differences in swap management between kernel 6.0.0-4mx-amd64 and kernel 6.0.0-11.2-liquorix-amd64 [Solved]

[Juan_David95]

friends, I have noticed a big difference in the performance between kernel 6.0.0-4mx-amd64 and kernel 6.0.0-11.2-liquorix-amd64, the latter being the winner.

With the version of liquorix that I mentioned before, I can work well with the problem that when passing the data from the fixed memory to the exchange one, the equipment slows down but after 10 to 15 seconds it recovers its normal speed and I can work well. On the other hand, with the latest kernel packaged by mx, the team feels very fast until it starts using the swap and as the seconds go by, the slowness does not go away; same for debian kernel 5.10.0.19.

I think that liquorix has done some magic to improve the use of swap memory, although it still needs to be improved so that it does not slow down when transferring data from memory to swap.

If someone wants to recommend me to buy another hard drive or buy more memory, don't worry, it's something I already have in mind. For now, I would like to find a kernel that manages the use of swap perfectly, just like Windows does, which is hardly noticeable when using swap.

[manyroads]

I have discovered the exact opposite in terms of both general kernel performance and stability... Mileage will vary.

[Juan_David95]

I have discovered the exact opposite in terms of both general kernel performance and stability... Mileage will vary.

In my opinion the 6.0.0-4mx-amd64 kernel is a bit faster than liquorix, but only until it starts using swap.

Liquorix in its kernel version 6.0.0-11.2-liquorix-amd64 manages swap better.

Of course, this is only noticeable in modest computers, like mine that use a HDD with 6gb of ram.

In computers with SSD and 32gb of ram it is ridiculous to test who manages swap better.

[sunrat]

Liquorix kernels use zswap by default.

[Juan_David95]

"Liquorix contains an optimization we borrowed from ChromeOS to improve performance of swap": https://github.com/zen-kernel/zen-kerne ... 57b0d6a7c6

This is what people are saying about Liquorix https://techpatterns.com/forums/post-14390.html#14390

[Eadwine Rose]

@Juan_David95 Please use English for the entirety of your post as you are not in a foreign language forum, thank you.

[Juan_David95]

I share the solution I found from the liquorix forum:

@damentz thanks for keeping an eye on this post.

Look, I checked zram on the debian 5.10 kernel and the latest kernel packaged by mxlinux 6.0, and as you said they suffer from that "stop the world" type impact, but doing tests I set the aggressiveness of kswapd, which I understand is the service or daemon that manages sharing with this property in /etc/sysctl.conf:

Code: Select all

vm.watermark_scale_factor = 200

and this did the magic. When paging is done the system no longer suffers from that "stop the world" type shock. Just a little slow but for example chrome no longer gets stuck when I go to open a new tab or evernote doesn't freeze.

edited: with

Code: Select all

vm.watermark_scale_factor = 250

there is no slowness when using swap.
It remains to be improved that the system slows down when it reaches the top of the swap even with available ram space.

see the whole thread here: https://techpatterns.com/forums/post-14396.html#14396

Friends of mxlinux, I suggest you add to the kernels that you compile, the improvements at least in terms of swap that liquorix has implemented, because they make a notable difference and improvement compared to the other kernels in terms of swap management.