Arch Linux

jak

Member

From: Charlotte, NC, USA

Registered: 2004-04-08

Posts: 84

2.6.11.7 performance baseline

Looks like arch has found just the right combination of patches for the 2.6.11.7 kernel.  As far as performance goes, the arch kernel stomps all over suse's 9.3 kernel.  I don't have any benchmarks, but the difference is so obvious, I won't need any to be convinced.

I modified the PKGBUILD use 2.6.11.10, and the patches still apply with some offset and fuzz.

It would be nice to keep maintaining the 2.6.11 kernel and patchset as a performance baseline, since performance does not always improve with new releases of the kernel; sometimes it gets worse.

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The sturgeon general says don't smoke fish

i3839

Member

Registered: 2004-02-04

Posts: 1,185

Re: 2.6.11.7 performance baseline

...and sometimes it gets better. That's living on the bleeding edge. Old bugs are fixed, new ones are made, same for security holes. As long as it improves more than new problems are introduced the kernel will get better.

That there's a new package doesn't mean you must install it, only that you can.

Before there can be a performance baseline that performance must be measured somehow. If you aren't going to run benchmarks, then who is?

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: 2.6.11.7 performance baseline

As far as I can tell, the stable kernel has been tearing ass since the first 2.6.10 release.

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: 2.6.11.7 performance baseline

jak, dont thank arch for the patches it puts into the kernel, they arent what make it perform better.

The arch kernels only include an acpi update, and a patch to make sure nvidia compiles cleanly, neither of which improve performance.

So it' the kernel developers you need to thank for their work.

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: 2.6.11.7 performance baseline

Righto.

Speaking of performance... The MM kernel seems somewhat faster than the stock kernel right now. You might want to try it out - that is, if you're willing to deal with a few bleeding-edge bugs.

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: 2.6.11.7 performance baseline

Or you could use the much much more stable CK kernel which is much faster than mainstream, and mostlikely more so than mm.

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: 2.6.11.7 performance baseline

I'll try that out some time... Right now, though, I'm using the MM kernel mainly because the via82xx driver for the stock kernel is very annoying.

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: 2.6.11.7 performance baseline

via82xx driver for the stock kernel is very annoying.

annoying, good description

if you wanted, you could get the broken out mm patches and apply the via82xx driver from mm onto a CK kernel, thats what i did when the i915 graphics driver was only in MM.

http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/peop … 2-rc4-mm2/
broken out are there.