Remove device polling option from GUI
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Well, warnings would definitely be appreciated… Maybe with some real tested examples of where it actually helps, instead of doing the exact opposite.
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The example there is valid, just not on everyone's hardware.
We can't write a book next to every option though, at some point the burden must be on the user to know what they're doing. We can write some warnings, maybe link to some docs, but ultimately we can't stop everyone from shooting their own feet.
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I like scary warnings. ::)
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Warning:
Won't make the sky blue.
Won't make the grass green.Whatever, the presence of the device polling feature doesn't bother me much. Except that it can lead some people (including me) to suggest someone else to try out this setting, resulting in being the subject of public ridicule. Yup, me too ;-)
However, if one can manage to pry the eyes off the Device Polling checkbox item, one will notice some other options further down, with the somewhat fuzzy "broken in some hardware drivers, and may impact performance with some specific NICs" remark.
Um. Which ones are the broken drivers? And which specific NICs will make you suffer hard?
What I'd consider to be totally cool would be a self-test procedure. Which runs totally automatically, rebooting and trying out all possible combinations and everything.
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However, if one can manage to pry the eyes off the Device Polling checkbox item, one will notice some other options further down, with the somewhat fuzzy "broken in some hardware drivers, and may impact performance with some specific NICs" remark.
Um. Which ones are the broken drivers? And which specific NICs will make you suffer hard?I suspect naming those that work would be a whole lot easier… have yet to see one. The allegedly "supported" drivers are in man polling(4).
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The allegedly "supported" drivers are in man polling(4).
After reading man polling I tried that a few month ago with the em interfaces in my Lanner FW7530 because I though I could take some load off the ATOM CPU. I had to walk to that box afterwards and flip the power switch ;)
Good thing I used ifconfig to test polling and not the GUI switch. -
After reading man polling I tried that a few month ago with the em interfaces in my Lanner FW7530 because I though I could take some load off the ATOM CPU. I had to walk to that box afterwards and flip the power switch ;)
Good thing I used ifconfig to test polling and not the GUI switch.What's seriously disturbing is - how can something so blatantly broken make it into official release kernels.
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…because it's not seriously broken for people that need it... (which, admittedly, is very few people these days)
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So…move it into the "System Tunables"?
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Not quite that simple. It isn't just a matter of flipping a sysctl bit (which is what that page is for)