Benchmarking On Ubuntu Just Became Easier

The Phoronix Test Suite was accepted into the Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) universe repository this morning. What this means is that it's now drop-dead simple to benchmark your system running Ubuntu 9.04 or later. The step of having to go to the Phoronix Test Suite web-site to download the source or Debian package is no more (well, unless you want to grab the latest snapshot). To start benchmarking on Ubuntu it is as easy as running:

$ sudo apt-get install phoronix-test-suite
$ phoronix-test-suite benchmark unigine

It's that easy to have the Phoronix Test Suite installed followed by running Unigine tests, which is a great way to check on your system's OpenGL performance. The Phoronix Test Suite will automatically download the needed test files, locally install the test files, and then carry out the testing in an automated and reproducible manner.

Additionally, there is about 90 other test profiles shipping with Phoronix Test Suite 1.6. Just run phoronix-test-suite list-tests or phoronix-test-suite list-suites to see some of what's available. You can even just use the Phoronix Test Suite for a consolidated view of your system's key hardware and software components.

$ phoronix-test-suite system-info

====================================
Phoronix Test Suite v1.8.0a1 (SELBU)
System Information
====================================

Hardware:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T9300 @ 2.50GHz (Total Cores: 2), Motherboard: LENOVO ThinkPad T61, Chipset: Intel Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 + ICH8M-E, System Memory: 1975MB, Disk: 120GB FUJITSU MHY2120BH, Graphics: Quadro NVS 140M 512MB (400/600MHz), Screen Resolution: 1680x1050

Software:
OS: Ubuntu 8.10, Kernel: 2.6.27-11-generic (x86_64), Desktop: GNOME 2.24.1, Display Server: X.Org Server 1.5.2, OpenGL: 3.0.0 NVIDIA 180.29, Compiler: GCC 4.3.2, File-System: ext3

There are many other features to the Phoronix Test Suite as well, so be sure to check out the documentation or Phoronix-Test-Suite.com.

Located in the Ubuntu 9.04 universe repository is Phoronix Test Suite 1.6.0 "Tydal" which is currently the latest stable release. The Selbu Alpha 1 (v1.8) release of the Phoronix Test Suite was made yesterday for testing while its final release will arrive in the second quarter of 2009, which unfortunately will be too late for Ubuntu 9.04, but we do have our own Debian packages available.

A special thanks goes out to Michael Owens and Canonical's Dustin Kirkland for their Ubuntu packaging work with the Phoronix Test Suite. The acceptance of the Phoronix Test Suite into Jaunty can be found on the jaunty-changes mailing list. If Ubuntu is not your thing, the Phoronix Test Suite can already be found in Mandriva's repository and elsewhere too (in Fedora it's waiting on a sponsor). Though if your favorite distribution doesn't yet have a phoronix-test-suite package, be sure to request that our GPLv3 testing software be added!