacy’ 3xx driver 390.116. which – finally –  provides support for Kernel 5.0. Details for 418.43 are here:   https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/1047710/unix-graphics-announcements-and-news/linux-solaris-and-freebsd-driver-418-43-long-lived-branch-release-/ – and for 390.116:  https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/1047708/unix-graphics-announcements-and-news/linux-solaris-and-freebsd-driver-390-116-legacy-for-gf1xx-quot-fermi-quot-gpus-/ I have tested … Continue reading →

NVIDIA – New Driver 418.30 – OK with Kernel 5.0..

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NVIDIA has released driver 418.30, and details are here:  https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/142166/en-us Although there is no mention of it in the ‘release notes’, this compiles/loads OK with Kernel 5.0  (tested with 5.0-rc4): …………………….. ld -r -o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-418.30/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nv-modeset-interface.o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-418.30/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nvidia-modeset-linux.o Building modules, stage 2. MODPOST 4 modules CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-418.30/kernel/nvidia-drm.mod.o LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-418.30/kernel/nvidia-drm.ko CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-418.30/kernel/nvidia-modeset.mod.o LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-418.30/kernel/nvidia-modeset.ko CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-418.30/kernel/nvidia-uvm.mod.o LD [M] … Continue reading →

NVIDIA – New 4XX Driver, OK with Kernel 4.19..

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NVIDIA have version-bumped their driver, and new driver 410.57 is now available, and details are here:  https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/138279/en-us Tested with Kernel 4.19-rc4, and this version compiles/loads OK, without any need for a patch.. …………………… ld -r -o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nv-modeset-interface.o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nvidia-modeset-linux.o Building modules, stage 2. MODPOST 4 modules CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-drm.mod.o LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-drm.ko CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-modeset.mod.o LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-modeset.ko CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.57/kernel/nvidia-uvm.mod.o … Continue reading →

IA64 – Kernel 4.18-rc2 Boots on HP Itanium2

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Updated the HP Itanium 2 system to Kernel 4.18-rc2, and all appears to be OK..: ……………………….. [ 0.000000] Linux version 4.18.0-rc2 (root@rgia64) (gcc version 6.4.0 (Gentoo 6.4.0 p1.1)) #1 SMP Sat Jun 30 16:13:38 PDT 2018 [ 0.000000] EFI v1.10 by HP: [ 0.000000] efi: SALsystab=0x3fb38000 ACPI 2.0=0x3fb2e000 SMBIOS=0x3fb3a000 HCDP=0x3fb2c000 [ 0.000000] PCDP: v0 at 0x3fb2c000 [ … Continue reading →