REVIEWS Super and Underground Desktop BMW AG

High performance distributions Super and Underground Desktop BUILTBUILT FORFOR SPEEDSPEED

Experimental Linux distributions can take risks to reach for better per- formance. We investigated a pair of promising experimentals: Super ers provide higher performance by em- bracing technologies that are considered Linux and Underground Desktop. BY MARCEL HILZINGER too risky or too new for a mainstream enterprise product such as openSuse. Underground Desktop Linux takes a he beauty of Linux is that you This article examines a pair of promising different path to achieving high perfor- can shape it to do whatever you but relatively unknown Linux distribu- mance. Unlike many derivative distros, Twant it to do. Several distros tions built for speed. which are based on the code of main- focus on high performance. Of course, Super Linux is a Suse-based distro stream titans like , Suse, and Red there are always many paths to any solu- designed to serve as a testbed for new Hat, Underground Desktop comes from tion, and all the high performance Linux openSuse technologies. Super is essen- the high performing and minimalist Arch distributions take a slightly different ap- tially a faster and more bleeding-edge . Arch is specifically proach to delivering better performance. version of openSuse. The Super develop- optimized to deliver high performance

Figure 1: The text-based Underground Desktop installer just needs Figure 2: Before launching into the install, Underground Desktop dis- two partitions and the root password. plays an overview of critical parameters.

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on the i686 architecture, and Under- After booting from ground Desktop delivers the optimiza- the CD, a welcome tions of Arch to a friendlier desktop screen appears listing Linux environment. the individual steps We’ll show you what we found when (Figure 1). Click OK we took these high performing distros and select the disk for a test drive. where you will be in- stalling Underground Installing Super Linux Desktop. Click the Super [1] and Slick [2] started life as entry showing the separate projects. Both are based on size of the disk, and Suse Linux, and both aim to add features create a swap parti- that Suse does not officially support. As tion, and a root parti- there was a lot of overlap between the tion, as a minimum two projects, the developers recently de- requirement. Choose cided to focus their energy on a single type 82 for the swap project. partition, and type 83 If you are interested in replacing your for the root partition. Suse Linux with Super Linux, you can When you are done, Figure 3: Underground Desktop’s GUI-based , download one of the three ISO images quit the menu, and Guzuta. from [3]. super-open-SUSE-final- then press DONE>> 20051003- standard-minimal.iso com- to continue. In our lab, Underground machine’s hardware correctly. The prises the basic system without a GUI. Desktop could not handle existing parti- screen resolution was set to 1024x768 in- The super-openSUSE-final-20051003- tions and displayed the following error: stead of the optimum 1280x1024, and it standard-.iso and super-open-SUSE- was impossible to enable 3D accelera- final-20051003-standard-.iso im- /bin/setup: 473: Syntax error:U tion support for the ATI card. ages are feature-rich CD images with the 5245191 32098/1000000 KDE or Gnome desktop. Check the “Ac- Finishing Touches celerating Suse” box for more informa- After we deleted two partitions and re- Underground Desktop and Super both tion on converting an installed Suse booted, the cfdisk tool performed as ex- displayed the graphical KDE login screen Linux version to Super-Suse. The Super pected. If you prefer to format an exist- after the install. The Super desktop installation is not much different from a ing partition, select DONE>>. looked neat and tidy and stuck to the standard Suse installation. Use the next two dialogs to specify the We notice two things in our lab: root partition and the swap area for Un- Accelerating Suse • Super opens port 22 for remote SSH derground Desktop. You can either select If you already have Suse Linux on your access by default. the partition you just created or choose machine, and you would like to enhance • Super disables automatic login via the to format an existing partition. Set the the current distribution with the Super K Display Manager by default. root password in the next dialog. Under- features, there is no need to reinstall. When you reboot, Super sets up the Pre- ground Desktop now displays an over- Just launch YaST and select the apt linker, which helps programs launch view screen (Figure 2) for the installa- package for installation. Then, working more quickly. To do so, the Prelinker tion. The whole procedure takes less as root, open the /etc/apt/sources.list file modifies all your binaries and libraries. than ten minutes. You can then log on as with your favorite editor and insert the following line: Depending on your CPU, this process root in the new KDE desktop. Under- can take up to 45 minutes. When fin- ground Desktop did not detect our lab rpm http://ftp4.gwdg.de/pub/U ished, you can log in to KDE or Gnome linux//apt SuSE/10.0-i386 U with your normal user name. Profile: Super/ Slick rpmkeys base java update extra U Target group: Power users with a fast suser-jengelh suser-guru U Underground Internet connection who are not afraid suser-jogley suser-agirardet U The Underground Desktop [4] install is of experimenting with a new Linux dis- text-based. Underground Desktop was tribution. Advanced Suse users who packman packman-i686 U formerly based on Debian and had a would prefer a leaner basic system. wine suse-people security graphical installer. The developer de- Special features: Three different ISO If you have worked with Debian or a cided to move to . Version versions available: A minimal ISO with a Debian derivative in the past, the next 020 is now based on Arch Linux “Noo- 290MB footprint but without a GUI desk- few steps en route to converting Suse to dle” and, just like Super Linux, it adds top, or a full 650MB ISO for KDE or Super-Suse should be familiar to you: Gnome. CK patches for improved multi- performance-tweaked CK patches to the apt-get update media support. kernel [5]. Underground Desktop uses apt-get install kernel Reiser4 for the root directory and the Not suitable for: First-time Linux users. apt-get dist-upgrade RC1 version of KDE 3.5. Users without an Internet connection.

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/etc/apt/sources. for the root directory in /etc/fstab. Inter- list. See the “Ac- estingly, the problem did not affect all of celerating Suse” our lab machines, and we are still work- box. Super does ing on discovering the cause. not have a GUI- Underground Desktop has a good se- based package lection of programs: Mplayer and manager for Apt. are both on board, and is pre- You can give the installed. System notifications are con- following com- figured, and Underground played audio mand: files out-of-the-box. Underground Desk- top performed well in our stress test, apt-get installU which involved burning a CD, compiling kynaptic a program, and playing MP3s at the same time. Figure 4: The KDE system monitor graphic showing regular CPU to install the Kyn- Admittedly, we did find the choice of peaks in Underground Desktop. aptic package programs for the basic system slightly manager. Follow- strange, as it lacked common packages Suse defaults. Underground Desktop ing this, even newcomers should have such as for remote access, or puts numerous icons on your desktop, no trouble installing packages. hdparm for hard-disk tuning. We were some of which can help you configure surprised that the distribution used the the system, but also including four Pros and Cons Lilo bootloader. Grub is far superior, es- games. Super and Underground Desktop are de- pecially on machines with multiple dis- We tested Internet access first. Super signed to be high-performance desktop tributions. gave us DHCP-based Internet access at distributions, although version 020 of We assume that the Underground de- first asking. Underground Desktop set up Underground is obviously intended as a velopers chose Lilo on account of Rei- a static IP address. But you can click the test version. However, we were a bit dis- ser4. Underground Desktop’s boot time Lan Setup icon on the desktop to switch appointed with the Underground’s enor- is fast – 35 seconds – but the system to DHCP. There are also ADSL and mous performance problems. DVD and failed to live up to the expectations we modem connection icons on the Under- video playback was jerky. Other pro- had for Reiser4. It remains to be seen if ground desktop. Underground does not grams did not launch as fast as we the Reiser4 bug has been eradicated by support ISDN. Sound and printing would have liked, and froze on occa- the time version 021 is released, and if worked out-of-the-box. sions. so, the next version will definitely be The GUI-based Underground Desktop Some research on our part exposed worth looking into. package manager, Guzuta (Figure 3), Reiser4 as the culprit. Reiser4 puts the There were no performance issues comes pre-configured. After launching machine into a split-second freeze while with Super/ Slick. Using Ext3 as its root the program and clicking on Refresh, you synchronizing the filesystem. The KDE filesystem, Super set a new boot record can install packages from the full range tools ksysguard diagram in Figure 4 of just 29 seconds. Super wasn’t fazed in of Arch repositories: Community, Cur- gives you a clear view of what is going the least by our stress test, which in- rent, Extra and Testing. pacman adds on. A workaround that does not actually volved burning a CD, compiling a pro- command-line package management remove the issue, but at least gives you gram, and playing a DVD at the same support. reasonable performance, is to stipulate time. The only niggle we had with Super Super involves more effort. Start by the noatime,nodiratime mount options was that the distribution is too similar to adding the required Apt repositories to Suse Linux to be really cool. On a more Reinstating Lilo positive note, the developers are working Profile: Underground If you try to replace the Lilo boot man- on a new version with a modified KDE. Desktop ager with Grub after installing Under- The new version should be available for Target group: Advanced users with ground Desktop, you may not be able to downloading by the time this issue hits broadband Internet connection. Debian access Underground Desktop at all, as the newsstand. ■ or Arch Linux experienced preferred, Grub does not support Reiser4. You can but not essential. use the rescue system from Suse 10.0 to INFO reinstate Lilo, however. To do so, boot Special features: Reiser4 as root direc- the rescue system, and then load the [1] Super: tory, current KDE 3.5 version. Jam- http:// www. . org/ SUPER Reiser4 module by entering modprobe packed with beta . Archck5 reiser4. Now mount the Underground [2] Slick: http:// www. opensuse. org/ SLICK patches for excellent multimedia perfor- Desktop root partition in a temporary di- [3] ISO Download: ftp:// opensuse. linux. mance. 600MB ISO. rectory. The command for /dev/hda7, for co. nz/ pub/ SUPER/ iso/ Not suitable for: Suse newbies who just example, is mount -t reiser4 /dev/hda7 / [4] Underground Desktop: want to try something new. Linux new- mnt. No set /mnt as the new root direc- http:// www. ludos. org/ Underground/ bies, or anyone with a nervous disposi- tory (chroot /mnt) and then give the lilo [5] Arch CK Packages: tion. command to reinstall Lilo. http:// iphitus. loudas. com/ archck. php

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