Use nitro-sources for blazing fast computing... :P

[Satissh S]

Statutory Warning :
Nitro is exciting but if mis-used is very injurious to your systems health..

Get more oomph out of that GNU\linux.. box of yours. Fed up with your oldn slow fc4-smp-kernel-2.16..? time for a shift don't you think??
Get-In nitro sources.. a very high performance patch set for linux kernel from www.kernel.org . I've been using it for sometime now.. it's based on the gentoo-sources patch set but with very high (blazing) performance and if you don't mind working a bit you can have a really.. stunning system.. But the proprietary drivers etc., have to be compiled again.. so mileage is yours..
This is designed keeping gentoo in mind but is equally good for any GNU\Linux system..

Links (and\or) source

Get Kernel:-
www.kernel.org

Get patch set:-
http://www.stud.uni-karlsruhe.de/~uy...2.6.14-nitro2/

Wiki:-
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_nitro-sources
(gentoo - wiki on howto use.. but use the manual meth for u'r distro)

Gentoo Repos:-
http://gentoo.zugaina.org/portage/sy...nitro-sources/

gentoo-threads:-
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-382010.html
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-423251.html

ENjoy!!

[eddie]

I would recommend archck-sources anytime
http://iphitus.loudas.com/archck.php

I have tried various sources from Gentoo's unsupported software section but stuck on archck only. It provides the best performance even under heavy system load. The system remains responsive even when while compiling KDE with kdeenablefinal use flag. On the other hand, I felt that nitro leans too much towards getting lot out of CPU while compromising on IO throughput.

[Satissh S]

Have you used love-sources eddie?? I also used ck-sources, but somehow felt nice aftr nitro sources and it's been ever since nitro.

Gentoo-sources itself is exceptionally performance enhanced.. Hardened sources are for servers, providing additional security and well tested versions of modules.

[eddie]

Yes I have used love, mm, nitro, no, relatime, ck and don't know how many more. There was a time when I was changing kernel every alternate day until I got stuck into archck. You must try it once.

[mehulved]

What are these two types of kernels you'll, satish and eddie, are talking about? Can you explain me more about them to a noob like me. How do they improve performance and what else do they do? I will be reading the links provided by you'll and try to understand about them.

[eddie]

These links we are talking about are actually not kernels. They are kernel patchsets. They have various performance patches that can be applied to official kernel to get out the maximum out of your hardware. Example like maximum CPU performance, maximum IO throughput, more GPU performance. The official kernel doesn't accept these patches because they don't ALWAYS work and might cause system instability (Read the statutory warning at the beginning of this thread?).

Understand it like this. You buy a bike...the manufacturer gives you everything default but if you are crazy, you add third party stuff to it in order to get most out of your bike. Something like what we do in "Need for Speed" games?

[mehulved]

Ok so its like modification we make to a bike like using NO2 for bikes? So, if I am using kernel from official sources from GLI can I apply one of these patches? Please tell me fast if possible as I am trying to install gentoo again at the moment, so I know what kernel to select.

[Satissh S]

And of-course most important of all Fbsplash, bootsplash and gensplash!!
But i notice slight increase in performance with nitro eddie, but nyways nitro is based on ck. There is nothing cooler than spock, isn't it eddie?!
But what C-Flags do you use eddie?
here's mine,

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O3 -mtune=pentium4 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--sort-common -s"
MAKEOPTS="-j5"

@mehul ved:
I'd really suggest that you follow this guide as it is given.. just like that, you don't need gentoo live-cd for that..
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Install....6_from_Stage1

1. Boot into your ubuntu live-cd and
sudo mkdir /mnt/gentoo
sudo passwd root
<password>
su -
2. mount your partitions.
3. Setup networking.
4. mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc
5. Now follow the guide.
Ubuntu has gparted, you can use that instead of fdisk. If you don't like reading via commandline this way you can have firefox display the webpage while compiling and you can copy-paste via firefox and gnome-terminal. Also when the guide wants you to use "mirrorselect" just browse the gentoo mirrorlist and select the one from thailand or japan, IMO i have been using them without probs.

Gentoo mirror list:-
http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml

Use the following use flags along with the above CFLAGS for optimum performance,

USE="a52 aac acpi async bonobo bzip2 cardbus cdparanoia divx4linux dpms dvd \
dvdr dvdread exif fame ffmpeg flac ftp gimp gkrellm glitz glut gmail \
gmailtimestamps gtkhtml hal imlib2 javascript joystick kdeenablefinal \
kerberos matroska mmx moznocompose moznoirc moznomail mozsvg mpc mpeg4 \
mplayer msn nptl nptlonly openal pic sharedmem sse sse2 stream svg \
svgz sysfs theora threads transcode unicode usb userlocales v4l vcd \
wifi win32codecs wxwindows xml xosd xpm xvid arts cups gstreamer"

It's for using GNOME and kde however, if you want only kde then remove alll gnome related apps and /or gtk.

ENjoy!!

[mehulved]

I have already begun the installation process using GLI in gentoo 2006.0 and might complete today. I have used one of the japan mirrors cos taiwan mirror doesn't have 2006.0 release as yet.
If all goes well this time, I will be reinstalling gentoo on my whole hard disk later on so I am gonna try out kernel patches and all possible tests that I cannot on productive OS. It will be like a testing OS for me.
Will try installing nitro and see what happens.

[Satissh S]

OH!! but you're doing stage 1 right?? Plz specify the above CFLAGS, if you want compiling to be fast!! And watch out though.. i haven't heard good abt Gentoo Linux Installer.

The new Gentoo installer is a step in the right direction, but it's not production-ready just yet. Gentoo Linux in general, though, is more than capable of performing the duties of a desktop or server operating system

Source: http://www.softwareinreview.com/cms/content/view/31/1/

IMHO the old CLI way is just as fun.. One of the philosophies of gentoo was to keep it simple!

[mehulved]

Nope I am doing stage 3 installation. And I am using GLI this time but I feel better control doing it manually. BTW, where's distfiles disappeared in gentoo 2006.0? I haven't noticed it during installation and on the live cd either?
What stage do you recommend using if I install gentoo some other time?

[Satissh S]

Stage 1 any day..
There are stages for 2006.0 see it in the "stages" folder.
http://mirror.gentoo.gr.jp/releases/x86/2006.0/stages/

But i think we are straying away from the conversation. Use the,
gentoo-wiki.com HowTO# page to install nitro sources instead of gentoo-sources however.

[mehulved]

point taken. I did have a look at gentoo wiki in the night and will try out nitro once the installation is complete.

[eddie]

Originally Posted by Satissh S

But what C-Flags do you use eddie?
here's mine,

I use these

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-O3 -mtune=prescott -march=prescott -fforce-addr -momit-leaf-frame-pointer -fomit-frame-pointer -ftracer -pipe"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -fvisibility-inlines-hidden"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"

I have never been lucky with any strongs LDFLAGS. It fails me on glibc

[eddie]

Originally Posted by Satissh S

Stage 1 any day..
There are stages for 2006.0 see it in the "stages" folder.
http://mirror.gentoo.gr.jp/releases/x86/2006.0/stages/

Stage 1 is not recommended at all. The only reason to do a Stage 1 could be if you are planning to change the CHOST. You don't get any performance gain from using Stage 1. Another reason to use it can be one of yours' i.e. to learn. Otherwise, never use Stage 1. Also, it has been removed from official Gentoo Documentation and Stage 1 & 2 tar balls are provided only because of some strong hue and cry.

[Satissh S]

Yeah! i was wondering why they didn't officially support stage1 and stage2.. nyways do you use reiser4?? Seems like it's blazing fast coz the benchmarks suggest so!!!! i wanna use.. but i'am waiting.. have you tried it??

[eddie]

Originally Posted by Satissh S

Yeah! i was wondering why they didn't officially support stage1 and stage2

It was huge thing when they did it. Gentoo-Dev mailing list was fuming and some very strict steps were taken. Even the philosophy and social contract pages were edited. At last the release engg. team agreed to provide stage 1 & 2 tar balls but no one knows for how long they will do it.

.. nyways do you use reiser4?? Seems like it's blazing fast coz the benchmarks suggest so!!!! i wanna use.. but i'am waiting.. have you tried it??

Not till now. Also, not until I get a DVD writer or a spare hard disk so that I can take weekly backups. I have heard great things about reiser4 speed but am also scared about its stability. Have heard some real horror stories about it.