I am evaluating the rteval test to see whether it is a useful tool for us.
In the current form, it is not packaged, and depends upon a library which is not packaged. These instructions only work for Natty and later.
In order to install and run it on Ubuntu (Oneiric), these are the steps:
- Install the required packages:
- sudo apt-get install python-ethtool python-libxslt1 python-dmidecode rt-tests python-dev git
- Install python-schedutils from source:
wget http://people.canonical.com/~sconklin/rteval/python-schedutils-0.3.tar.bz2
- tar jxvf python-schedutils-0.3.tar.bz2
- cd python-schedutils-0.3
- sudo python setup.py install
- cd ..
- Fetch and install rteval:
- git clone git://github.com/sconklin/rteval.git
- cd rteval/loadsource
wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.1.1.tar.bz2
- cd ..
- sudo make install
- Run rteval from terminal for generic kernel (for 6 minutes duration):
sudo python /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/rteval/rteval.py -d360.0 > rteval-$USER-generic-normal.txt
- this dumps the test results into a text file in your /home directory
- Run rteval from console (to check if cgroups affects test) for generic kernel (for 6 minutes duration):
- clt-alt-F1 (to get to console)
- log in
sudo python /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/rteval/rteval.py -d360.0 > rteval-$USER-generic-console.txt
- this dumps the test results into a text file in your /home directory
- Install -lowlatency kernel
- install abogani's ppa from termainal
- sudo add-apt-respository ppa:abogani/lowlatency
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get install linux-lowlatency
- install abogani's ppa from termainal
- Reboot
- Run rteval from terminal for lowlatency kernel (for 6 minutes duration):
sudo python /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/rteval/rteval.py -d360.0 > rteval-$USER-lowlatency-normal.txt
- this dumps the test results into a text file in your /home directory
- Run rteval from console (to check if cgroups affects test) for lowlatency kernel (for 6 minutes duration):
- clt-alt-F1 (to get to console)
- log in
sudo python /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/rteval/rteval.py -d360.0 > rteval-$USER-lowlatency-console.txt
- this dumps the test results into a text file in your /home directory
email results to scottalavender@gmail.com, be sure to put 'rteval' in the subject line of the email.
Which low latency kernel are we testing?
The -lowlatecny kernel is available on kernel.ubuntu.com/git (that is http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=abogani/ubuntu-precise-lowlatency.git;a=summary).
The -lowlatency kernel uses a different configuration: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=abogani/ubuntu-precise-lowlatency.git;a=blob;f=debian.lowlatency/config/config.flavour.lowlatency;h=491ecd9bba7b7ceab095632f84286148c6fbd4a3;hb=HEAD
And a little patch to force kernel to put IRQ handlers in threads: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=abogani/ubuntu-precise-lowlatency.git;a=blob;f=debian.lowlatency/patches/made-kernel-irq-threaded-by-default.patch;h=390c876f853e8fbf4d692a1bd16aa3cfc290adfd;hb=HEAD