Comment by AzzyHN
For a desktop user, what's the downside to using a realtime kernel vs the standard one?
For a desktop user, what's the downside to using a realtime kernel vs the standard one?
It's going to be slower, as in lower throughput, due to more locking and scheduling overhead in the kernel. Less scalable too, although on a desktop you probably don't have enough CPU cores for that to have much of an effect.
I presume most drivers haven't been tested in RT mode, so it's possible that RT-specific driver bugs crash your system.
Realistically, there's none.
A small impact on throughput is expected, but it shouldn't be noticeable to the user.
What the user can and will notice is the system not being responsive to his commands, as well as audio cuts or audio latency (to prevent cuts).
Thus PREEMPT_RT is a net win.
Good question. And what's the benfit? A common misconception is that RT is fast. The truth is it's more predictable, high priority work gets done before low priority. But who has set the correct priorities for a desktop system? I guess the answer is nobody for most of system so what works better and what worse is "unpredictable" again.
Should audio be prioritized over the touchpad "moving" the cursor?