load avg is near to 1.00 even in case of idle

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt]]

Cpu(s): 0.6%us, 0.2%sy, 0.0%ni, 99.2%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st

Still, the load average is always near to 1.00. in long term being idle-state too.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: linux-image-3.2.0-23-generic-pae 3.2.0-23.36
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-generic-pae 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic-pae i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC889 Analog [ALC889 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: lgb 1896 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: command ['iw', 'reg', 'get'] failed with exit code 1: nl80211 not found.
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xfbff8000 irq 43'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC889'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0889,1458a002,00100004'
   Controls : 37
   Simple ctrls : 20
CurrentDmesg:
 [ 31.945406] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
 [ 35.415818] init: plymouth-stop pre-start process (1565) terminated with status 1
 [ 42.912366] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
Date: Fri Apr 13 17:28:04 2012
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=ef613937-3143-4b4f-9abd-a0daa53ac12f
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 10.04.1 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100816.2)
IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 eth0 no wireless extensions.
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
 Bus 002 Device 003: ID 1267:0213 Logic3 / SpectraVideo plc
MachineType: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. H61M-D2-B3
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-generic-pae root=UUID=4781446b-537b-4ed1-8e36-707369788c63 ro quiet
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.2.0-23-generic-pae N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.2.0-23-generic-pae N/A
 linux-firmware 1.79
RfKill:

SourcePackage: linux
StagingDrivers: mei
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-03-01 (42 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 03/31/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: Award Software International, Inc.
dmi.bios.version: F4
dmi.board.name: H61M-D2-B3
dmi.board.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.board.version: x.x
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAwardSoftwareInternational,Inc.:bvrF4:bd03/31/2011:svnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:pnH61M-D2-B3:pvr:rvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:rnH61M-D2-B3:rvrx.x:cvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: H61M-D2-B3
dmi.sys.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Did this issue start happening after an update/upgrade? Was there a kernel version where you were not having this particular problem? This will help determine if the problem you are seeing is the result of the introduction of a regression, and when this regression was introduced.

[Luis Henriques (henrix)]

Also, I may be misinterpreting your description, but what I see is that your system is 99.2% idle, not loaded. Which tool have you used to check the CPU load?

[Luis Henriques (henrix)]

Please ignore my last comment (#3). I read 100% instead of 1.00%.

[Cyril Jaquier (cyril-jaquier)]

I just noticed the same behaviour on my wife's laptop and mine. Both are running Precise x86_64 with the latest kernel (3.2.0-23-generic). Unfortunately, I haven't monitored the load average for ages so I can't say when the behaviour changed.

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

@Luis: not 100%, not even "1.00%" - as you wrote. Load average is a pure number not percent value as far as I know :) But it's "top" or "uptime" which can report three load average values, for different long time periods as far as I know.

Top reports almost 100% idle, though the load average is near to 1.00 which is odd, since if machine is almost idle, why load avg should be 1.00 or a value nearby? It should be near zero then, instead.

@Joseph + Cyril: Unfortunately I can't remember when it started to happen. What I am sure about: it's there with 3.2.0-23-generic-pae kernel. I haven't noticed it with earlier ones, -21- was before (I haven't ever used -22- , lack of reboot meanwhile). If it's important I can check the situation with older kernels, but I have no access to that computer till the next week (at my workplace).

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

One another thing: it seems it's not always 1.00, now I can see that load avg tops at 0.40 when being totally idle machine, etc. Again, this machine can be accessed now directly (only via ssh), and I don't want to reboot it remotely, but I can check it out later if this happened with older kernels too.

[Jozef Losonsky (jozef-losonsky)]

I think that issue we're facing is decribed here http://www.smythies.com/~doug/network/load_average/index.html

[penalvch (penalvch)]

LGB [Gábor Lénárt], as per http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3773#bios an update is available for your BIOS (F10). If you update to this following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BiosUpdate , does it change anything? If it doesn't, could you please both specify what happened, and provide the output of the following terminal command:
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date

Please note your current BIOS is already in the Bug Description, so posting this on the old BIOS would not be helpful.

For more on BIOS updates and linux, please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette .

Thank you for your understanding.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]