UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

sorry, not yelling, its just copied from a bug report and this prob is driving me crazy... ran stress --cpu 4 on a xeon and no problem the load went up to 4, but running mysql server for example the load is almost 0.00, where the same mysql server with same throughput gets 0.8 on another lenny server

help!!! ideas?

EVER SINCE UPGRADING TO SQUEEZE, LOAD AVERAGE IN TOP IS INCORRECTLY
REPORTED AS TOO LOW THAN IT REALLY IS. THIS PROBLEM IS PRESENT IN THE
DEFAULT SQUEEZE KERNEL, AS WELL AS UPGRADED 6.38 KERNEL. THIS PROBLEM
DOES NOT EXIST IN 2.6.26-2-amd64 LENNY. THIS PROBLEM HAS BEEN
REPLICATED ON MORE THAN 1 SERVER. DOWNGRADING TO LENNY KERNEL FIXES
THE PROBLEM. EXAMPLE: SERVER ON LENNY RUNNING 0.80 0.70 0.60 LOAD
AVERAGE LATER REGISTERS 0.00 0.02 0.05 AFTER UPGRADE DURING THE SAME
SERVER LOAD THROUGHOUT THE DAY. SERVER IS RUNNING MYSQL, PROBLEM ALSO
EXISTS RUNNING PHP WEB SERVER. PROBLEM HOWEVER DOES NOT SEEM PRESENT
DOING OTHER TASKS, SUCH AS COMPILING OR GZIPPING.

Code:

Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP Wed May 18 23:13:22 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

top - 02:55:05 up 5 days,  4:22,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 183 total,   2 running, 181 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu0  :  4.6%us,  5.6%sy,  0.0%ni, 89.5%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st
Cpu1  : 32.7%us, 24.0%sy,  0.0%ni, 40.7%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  2.7%si,  0.0%st
Cpu2  :  5.3%us,  4.3%sy,  0.0%ni, 90.4%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu3  :  3.5%us,  4.5%sy,  0.0%ni, 92.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu4  :  3.3%us,  3.0%sy,  0.0%ni, 93.7%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Cpu5  : 37.2%us, 29.6%sy,  0.0%ni, 10.6%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi, 22.6%si,  0.0%st
Cpu6  :  2.6%us,  4.0%sy,  0.0%ni, 92.7%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.7%si,  0.0%st
Cpu7  :  4.3%us,  4.3%sy,  0.0%ni, 91.3%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st

First of all, does the reporter of this "error" know that the load time isn't a daily average, but a 1/5/15 minute average?
Second, if stress-testing the CPU produces the expected load, and the server responds in the expected way, but the load is lower, my first idea would be "cool, they optimized the MySQL server to be more efficient". In any other case I'd check the Debian Bug Tracking System, since it's highly unlikely that such a bug hasn't occurred anywhere else.

no no no, something is not right

---------- Post updated at 12:51 AM ---------- Previous update was at 12:51 AM ----------

it seems i need 5 posts before i can post any urls

---------- Post updated at 12:52 AM ---------- Previous update was at 12:51 AM ----------

because i made a video of thats going on

In what way is something "not right"?

A coherent description of an actual problem will be better than a video.

well i am not exactly sure what is the matter, but once i get enough posts to share my link i am sure it will make things easier

I doubt a video will help unless the server's visibly on fire.

Low load average may be a symptom but tells us nothing of why it's low and gives no hints to a solution.

All you have to do is describe what the computer's doing, not what you think it means. Imagine you know nothing about load averages. Would you still realize anything's wrong with the computer? What misbehavior would make you think so? Is it lagging? is it freezing? Is it spitting strange numbers? Are the services you use failing to run? Is it crashing? Uploading viruses? On fire? You've told us nothing.

Up until now you're only telling us that you think something is wrong. Instead, try telling us what is happening and how this is different from what is happening, aside from the fact that the load is lower.

Besides, the load isn't just CPU, but also disk access, network communication, ... Maybe something else changed too, like new hardware.