On Oct 22, 2006, at 12:07 PM, Thor Lancelot Simon wrote:

> How can we fix this?  The smooth syncer issue is really separate: it  
> just
> makes it easier to demonstrate the problem.
>
> Could LFS use more locks so that it spent less time at high IPL?  Or  
> is
> this really a problem in my disk device driver (amr)?  I have heard
> similar reports from other LFS users with different disk hardware.

Why would LFS be at splhigh()?  Have you confirmed that in the code  
paths in question?

More likely, I think, is that your network interface and your RAID  
controller are sharing an IRQ, or that the RAID controller is  
consuming a lot of PCI bandwidth during these bursts of activity.

Let's see dmesg output.

-- thorpej