kernel options for cd project with processor family

kernel options for cd project with processor family

[Michael D. Setzer II]

I'm working on the ghost for linux project, which uses various 
kernels. The older version 0.14 version had two kernels that support 
some configurations. I've added a number of additional builds 
adding extra features, but left earlier version in case the later 
additions didn't work with hardware. The bzImage6 is the latest and 
it works with most hardware, but I found it didn't work on a K6, since 
it was build with the Pentium Pro Family. I was able to build one with 
the K6 family, and it worked. I had used one of the original kernels 
with a K6 before, but this one had a network card that wasn't 
supported by it. 

I've built a test set of kernels with the same configuration as the 
bzImage6, but changed the Processor family. Below is a list of the 
build. I'm interested in which ones would make a difference. I would 
think that the 386 version would probable work on all hardware, but 
at what cost in performance for creating and restoring the disk 
images. G4L uses basically dd, gzip, lzop, bzop, ncftpget, and 
ncftpput. With all these images, the g4l iso image is 50MB. 


3877213 Aug  2 11:46 bzImage.386
3961494 Aug  2 11:46 bzImage.486
3971857 Aug  2 11:46 bzImage.586
4100360 Aug  2 11:46 bzImage6
4038178 Aug  2 11:46 bzImage.Athlon
4033738 Aug  2 11:46 bzImage.Athlon64
3915459 Aug  2 11:46 bzImage.K6
3927064 Aug  2 11:46 bzImage.P4
3973329 Aug  2 11:46 bzImage.PClasic
4083542 Aug  2 11:46 bzImage.PIII
4083891 Aug  2 11:46 bzImage.PPro

+----------------------------------------------------------+
  Michael D. Setzer II -  Computer Science Instructor      
  Guam Community College  Computer Center                  
  mailto:mikes@kuentos.guam.net                            
  mailto:msetzerii@gmail.com
  http://www.guam.net/home/mikes
  Guam - Where America's Day Begins                        
+----------------------------------------------------------+

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu
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(Total Hours: 275,786)

Re: kernel options for cd project with processor family

[Jan Engelhardt]

>> >I've built a test set of kernels with the same configuration as the 
>> >bzImage6, but changed the Processor family. Below is a list of the 
>> >build. I'm interested in which ones would make a difference. I would 
>> >think that the 386 version would probable work on all hardware, but 
>> >at what cost in performance for creating and restoring the disk 
>> >images. G4L uses basically dd, gzip, lzop, bzop, ncftpget, and 
>> >ncftpput. With all these images, the g4l iso image is 50MB. 
>> 
>> And now? Where's the question... :)
>
>I want to provide users of the G4L program with 
>the best options for the users.
>If having all the kernels is the only 
>way to provide the best options, I will have to have the users 
>download 50MB iso images. If I can get a good package with fewer 
>kernels that would make the image smaller. 
>So, to get a wide range of kernels to support various hardware, what 
>would be the best. 

The standard 586. That's what most distro [have to] use.



Jan Engelhardt
-- 

Re: kernel options for cd project with processor family

[Dave Jones]

On Tue, Aug 02, 2005 at 08:49:39PM +1000, Michael D. Setzer II wrote:
 > I'm working on the ghost for linux project, which uses various 
 > kernels. The older version 0.14 version had two kernels that support 
 > some configurations. I've added a number of additional builds 
 > adding extra features, but left earlier version in case the later 
 > additions didn't work with hardware. The bzImage6 is the latest and 
 > it works with most hardware, but I found it didn't work on a K6, since 
 > it was build with the Pentium Pro Family. I was able to build one with 
 > the K6 family, and it worked. I had used one of the original kernels 
 > with a K6 before, but this one had a network card that wasn't 
 > supported by it. 
 > 
 > I've built a test set of kernels with the same configuration as the 
 > bzImage6, but changed the Processor family. Below is a list of the 
 > build. I'm interested in which ones would make a difference. I would 
 > think that the 386 version would probable work on all hardware, but 
 > at what cost in performance for creating and restoring the disk 
 > images. G4L uses basically dd, gzip, lzop, bzop, ncftpget, and 
 > ncftpput. With all these images, the g4l iso image is 50MB. 

Your workload is going to be almost entirely IO bound, with
the only CPU intensive parts being 99% in userspace. So any
performance gains by tuning the kernel for a specific CPU are
likely to be unnoticable.  I'd go with a single image supporting
the lowest hardware you intend to support.

CPU tuned variants of gzip/bzip may be more noticable however.

		Dave

Re: kernel options for cd project with processor family

[Jesper Juhl]

On 8/2/05, Michael D. Setzer II <mikes@kuentos.guam.net> wrote:
> I'm working on the ghost for linux project, which uses various
> kernels. The older version 0.14 version had two kernels that support
> some configurations. I've added a number of additional builds
> adding extra features, but left earlier version in case the later
> additions didn't work with hardware. The bzImage6 is the latest and
> it works with most hardware, but I found it didn't work on a K6, since
> it was build with the Pentium Pro Family. I was able to build one with
> the K6 family, and it worked. I had used one of the original kernels
> with a K6 before, but this one had a network card that wasn't
> supported by it.
> 
> I've built a test set of kernels with the same configuration as the
> bzImage6, but changed the Processor family. Below is a list of the
> build. I'm interested in which ones would make a difference. I would
> think that the 386 version would probable work on all hardware, but
> at what cost in performance for creating and restoring the disk
> images. G4L uses basically dd, gzip, lzop, bzop, ncftpget, and
> ncftpput. With all these images, the g4l iso image is 50MB.
> 
I'm a Slackware Linux user, and for ages Slackware kernels were build
for i386, releatively recently that was changed to i486 - my point
with this is that while my own custom kernels are slightly faster when
build for my K7, they are not significantly faster than the stock
distro kernels - I mean, I can mesure a difference with benchmarks,
but I don't actually feel/notice the difference.  So, for something
like your project I'd say build the kernel for i386 or i486 and have
it run on as many boxes as possible and don't loose sleep over loosing
performance from that.

-- 
Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@gmail.com>
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