sid kernel slower than squeeze

[Chris Frey <cdfrey@foursquare.net>]

Hi,

I'm curious if there are debug settings enabled in the unstable
kernel which might cause it to run slower than released kernels,
and if so, what those settings might be so I can recompile and
test, to eliminate it.

I'm running on a Dell Inspiron 630m laptop, with 1gig of RAM,
running the Gnome3 desktop.  It is a pretty fresh sid install,
upgraded from a Squeeze CD install.  I haven't installed any
fancy video drivers.... it's pretty stock.

When I run the sid 3.2.x kernel, light browsing and typing
in a terminal window can keep the CPU at 50% consistently.
Sometimes it hovers around 90%.

If I run the old Squeeze kernel, 2.6.32, which is still on
here from the upgrade, it can idle down to about 12% to maybe
25%.

Strangely, there is no one process that is taking up so much
power.  It seems to be a kernel level thing.

The extra cpu activity really causes the machine to run hot,
so much so that it is unpleasant to use.  I don't know why
just changing the kernel can affect this.

I'm running stock squeeze and sid kernels.  If I can provide
debug information to help track this down, please let me know.

Thanks,
- Chris