Kernel update

[T6]

i haven't restarted in 5 hours, machine is working fine including wireless, camera, sound card, powersave and the rest at the moment

glxgears on battery gives this

1282 frames in 5.0 seconds = 256.166 FPS
1344 frames in 5.0 seconds = 268.692 FPS

battery life seems to be better now with kde 4.6.1, seems to last 10 minutes more but i'm testing that by running opera, audacious, amsn, bash, compiz, one analog clock on desktop with seconds hand(seconds hand uses more cpu), one cpu monitor, one ram monitor(useless, frozen at 316 mbs on ram only) between other tools on the taskbar

it has used 60% giving 1 hour and 45 minutes, following this numbers it should give around 40+ minutes before reaching 7 percent, the value i set to turn off machine if i don't use it for 1 minute, to avoid battery drained completely

i'm just logged and monitor is using half brightness and it turns off after one minute, i am doing light test without using it much, just verifying how battery performs

[Archie]

i haven't restarted in 5 hours, machine is working fine including wireless, camera, sound card, powersave and the rest at the moment

glxgears on battery gives this

1282 frames in 5.0 seconds = 256.166 FPS
1344 frames in 5.0 seconds = 268.692 FPS

battery life seems to be better now with kde 4.6.1, seems to last 10 minutes more but i'm testing that by running opera, audacious, amsn, bash, compiz, one analog clock on desktop with seconds hand(seconds hand uses more cpu), one cpu monitor, one ram monitor(useless, frozen at 316 mbs on ram only) between other tools on the taskbar

it has used 60% giving 1 hour and 45 minutes, following this numbers it should give around 40+ minutes before reaching 7 percent, the value i set to turn off machine if i don't use it for 1 minute, to avoid battery drained completely

i'm just logged and monitor is using half brightness and it turns off after one minute, i am doing light test without using it much, just verifying how battery performs

There's one thing I need to verify. Isn't it good to completely drain your battery once in a while before recharging it again?

[T6]

supposedly this lithium ion batteries present in the modern laptops requires to retain a certain amount of charge to avoid damage

i personally can't let the machine drain the power because i need it on when i need it, can't have pauses while system revives

i only left it drain completely once in six months using it, that was last week and at the moment no problems yet

when a battery gives problems like less duration or reports that is drained when you know it has been charging long enough the recommendation is drain it completely but as i said supposedly this can damage them 

[Crow]

There's one thing I need to verify. Isn't it good to completely drain your battery once in a while before recharging it again?

Old batteries, specially cell phone batteries retained more charge during it's life if you drained them completely once a month. Life span was not affected.

New laptop batteries has a chip and can be damaged if you let them drain completely.

[beta1]

Have to agree with Ector on the difference in fps between kernels.

Between the same two kernels the latest is slower when tested with GLXgears under the exact same circumstances (reboot).

In my case the difference is not as great, (on average 500fps) but then I have different Nvidia card and a totally different screen setup.

Personally I'm not fussed about it but just wish to confirm it on another machine.

[hal8000]

I've also tried the new kernel, but on Intel i5 750 (without onboard graphics)
My Graphics card is ATI HD5770
My results are:

Linux orac 2.6.37.3-pclos1 #1 SMP
[anc@orac ~]$ glxgears
42910 frames in 5.0 seconds = 8581.899 FPS
full screen (1280x1024)
14464 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2892.787 FPS

[anc@orac ~]$ fgl_glxgears Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
15217 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3043.400 FPS
full screen (1280x1024)
12189 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2437.800 FPS


With older 2.6.33.7-pclos6 #1 SMP

[anc@orac ~]$ glxgears
42761 frames in 5.0 seconds = 8552.120 FPS
full screen (1280x1024)
14473 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2894.403 FPS

[anc@orac ~]$ fgl_glxgears
Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
15879 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3175.800 FPS
full screen (1280x1024)
12313 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2462.600 FPS


The newer kernel is slightly faster in my case, fgl_glxgears is an AMD test and possibly not
a good benchmark. I have not tried kon Kolivas bfs kernels yet or pae extension.

[Ector]

Hi
Thanks guys for testing. glxgears test is very hardware specific and as far as I can see the better the GPU and CPU the smaller the difference between kernels. Whether the 2.6.37 behavior on my machine is something expected or not we will see. I did some tests on both kernels and send the results to our talented Devs, maybe they will be able to tweak the next release. At least now my atheros wifi card is no longer disconnecting so I can say: 2.6.33 vs. 2.6.37 = draw.

E.

[Bald Brick]

Hi
Thanks guys for testing. glxgears test is very hardware specific and as far as I can see the better the GPU and CPU the smaller the difference between kernels. Whether the 2.6.37 behavior on my machine is something expected or not we will see. I did some tests on both kernels and send the results to our talented Devs, maybe they will be able to tweak the next release. At least now my atheros wifi card is no longer disconnecting so I can say: 2.6.33 vs. 2.6.37 = draw.

E.

I don't think you can compare 2.6.37 to 2.6.33 without specifying more precisely which version of 2.6.37 and 2.6.33 you are talking about. On my box 2.6.37.3 is noticeably faster than either 2.6.37.2 or 2.6.33.7 -- if one compares just the pae versions.

2.6.37.2, on the other hand, was clearly slower than 2.6.33.7.

Using glxgears is an easy way of checking it, but there are better benchmarking programs in the repo if the differences are very important to you. (In real life I haven't really noticed any difference.)

[Georgetoon]

I almost installed the new kernel but noiced that two packages are gong to be removed.  Not sue if I need these for the current kernel.  I know, dumb question, but I have no idea of knowing.

The two packages to be removed are

dkms-psb
dkms-sn9c20x

[theedo]

I haven't tried the glxgears benchmarking, but am having another issue with 2.6.37.2-pclos1.pae, and 2.6.37.2-pclos2.pae. I just noticed in another msg in this thread that there is a 2.6.37.2-pclos3.pae, which I will try when I get home tonight.

When I boot up from a shutdown or restart, everything seems to run fine. When I wake up from a suspend to ram, KDE is choppy with brief freezes of 3 or 4 seconds every 5 to 10 seconds, making the desktop completely unusable and making a reboot necessary.

Anyone else have this issue?

I've dropped back to the 2.6.33.7-pclos6.pae kernel for now as this issue doesn't exist there.

System Specs.
Asus M3A76-CM mobo
AMD Phenom II x 4 965 Black 3.4ghz (stock...not over clocked)
8gb Corsair Ballistix DDR2-800mhz RAM
Nvidia Geforce 9800 GT 1 GB DDR3 RAM

[T6]

i'm having different problems with that option on my netbook, kde4 is not being friendly with suspend to ram option

[Bald Brick]

I almost installed the new kernel but noiced that two packages are gong to be removed.  Not sue if I need these for the current kernel.  I know, dumb question, but I have no idea of knowing.

The two packages to be removed are

dkms-psb
dkms-sn9c20x

I don't guarantee anything but I think you can let Synaptic remove the packages. E.g. dkms-sn9c20x is a driver for Microdia webcams. I don't use a Microdia webcam so I don't need the driver, but even after removing the package while installing the 2.6.37.3 kernel I still have the kernel module with the driver for the new kernel. It must simply be a part of the new kernel package.

According to the package info dkms-psb is "a DRM driver for the video chipset from the Poulsbo SCH", and even after Synaptic removed the package I seem to have the driver (which, again, I don't need). This time it isn't a kernel module.

[Ector]

Hi
Thanks guys for testing. glxgears test is very hardware specific and as far as I can see the better the GPU and CPU the smaller the difference between kernels. Whether the 2.6.37 behavior on my machine is something expected or not we will see. I did some tests on both kernels and send the results to our talented Devs, maybe they will be able to tweak the next release. At least now my atheros wifi card is no longer disconnecting so I can say: 2.6.33 vs. 2.6.37 = draw.

E.

I don't think you can compare 2.6.37 to 2.6.33 without specifying more precisely which version of 2.6.37 and 2.6.33 you are talking about. On my box 2.6.37.3 is noticeably faster than either 2.6.37.2 or 2.6.33.7 -- if one compares just the pae versions.

2.6.37.2, on the other hand, was clearly slower than 2.6.33.7.

Using glxgears is an easy way of checking it, but there are better benchmarking programs in the repo if the differences are very important to you. (In real life I haven't really noticed any difference.)

Hi Bald Brick,
I was referring to the kernels from my previous posts. You are right about glxgears, it's not a benchmark. As I don't want to leave impression that there is something wrong with the new kernel I want to state that there is nothing wrong. Everyone who needs it for some reason (eg. better drivers) should definitely give it a try. I will try to look around for some benchmarks (maybe some CPU time consuming FFT  ) and will post some more detailed and professional report. For now I suggest eot in this matter.

E.

[Georgetoon]

I almost installed the new kernel but noiced that two packages are gong to be removed.  Not sue if I need these for the current kernel.  I know, dumb question, but I have no idea of knowing.

The two packages to be removed are

dkms-psb
dkms-sn9c20x

I don't guarantee anything but I think you can let Synaptic remove the packages. E.g. dkms-sn9c20x is a driver for Microdia webcams. I don't use a Microdia webcam so I don't need the driver, but even after removing the package while installing the 2.6.37.3 kernel I still have the kernel module with the driver for the new kernel. It must simply be a part of the new kernel package.

According to the package info dkms-psb is "a DRM driver for the video chipset from the Poulsbo SCH", and even after Synaptic removed the package I seem to have the driver (which, again, I don't need). This time it isn't a kernel module.

Thanks.  So previous kernel should be unaffected by uninstalling and reinstalling of dkms-psb?

I have a webcam on the Lenovo, but not sure which one it is.

[Archie]

Will somebody just push Mark so he can get all wet?