Date:	Wed, 14 Apr 1999 21:50:38 -0400
From:	Doug Ledford <dledford@redhat.com>
To:	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu>
Subject: Request For Tests

In different cases in the past, various groups on this list have
discussed the technical merits of generating some sort of test suite for
the linux kernel.  The idea has typically been to cover the entire
kernel in both the hardware support areas (aka, does this hardware work
under the linux kernel) and the kernel's ABI level compatibility (aka,
does the kernel provide socket/file/whatever services to userland as it
should).

Recently, there has been interest in putting together a suite of test
programs to perform rudimentary hardware testing under linux.  To this
end, the kernel's ABI level compatibility is not important, only the
actual hardware support portion is important.  Discussions on this issue
were started at Linux World Expo earlier this year.  Since then, the
talks have continued in the form of phone meetings and a mailing list on
the subject.

One of the results of these talks has been that Barry Reinhold, Director
of the UNH InterOperability Lab (http://www.iol.unh.edu) has volunteered
to provide a hardware vendor neutral, linux distributor neutral area as
a repository of linux hardware test programs.

What we would like to see this site become is a source of freely
available testing pieces that can be used to test specific portions of
linux hardware compatibility.  That means that it may contain program X
that tests the multicast portion of a network card, and program Y that
tests the interrupt stress handling of a network card driver.  People
could then use combinations of tests to provide suites (aka, test x + y
+ z will work all functional items of the typical network card under
linux).  Smaller suites (network card test suite, CD-ROM/CD-R/DVD test
suite, Video test suite) could then be combined to get a Complete System
Test Suite.

So we are currently in the beginning stages of this product.  I have my
own personal set of tests that I normally perform, but like many of the
tests in the linux community, my tests are primarily non-tests that I
know happen to break things :)  We are looking to see if anyone out
there knows of or has any of the various component level tests that I've
mentioned.  We would prefer not to duplicate work were it isn't
neccesary, and would like to add any of those tests into this repository
where they could be used by anyone needing to verify that their hardware
works with linux.

If you have any particular tests that you would like to see used in this
fashion, or would like to be a part of the group that is trying to pull
this together, please send me an email.

Thanks :)

-- 
  Doug Ledford   <dledford@redhat.com>
   Opinions expressed are my own, but
      they should be everybody's.

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