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Sunday, June 26, 2011

Custom kernel 2.6.39.2 ubuntu amd64 packages optimized for i3,i5 and i7 processors


This package is created in Ubuntu 11.04 and should install fine in all versions of Ubuntu Linux 11.04 (as well 10.10) and Linux Mint 11 (as well Mint 10) (should as well in debian squeeze but not sure about dkms)

The build is for 64bit i3, i5 and i7 processors

The following are the configuration settings

  1. Kernel Timer Frequency set to 1000 HZ
  2. Processor is selected as CORE2
  3. main Makefile modified to use -Ofast of gcc 4.6
  4. Makefile and Makefile_32 modified to reflect march settings and mtune settings to corei7 (new arch of gcc 4.6)
  5. Scheduled autogroup enabled
  6. Transparent hugepage support enabled
  7. Enabled BT_L2CAP and BT_SCO bluetooth in kernel config explicitly to build bluetooth modules inside kernel
  8. Enabled CONFIG_VGA_SWITCHEROO
  9. Copied kernel source to /usr/src and built from /usr/src folder to avoid symlink issues with the built packages (actually when built from /home/sankaran, the built binary will have symlinks to /home/sankaran which is ludicrous)
  10. Used enterprise linux kernel config as the base config and the kernel mostly seems to have no kernel debug prints because of it. Hence it runs considerably faster than stock Ubuntu kernel (well we can feel it) (I extracted the srpm to recreate the el6 config, the el6 srpm can be downloaded from http://ftp.redhat.com/redhat/linux/enterprise/6Workstation/en/os/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.32-131.0.15.el6.src.rpm)

How to install

To install

sudo dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.39.2-corei7swiftr1_14.00_amd64.deb linux-headers-2.6.39.2-corei7swiftr1_14.00_amd64.deb

followed by (these steps update-initramfs and update-grub are not required for mint10 or maverick, these were required when using Ubuntu Lucid)

sudo update-initramfs -c -k 2.6.39.2-corei7swiftr1

and final step of

sudo update-grub

before rebooting and reboot into the newly installed kernel from grub

How to build yourself

follow my blog on how to build kernel in ten steps at


Kernel Source

I downloaded the kernel source tarball from kernel.org

Version: 2.6.39.2


MD5SUMS

ef7057e2b1a8360b65b03d466717f03d  CONFIGCORE2SWIFT
ef068ed5219af442b483b86c15d48dba  linux-headers-2.6.39.2-corei7swiftr1_14.00_amd64.deb
01ab3fff56f2fe706d9b61c9d15e61bb  linux-image-2.6.39.2-corei7swiftr1_14.00_amd64.deb
b4f5f52cad36654d38e28c74d59a8e2f  Readme.odt
8558ab56c81421c53bf461978acf3bc8  Readme.pdf

SHA256SUMS

c4f885c39f1c8673fa1a5b063e032a40f340c1e31e47560a5c9040ca333f1ed6  CONFIGCORE2SWIFT
d39e58af20727e50d41f0378eae9d003a4b3ced61fa31c63ae3cb2434da99c40  linux-headers-2.6.39.2-corei7swiftr1_14.00_amd64.deb
faa9410c332c2ba3ae5e805becdb9624f2243bb55b72470a2378d1b93b069648  linux-image-2.6.39.2-corei7swiftr1_14.00_amd64.deb
a6ea2ce8401b31b1dc8eedb3dbefbf2900e63caea0e2f0fc86be806f83827d32  Readme.odt
b0b0525d736be4fcdf06c4322727bf5b790412425da484ea6db690795127e0e4  Readme.pdf

Dropbox Links

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Custom kernel 2.6.39.2 ubuntu amd64 packages optimized for core2 and above with BT_L2CAP and BT_SCO



This package is created in Ubuntu 11.04 and should install fine in all versions of Ubuntu Linux 11.04 (as well 10.10) and Linux Mint 11 (as well Mint 10) (should as well in debian squeeze but not sure about dkms)


The build is for 64bit core2 and above processors

The following are the configuration settings

  1. Kernel Timer Frequency set to 1000 HZ
  2. Processor is selected as CORE2
  3. main Makefile modified to use -Ofast of gcc 4.6
  4. Makefile and Makefile_32 modified to reflect march settings and mtune settings to core2 (new arch of gcc 4.6)
  5. Scheduled autogroup enabled
  6. Transparent hugepage support enabled
  7. Enabled BT_L2CAP and BT_SCO bluetooth in kernel config explicitly to build bluetooth modules inside kernel
  8. Enabled CONFIG_VGA_SWITCHEROO
  9. Copied kernel source to /usr/src and built from /usr/src folder to avoid symlink issues with the built packages (actually when built from /home/sankaran, the built binary will have symlinks to /home/sankaran which is ludicrous)
  10. Used enterprise linux kernel config as the base config and the kernel mostly seems to have no kernel debug prints because of it. Hence it runs considerably faster than stock Ubuntu kernel (well we can feel it) (I extracted the srpm to recreate the el6 config, the el6 srpm can be downloaded from http://ftp.redhat.com/redhat/linux/enterprise/6Workstation/en/os/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.32-131.0.15.el6.src.rpm)

How to install

To install

sudo dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.39.2-core2swiftr1_14.00_amd64.deb linux-headers-2.6.39.2-core2swiftr1_14.00_amd64.deb

followed by (these steps update-initramfs and update-grub are not required for mint10 or maverick, these were required when using Ubuntu Lucid)

sudo update-initramfs -c -k 2.6.39.2-core2swiftr1

and final step of

sudo update-grub

before rebooting and reboot into the newly installed kernel from grub

How to build yourself

follow my blog on how to build kernel in ten steps at


Kernel Source

I downloaded the kernel source tarball from kernel.org

Version: 2.6.39.2




MD5SUMS

ef7057e2b1a8360b65b03d466717f03d  CONFIGCORE2SWIFT
d251443277136b7abe068be67cd80919  linux-headers-2.6.39.2-core2swiftr1_14.00_amd64.deb
cb0f41f5fd917aca6302f7aa15118574  linux-image-2.6.39.2-core2swiftr1_14.00_amd64.deb
69e62dca4c4010286ef162a283ceb767  Readme.odt
7feb5c9bec7c58c60ae861e2feea2600  Readme.pdf




SHA256SUMS

c4f885c39f1c8673fa1a5b063e032a40f340c1e31e47560a5c9040ca333f1ed6  CONFIGCORE2SWIFT
688f8cc1dc9af82c524726db3d89eabc566cec6cc43365bdbedf8bc83f4efcab  linux-headers-2.6.39.2-core2swiftr1_14.00_amd64.deb
762247860f2c801817e728be39a6ad528bd3ee16cbfd0ba749a855e1a3312b17  linux-image-2.6.39.2-core2swiftr1_14.00_amd64.deb
1a2f411d591f546b4e8f41d199e1077872fe02e08024ab6aa5aa04868996b49a  Readme.odt
55c6f2c7e322386336ae1bda5151fa0fb49983e8e6613b3a18a2577bab1db33f  Readme.pdf



Dropbox Links

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22900905/MyKernelBuilds/2.6.39.2-core2swift/CONFIGCORE2SWIFT
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22900905/MyKernelBuilds/2.6.39.2-core2swift/linux-headers-2.6.39.2-core2swiftr1_14.00_amd64.deb
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22900905/MyKernelBuilds/2.6.39.2-core2swift/linux-image-2.6.39.2-core2swiftr1_14.00_amd64.deb
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22900905/MyKernelBuilds/2.6.39.2-core2swift/Readme.odt
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22900905/MyKernelBuilds/2.6.39.2-core2swift/Readme.pdf

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Custom kernel 2.6.39.1 ubuntu amd64 packages optimized for core2 and above


This package is created in Ubuntu 11.04 and should install fine in all versions of Ubuntu Linux 11.04 (as well 10.10) and Linux Mint 11 (as well Mint 10) (should as well in debian squeeze but not sure about dkms)

The build is for 64bit core2 and above processors

The following are the configuration settings

  1. Kernel Timer Frequency set to 1000 HZ
  2. Processor is selected as CORE2
  3. main Makefile modified to use -Ofast of gcc 4.6
    see below for the changes
    HOSTCFLAGS   = -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -Ofast -fomit-frame-pointer



    HOSTCXXFLAGS = -Ofast


    ifdef CONFIG_CC_OPTIMIZE_FOR_SIZE
    KBUILD_CFLAGS   += -Os
    else
    KBUILD_CFLAGS   += -Ofast
    endif




  4. Makefile and Makefile_32 modified to reflect march settings and mtune settings to core2 (new arch of gcc 4.6)
  5. Scheduled autogroup enabled
  6. Transparent hugepage support enabled
  7. Copied kernel source to /usr/src and built from /usr/src folder 
  8. Used enterprise linux kernel config as the base config and the kernel mostly seems to have no kernel debug prints because of it. Hence it runs considerably faster than stock Ubuntu kernel (well we can feel it) (I extracted the srpm to recreate the el6 config, the el6 srpm can be downloaded from http://ftp.redhat.com/redhat/linux/enterprise/6Workstation/en/os/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.32-131.0.15.el6.src.rpm)

How to install

To install

sudo dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.39.1-core2swift_14.00_amd64.deb linux-headers-2.6.39.1-core2swift_14.00_amd64.deb

followed by (these steps update-initramfs and update-grub are not required for mint10 or maverick, these were required when using Ubuntu Lucid)

sudo update-initramfs -c -k 2.6.39.1-core2swift

and final step of

sudo update-grub

before rebooting.

To test reboot into the newly installed kernel from grub

How to build yourself

follow my blog on how to build kernel in ten steps at


Kernel Source

I downloaded the kernel source tarball from kernel.org

Version: 2.6.39.1


Dropbox Download Links

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22900905/MyKernelBuilds/2.6.39.1-core2swift/CONFIG-CORE2SWIFT
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22900905/MyKernelBuilds/2.6.39.1-core2swift/linux-headers-2.6.39.1-core2swift_14.00_amd64.deb
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22900905/MyKernelBuilds/2.6.39.1-core2swift/linux-image-2.6.39.1-core2swift_14.00_amd64.deb
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22900905/MyKernelBuilds/2.6.39.1-core2swift/Readme.odt
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22900905/MyKernelBuilds/2.6.39.1-core2swift/Readme.pdf


SHA256SUMS


ebeb774d9b1037e9c1aee2da37f4a3f077a59fa7ae4fb8b546eeed725a5e3791  CONFIG-CORE2SWIFT
34f226618e52b4adebc27cec189042ab7504e4e77bd1c89ea11445e41da27096  Readme.odt
9144b147265d423cffbf115c4627b3e717eb1a3c761d1f7d66bda5ec9aa03e5b  Readme.pdf
cdcd06167cd6a2a88f5a58c4d2f3eda597d278116dbf6632b0ed8264d8112041  linux-headers-2.6.39.1-core2swift_14.00_amd64.deb
c99827ddd927d65dd30704f3bf8168f4032917012ffe5dff666a3c25eb7ddce9  linux-image-2.6.39.1-core2swift_14.00_amd64.deb


MD5SUMS


d02d52d124f4e876f4805cc36d55cf3d  CONFIG-CORE2SWIFT
6eadb25e6ea652445a7c8c6721407b87  Readme.odt
4c769e74062a2a185840a464ee36af2a  Readme.pdf
fdec875cc4b03278668126b73f109015  linux-headers-2.6.39.1-core2swift_14.00_amd64.deb
a12b39f6de8e2f2448b9e6c9e7413d56  linux-image-2.6.39.1-core2swift_14.00_amd64.deb

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Google chromium 12 is nearly twice as fast as Firefox 5 in v8 benchmarks

Ubuntu update manager offered me to upgrade to Firefox 5.0


I was curious and upgraded, ran v8 benchmark to see what has improved

Google chromium 12 is nearly twice as fast as Firefox 5 in v8 benchmarks



Firefox 5.0 adds a do not track feature which is one of exciting new features


Friday, June 10, 2011

Custom kernel 2.6.39.1 ubuntu amd64 packages optimized for i3, i5 and i7


This package is created in Ubuntu 11.04 and should install fine in all versions of Ubuntu Linux 11.04 (as well 10.10) and Linux Mint 11 (as well Mint 10) (should as well in debian squeeze but not sure about dkms)

The build is for 64bit i3,i5 and i7 processors and will work with only with i3, i5, or i7 processors

The following are the configuration settings

  1. Kernel Timer Frequency set to 1000 HZ
  2. Processor is selected as CORE2
  3. Makefile and Makefile_32 modified to reflect march settings and mtune settings to corei7 (new arch of gcc 4.6)
  4. Scheduled autogroup enabled
  5. Transparent hugepage support enabled
  6. Copied kernel source to /usr/src and built from /usr/src folder to avoid symlink issues with the built packages (actually when built from /home/sankaran, the built binary will have symlinks to /home/sankaran which is ludicrous)
  7. Used enterprise linux kernel config as the base config and the kernel mostly seems to have no kernel debug prints because of it. Hence it runs considerably faster than stock Ubuntu kernel (well we can feel it) (I extracted the srpm to recreate the el6 config, the el6 srpm can be downloaded from http://ftp.redhat.com/redhat/linux/enterprise/6Workstation/en/os/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.32-131.0.15.el6.src.rpm)
    Also I enabled transparent hugepages in the kernel config which I added in the newly created config(which was not there in the el6 config by default)

How to install

To install

sudo dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.39.1-corei7_14.00_amd64.deb linux-headers-2.6.39.1-corei7_14.00_amd64.deb

followed by (these steps update-initramfs and update-grub are not required for mint10 or maverick, these were required when using Ubuntu Lucid)

sudo update-initramfs -c -k 2.6.39.1-corei7

and final step of

sudo update-grub

before rebooting and reboot into the newly installed kernel from grub

How to build yourself

follow my blog on how to build kernel in ten steps at


Kernel Source

I downloaded the kernel source tarball from kernel.org

Version: 2.6.39.1

MD5SUMS


a49241f9031cde9edcf11944834f42ad  linux-headers-2.6.39.1-corei7_14.00_amd64.deb
7a737e291d424c7a150e77288d9bece5  linux-image-2.6.39.1-corei7_14.00_amd64.deb
843da30b6058a34d25457cc559b9fba5  Readme.odt
2fd411e9be96b2ecc69f0fbc3d590b99  Readme.pdf
ddb62c9453000f5dd617d97a37f1f353  CONFIG-EL6-UBUNTU

SHA256SUMS


7582e0b6b54d705ac2250daa1ca145d719dddf3e1834c11d37d949098ed7d808  linux-headers-2.6.39.1-corei7_14.00_amd64.deb
6c4ec5432fc850e1d5365a00c896a35d1e11cdd296e8dee373d6b4814a113bdb  linux-image-2.6.39.1-corei7_14.00_amd64.deb
3d8174e91f95503d2c3b6ffc89c91f96cffad715ffcd481227153acf57c9ad44  Readme.odt
1035eb068a70b2c1c32ba279535841a553341ad8910685cb4d4effe9ec302bcb  Readme.pdf
dceeb9d0f561266d7dba314e40054662834ec8056683e54a09accad9c4d0beaa  CONFIG-EL6-UBUNTU

My Personal Experience
With this kernel built with corei7 optimized I see Ubuntu booting in 7 to 9 seconds. corei7 is a new march added from gcc 4.6





I installed gcc 4.6 from ubuntu toolchain test ppa. If you want gcc 4.6 in Ubuntu 11.04 follow this

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
sudo apt-get update


followed by upgrading gcc/g++/binutil packages from synaptic or update manager

With stock Ubuntu 11.04 it used to take 17 to 20 seconds. Also available RAM is more since I built with EL6 as base config.