I have noticed that several important linux apps are unstable on my Hyper-Threaded workstation (3 GHz P4). amarok (v. 1.3.3) is one of them. It complains when I start it that HyperThreading is enabled.

/proc/cpuinfo shows 2 cpus.

I read that you can use the noht option to disable HyperThreading support. However, it isn't working. My machine still shows 2 CPUs, and amarok still insists HT is enabled.

This is an exerpt of my /boot/grub/menu.lst:

title SUSE Linux 9.3 - No HyperThreading
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 vga=0x31a selinux=0 splash=silent resume=/dev/hda6 showopts noht
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd

The machine boots okay, but HT is still on

I could disable it in the bios, but I have a Windows XP Professional dual-boot setup on this box, and the HT comes in handy when running my large publishing/pagination apps. Disabling it in the bios is something I'd like to avoid, if possible.

Is there something else I can do here that would help the situation? Is my grub config okay?

Thanks

Have you tried acpi=off in your grub line?

ACPI is power management, though... The threading is what is causing amarok to throw up.

Has this 'noht' parameter been taken out of the kernel?

Turning off ACPI is often the solution to a lot of different problems in Linux, none of which appear to have anything to do with power management, and when I googled the noht thing some people were suggesting you need to turn ACPI off. Did you have any luck w/ it?

You can disable Hyperthreading usually from your computers BIOS settings.

ACPI doesn't help, and because this is a dual-boot machine, I cannot turn HT off in the BIOS (I find it very useful when I'm in Windows).

What type of kernel are you running? Is it SMP enabled? Are you running Xeon processors? From what I've read, the noht option only works for the Xeon processors, well at least everything mentioned with the noht option mentions Xeon's.

And if you did pass this option, what does it look like in your grub configuration?

Should usually look something like this:

kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-24.7.x ro root=/dev/hda1 noht

I had to install the non-smp kernel (2.6.x), and it all works fine. I didn't turn hyperthreading off in the bios...

The machine is a Dell Dimension 3000 (pretty plain-jane machine) - Pentium 4 3.0 GHz processor.

Recompile the kernel, with SMT disabled (but if you're on a Pentium D/Dual Core/Dual Xeon/other SMP variant, make sure you keep SMP enabled)