Andrew Morton calls for more kernel testing (Linux.com) [LWN.net]

Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier covers a LinuxWorld keynote by Andrew Morton. "During the opening keynote at this week's LinuxWorld Expo, kernel developer Andrew Morton called for more assistance in testing the Linux kernel from users, and predicted that virtualization would be the big thing for the next few years of kernel development."

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UML is da bomb

Posted Aug 8, 2007 11:52 UTC (Wed) by dank (guest, #1865) [Link]

In the Zumastor project, we're trying to use
QEMU or kvm for our continual build/test rig.
That's going to happen, but it's been a challenge,
for various reasons.
A funny thing happened along the way:
Daniel Phillips whipped out UML and got the core of
Zumastor running on that in a day,
and Jiaying picked it up and ran with it;
she's now finding and fixing problems in Zumastor
very, very quickly using that UML rig.

So if your kernel code is high-level enough to
not mind running on user-mode linux, be
sure to give it a try. It's a developer-friendly
low overhead style of virtualization that really works well sometimes.

Now if only Valgrind could handle UML. I'm willing to
fund that work; if you're interested in taking it on,
drop me a line at dank at kegel.com.

UML is da bomb

Posted Aug 8, 2007 12:27 UTC (Wed) by jengelh (subscriber, #33263) [Link]

Posting your offer to say, lkml and/or valgrind list would reach a broader audience :)

UML is da bomb

Posted Aug 9, 2007 16:55 UTC (Thu) by dank (guest, #1865) [Link]

Can't really post job offers to lkml. I suppose I could
post to the valgrind list, but I have a funny feeling that
that one oblique note in lwn will do. I have one offer already.

UML is da bomb

Posted Aug 9, 2007 17:05 UTC (Thu) by jengelh (subscriber, #33263) [Link]

Been done before.

http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/3/22/168
http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org...

The first is sneaky, the second one is not lkml. Oh well ;-)

Andrew Morton calls for more kernel testing (Linux.com)

Posted Aug 17, 2007 9:40 UTC (Fri) by pointwood (guest, #2814) [Link]

Is there a kernel testing guide? I mean, a step by step guide and what to look for and such?

To get people to help testing, it should be as easy as possible and I wonder if it can't be made easier and whether a lot of it can't be more automated? What about creating live CD's for this specific purpose? Also, what about reporting, couldn't that be automated in some way (with user approval)?

I wouldn't mind helping out testing, but I currently don't know how and I haven't got loads of time for it either. Make it easy and simple and I bet a lot more would help.