iphitus Posted January 25, 2004 Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 We hear that 2.6 kernel is faster on modern hardware, so I decided to compare the 2.4 and 2.6 series kernels on some older hardware, detailed below. The results are easily in favour of 2.6. THe 2.4.18 and 2.6.0 kernels were self compiled. I took out all the components I did not require. Neither of those two use an initrd. I used no optimization. The 2.4.22 kernel was purely for interest. It does show that a self compiled kernel does have a speed advantage. I chose the slightly older 2.4.18 kernel as the most recent 2.4 series kernels include many of the features of 2.6. I timed the bootup times from the moment i hit enter on lilo to when GDM is completed loading. I have apache 1, ssh server and other servers and daemons running such as fetchmail. I disabled dhcp and internet on boot. I did this test twice for each kernel and the results were identical. The login time was the time taken from when I hit enter on GDM to when the last application (usually GNOME-panel) is loaded. The script GDM runs to log me in is below. I ran glxgears purely for interest, my X info and graphics card are below. Firebird is a slow starter on this computer, so i tested it out. I turned on the computer logged in and ran firebird. No other apps than those in the startup script were running. Hope you find this of some interest. Test Conditions Test machine: Hardware: Pentium 2 300mhz Intel 440LX/EX mobo 160mb ram 6gb HDD ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro AGP 1X/2X Login script: mount /dev/hda5 GSDPID=`pidof gnome-settings-daemon` if [ "x$GSDPID" == "x" ]; then gnome-settings-daemon & fi gnome-panel & velocity & xbindkeys & xmms & gkrellm & fbsetbg ~/images/orange.png exec /etc/X11/Xsession /usr/local/bin/fluxbox Fluxbox: Fluxbox 0.9.7, self compiled, optimized -03. Style used was not a pixmap Firebird: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031225 Firebird/0.7 OS: Debian Sid. X: 832x624x16 using DRI. Results 2.6.0 Results: Startup: 45 seconds Login: 32 seconds Firebird: 15 seconds glxgears: 400 frames in 5.0 seconds = 80.000 FPS 486 frames in 5.0 seconds = 97.200 FPS 537 frames in 5.0 seconds = 107.400 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 400 frames in 5.0 seconds = 80.000 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 500 frames in 6.0 seconds = 83.333 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 2.4.22 results: Debian Package (kernel-image-2.4.22-1-686) Startup: 1 minute 18 seconds Login: 41 seconds glxgears: 594 frames in 5.0 seconds = 118.800 FPS 480 frames in 5.0 seconds = 96.000 FPS 480 frames in 5.0 seconds = 96.000 FPS 480 frames in 5.0 seconds = 96.000 FPS 480 frames in 5.0 seconds = 96.000 FPS 480 frames in 5.0 seconds = 96.000 FPS 480 frames in 5.0 seconds = 96.000 FPS 480 frames in 5.0 seconds = 96.000 FPS 480 frames in 5.0 seconds = 96.000 FPS Part of the reason this one took considerably longer to boot is that it uses modules whereas the other two had as much as possible compiled into the kernel. 2.4.18 results: Startup: 50 seconds Login: 42 seconds Firebird: 17 seconds 521 frames in 5.0 seconds = 104.200 FPS 400 frames in 5.0 seconds = 80.000 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 100.000 FPS 400 frames in 5.0 seconds = 80.000 FPS What do you think? iphitus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted January 25, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 I have had some criticism, saying that the bootup cant be considered...etc. THe idea was to se real world performance, not some synthetic benchmark. The only thing i changed in the bootup was the kernels. You might complain about modules, but i stress, on 2.6.0 and 2.4.18 -- no modules were used unless you had to have it in a module. I didnt compile anything i didnt require. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted January 25, 2004 Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 I have had some criticism, saying that the bootup cant be considered...etc. :huh: :unsure: the point was this. The bootup isn't faster because the kernel is that much faster. It's faster because the way the 2.6 boots is so much more diff than the 2.4. In that regard, bootup can be considered because it is another 2.6 improvment over 2.4's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuxiscool Posted January 25, 2004 Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 Good to know, not that i am surprised though, i've been running 2.6 for a while and noticed very nice speed improvements in Return To Castle Wolfenstein, on a resonably slow (compared to modern standards) Pentium 3 650MHz computer. Most other apps that i use have also gained a speed improvement. The 2.6 kernel and Reiser 4 will make for a nice couple. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted January 25, 2004 Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 (edited) Nice iphitus! I am running 2.6.1-rc1 and really enjoying it. The bootup is snappy (I am down to 30 seconds from startup to GDM, with quite a few modules booting - this is on a AMD AthlonXP 2500+ with 512MB RAM). The only problem I have is with my VIA onboard sound (8233 Southbridge). It works well, but I get an error about some codecs at boot. I just downloaded rc3, hopefully the bug fixes cause some voodoo ;) Edited January 25, 2004 by SoulSe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
static Posted January 27, 2004 Report Share Posted January 27, 2004 I have also noticed improvements in booting especially, but definately in quake 3, UT, and the speed with which apps open after clicking 'em. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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