Hi everybody,
Just been testing kernel 2.5.70 on rh 9.0 with reiserfs.
One thing's for sure, the final stable 2.6 is going to be a surefire cracker of a kernel.
Not only is it fast (no i am stating it subjectively no tests to back it up from my side), but due the pre-emptive kernel feature for desktop along with the interactivity improvements to scheduler, the response is more than snappy. It rocks.
Here's a simple "test" i carried out. On my regular kernel i was untarring the kernel tarball and at the same time i tried listening to an mp3 on xmms. Needless to say there was skipping. and even after the untar was complete there was considerable disk thrashing.
Step in kernel 2.5.70. Everything works as if its the only thing running around !
The trend for this kernel is to sort of split it as for server and for desktop. You don't need, infact you will hate 2.6 if you use pre-emptive kernel feature for a server environment.
However before you jump for www.kernel.org to get a tarball here's a few things that might help you along. 1. do not. i repeat do not select filesystems, ide,scsi options as modules. build them into kernel. The simple reason for this is that there are lots of issues to be ironed out in modules before the stable release. As of now there will be no new features to be added. Its more like a bug-fixing contest right now. 2. before you start whining about unresolved symbols in modules while installing take a look at the modutils available at kernel.org. i forget the link right now. The regular stock modutils do not work with newer kernel. Thats another reason to build the options into the kernel. 3. one thing i haven't got right on my i845glad mobo. alsa sound. Can't get that damned thing to work. And add to my pain every keeps praising it all the more. grrrr.
Having said all this please do not blame me for any data / hair loss for any experiments you carry out with that new cracker. I simply stated my experience. ;) I could definitely help you out trying to get a stable conf for this new gizmo tho.
next time around i'll post my experience with different (ext2/3/reiserfs) filesystems.
cya,
C
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from Indiatimes at http://email.indiatimes.com
Buy The Best In BOOKS at http://www.bestsellers.indiatimes.com
Bid for for Air Tickets @ Re.1 on Air Sahara Flights. Just log on to http://airsahara.indiatimes.com and Bid Now!