self booting benchmark dvd

[toddbailey]

Hi, here is a idea to bounce around.

I have almost a dozen machines running a mix of operating systems, linux and windows.

Would it be possible to create a self booting dvd to test machines with?

I'd like to get a good idea of how well the core machine (cpu, memory, disk) compare with each other running a set of fixed test applications.

This way the current os wouldn't skew the results any.

I don't think video performance could be done due mainly to the huge quantity of installed devices but then again...

your thoughts?

[Kano]

Sure, you can even boot via network.

[toddbailey]

Sure, you can even boot via network.

that would work, assuming one knows how to setup a network-able boot image.

something else to put on my bucket list

[Michael]

http://www.pts-desktop-live.com/

[toddbailey]

awesome, this looks promising

but it appears to be a x86-64 vers. at least in name

a lot of my machine are 32 bit only.

cause for concern?

[Kano]

You can dl Kanotix too in both flavours (even 2 in 1), only 64 bit has pts 2.0.0 preinstalled, but the 32 bit version just needs

sudo apt-get install phoronix-test-suite-gui

I would update pts, but 2.2.0 was faulty on Debian and a current 2.4 prerelease is too. Btw. Kanotix has got a bfs patched kernel, thats faster in some benchmarks. The gcc is older so some other benchmarks are slower, best compare with the same system.

You can use network-boot with the official pts iso or with Kanotix using:

http://kanotix.com/files/fix/casper-terminalserver/

you just reuse the iso - loopmounted to /cdrom or bootet live just in the example images. The most simple script is the -single variant, you just need 1 system with static ip, the router must be configured that dhcp is DISABLED as the system which runs the dnsmasq server will be used for dhcp, tftp and nfs for sharing the iso.

Also you can boot Kanotix from USB sticks very easyly. Just dd the image or use image-writer (from moblin).

[toddbailey]

oh joy more stuff to download, learn how to use and hardware to buy, rotflmao, where will it end.

all this just to run a few test to get viable metrics on just how much faster that quad, or dual core machine is over the older single core, w or w/o hyper threading.


I guess there is some sanity here...

[Kano]

Well when you are really tricky you can use a custom download cache.

[toddbailey]

http://www.pts-desktop-live.com/

Can we get a 32 bit edition or at least a brief overview on how to make a one?

[chud]

networking booting is broken , kernel has NFS support disabled.