As the Linux 2.5 development kernel evolves and stabilizes heading towards an eventual 2.6 stable release in future months, it become increasingly important for a wider set of users to test it out and help find the remaining bugs. Scott Robert Ladd recently asked on the lkml, "What do the kernel developers want from testers? What sort of reports are helpful? Is there anything in particular that needs extensive testing?" The earlier linked FAQ includes instructions on reporting kernel Oops as well as other bugs.

As to the question of what needs testing, Alan Cox [interview] suggested, "One of the best things people can do is just use it. OSDL and others run stress tests but often its users configurations that find bugs not stress and coverage runs." Details on the Open Source Development Lab's stabilization efforts can be found here.

In any case, if you're interested in lending a hand to Linux kernel development, you can help out by simply compiling the latest 2.5 development kernel and taking it for a test run. Recent performance improvements should make this an enjoyable experience for you, but remember you're helping to test a beta kernel and may possibly find a bug, so be sure that any important data you have is safely backed up. Of course, this advice brings to mind the infamous Linus Torvalds' quote, "Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it."

From: Scott Robert Ladd
To: linux-kernel
Subject: Testing: What do you want?
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 09:46:05 -0500

OSNews and LinuxJournal are urging people to test the Linux kernel. I've 
been doing so for several months now, running the latest kernel live on 
my primary development system. I figure the best way to know if the 
kernel works is to use it when I'm working. ;)

At the moment, my biggest contribution to kernel development is testing, 
given that I'm not yet comfortable hacking kernel code in public. My 
question is: What do the kernel developers want from testers? What sort 
of reports are helpful? Is there anything in particular that needs 
extensive testing?

I haven't found a "Guide to Testing the Kernel" anywhere -- perhaps such 
a document exists, but I've missed it. Such a document could provide 
basic information for "testing newbies."

My experience thus far:
For the most part, the 2.5 series has worked very well for me, albeit 
with a few glitches (radeonfb, for example, as reported last week.) I'll 
build the 2.5.65 kernel on my Sparc later today, and see how well it 
works there.

-- 
Scott Robert Ladd
Coyote Gulch Productions (http://www.coyotegulch.com)
Professional programming for science and engineering;
Interesting and unusual bits of very free code.



From: Alan Cox
Subject: Re: Testing: What do you want?
Date: 24 Mar 2003 17:01:15 +0000

On Mon, 2003-03-24 at 14:46, Scott Robert Ladd wrote:
> question is: What do the kernel developers want from testers? What sort 
> of reports are helpful? Is there anything in particular that needs 
> extensive testing?

One of the best things people can do is just use it. OSDL and others run
stress tests but often its users configurations that find bugs not
stress and coverage runs.



From: Craig Thomas
Subject: Re: Testing: What do you want?
Date: 24 Mar 2003 15:06:26 -0800

I would echo Alan's comments.  Testing on various platforms with
different configurations will show that linux is capable of running
on a larger variety of hardware.

OSDL has a set of stress tests that are run on new kernels as they
become available.  However, the architectures tested are limited
(compared with the variety that can be found in the world).  There 
are enough testers in the community to collectively test for 
correctness of the kernel.  Test suites such as LTP and LSB help
in this regard.

It would be nice to have a collaborative effort of testing and 
reporting of findings so that everyone can look at particular areas
of interest.  There is also need to generate test results quickly so
that defects can be found and corrected in a timely manner if they
exist.

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