Steps towards optimized scheduler for Linux gaming
Echidna (Gegair) | Wed 17 Apr 3:45 p.m.–4:30 p.m.
Presented by
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Changwoo Min
https://www.igalia.com/team/changwoo
Changwoo is a kernel developer at Igalia, an employee-owned open-source consultancy. He has been working on operating system research and development for better performance, concurrency, and security. Previously at Virginia Tech, he had taught Linux kernel programming to graduate students for several years. His current focus is improving the Linux scheduler for latency-critical tasks, with an overarching goal of enhancing Linux interactivity.
Changwoo Min
https://www.igalia.com/team/changwoo
Abstract
How does task scheduling impact Linux gaming? For example, suboptimal task scheduling can cause stuttering while playing games on the Steam Deck game console. In this talk, we will share our journey to optimize the scheduler for Linux gaming. We first began by questioning how to define and measure the stuttering problem to quantify the impact of scheduler optimization. We then extensively analyzed the characteristics of game tasks from the scheduler’s point of view. Characterizing task behavior in Linux gaming helps to understand why some schedulers create much stuttering and others create less. Lastly, we will share our progress on the optimized scheduler for reducing the stuttering problems in Linux gaming. We implemented the scheduling policy based on sched_ext, a BPF-based extensible scheduling framework.
How does task scheduling impact Linux gaming? For example, suboptimal task scheduling can cause stuttering while playing games on the Steam Deck game console. In this talk, we will share our journey to optimize the scheduler for Linux gaming. We first began by questioning how to define and measure the stuttering problem to quantify the impact of scheduler optimization. We then extensively analyzed the characteristics of game tasks from the scheduler’s point of view. Characterizing task behavior in Linux gaming helps to understand why some schedulers create much stuttering and others create less. Lastly, we will share our progress on the optimized scheduler for reducing the stuttering problems in Linux gaming. We implemented the scheduling policy based on sched_ext, a BPF-based extensible scheduling framework.