In Linux-3.9 we removed the mwait_idle() loop:
69fb3676df ("x86 idle: remove mwait_idle() and "idle=mwait" cmdline param")
The reasoning was that modern machines should be sufficiently
happy during the boot process using the default_idle() HALT
loop, until cpuidle loads and either acpi_idle or intel_idle
invoke the newer MWAIT-with-hints idle loop.
But two machines reported problems:
1. Certain Core2-era machines support MWAIT-C1 and HALT only.
MWAIT-C1 is preferred for optimal power and performance.
But if they support just C1, cpuidle never loads and
so they use the boot-time default idle loop forever.
2. Some laptops will boot-hang if HALT is used,
but will boot successfully if MWAIT is used.
This appears to be a hidden assumption in BIOS SMI,
that is presumably valid on the proprietary OS
where the BIOS was validated.
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=60770
So here we effectively revert the patch above, restoring
the mwait_idle() loop. However, we don't bother restoring
the idle=mwait cmdline parameter, since it appears to add
no value.
Maintainer notes:
For 3.9, simply revert 69fb3676df
for 3.10, patch -F3 applies, fuzz needed due to __cpuinit use in
context For 3.11, 3.12, 3.13, this patch applies cleanly
Tested-by: Mike Galbraith <bitbucket@online.de>
Signed-off-by: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
Acked-by: Mike Galbraith <bitbucket@online.de>
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.9+
Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
Cc: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>
Cc: Ian Malone <ibmalone@gmail.com>
Cc: Josh Boyer <jwboyer@redhat.com>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Mike Galbraith <efault@gmx.de>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/345254a551eb5a6a866e048d7ab570fd2193aca4.1389763084.git.len.brown@intel.com
[ Ported to recent kernels. ]
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
b253149b84