[linux-audio-user] low latency kernel

[Maarten de Boer]

> The preemptible kernel patch is now part of the 2.5/6 series. It gives
> quite good latency, so I heard. Which brings up these questions: 
> 
> * Who is already using a 2.5 kernel?

$ uname -ra
Linux mtg62 2.5.72 #1 Wed Jun 18 13:55:19 CEST 2003 i686 unknown unknown GNU/Linux

:-)

> * How's it working? Would you recommend going 2.5?

Very well. I have rebooted only once, after a 15 day uptime, when an rmmod of a
SCSI driver module did not return (but no freeze of the kernel itself). So as
far as I can see, it is very stable. It is not the latest 2.5.72, but I would
say that in general things have only improved since then.

As for audio, first of all it is very nice to have ALSA included, and as far
low latency/responsiveness, I can only see that it "feels" good. I have not
run any of the stress tests though, but under a normal workload, I get no 
underruns. What is more, with 2.4.20 I had, even with the LL en PE patches,
some problems with underruns and X getting slugish during heavy disk access.
I suppose the 2.5.72 kernel has better support for the IDE DMA on my mainboard.

> * What is needed to use 2.5?

What do you mean? Some guts and a bit patience I guess :-)

Maarten