LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Joseph Tan <j.tan@softhome.net>
  To  : Damien Uern <carrigan_2606@optusnet.com.au>
  Date: 31 Jul 2003 00:42:51 +0930

Re: Impressions of 2.6.0-test2

Hi Damien,

I got 2.6.0test2 the first day of release and have been trying it out on
my Mandrake 9.1 system. 

I've got a running kernel and it boots into KDE, my main problem is that
kernel autoloading isn't working. I've actually had to manually insmod
or list  USB, mouse, Ethernet, CPUFreq etc.. in /etc/module. Auto module
loading is compiled int he kernel but doesn't appear to be working.

In fact if I leave /etc/modules blank, NO kernel module gets loaded in
on boot up. If I didn't compile RieserFS, keyboard input support in I
wouldn't of had a very usable kernel.

Would you mind emailing me these files offlist?

/etc/modules
/etc/modules.conf
/etc/modprobe.conf
/etc/modprobe.devfs

I want to see how Knoppix differs to Mandrake.

As for your responsiveness problem did you catch the mention of the
scheduler patch on Slashdot? I downloaded it in case I needed it - I'll
send it to you off list.

Cheers,
Joseph Tan

On Thu, 2003-07-31 at 00:16, Damien Uern wrote:
> Howdy,
> 
> I have recently installed kernel 2.6.0-test2 on my knoppix 3.2 hdd install. 
> Here is some general advice on getting it going, followed by my first 
> impressions:
> 
> Unpack the tarball (tar -xjvf linux-2.6.0-test2.tar.bz2), enter the directory 
> and type "make xconfig" (make sure you have qt devel libraries installed). 
> Choose only the drivers that you need for your system, you will find that 
> many don't compile yet. Check 
> http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/post-halloween-2.5.txt for things to expect 
> (make sure to enable Virtual Terminal support!).
> 
> Save this, then type:
> 
> $ make
> $ make modules_install
> $ make install
> 
> Configure lilo to point to the new kernel and run lilo. Reboot into the new 
> kernel (hopefully it'll work, it took me 5 or 6 goes to get it going).
> 
> Impressions:
> 
> Doesn't seem that much different to 2.4 to me so far. The scheduler seems like 
> it's on it's way to becoming better than 2.4 (it seems to handle high loads 
> better), however it seems to have some serious problems for me. I performed 
> the following test:
> 
> cd to linux kernel source directory
> $ make clean
> $ make -j3
> 
> I also ran "find /usr -name '*'" and managed to get the load up around 3-5. I 
> then grabbed the Mozilla window and swirled it around in circles -- all 
> seemed well for a few seconds, but it then started intermittently pausing 
> (pausing the mouse as well). I've also experienced this in other programs 
> whilst moving its window around. I've even had mouse lag when Mozilla 
> refreshed it's page.
> 
> Other problems: Some apps seem to go to sleep and never wake up, or take 
> extroadinarily long times to complete their tasks. Openoffice died once under 
> this new kernel (just sat there, not taking up any CPU, just hanging around). 
> Whilst the load was still high I opened LyX and did view->DVI on a document 
> after a few minutes I checked the process list and latex was just sitting 
> there doing nothing. Strange...
> 
> Another simple test is when an mp3/ogg just starts playing in xmms, I click 
> the KDE task bar of a maximised app a few times (thereby sending it to the 
> taskbar and then redrawing it maximised several times fairly rapidly) and I 
> get sound skips in xmms for the first few times -- no such problems under 
> 2.4.
> 
> Launch speeds under high load seems to be better. Apart from the strange 
> pauses, responsiveness is quite good under high load too.
> 
> Anyone else tested the 2.6 series yet? Any comments?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Damien

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