*BSD News Article 89825


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From: seth_leigh@dtint.com (Seth Leigh)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: FreeBSD slower than Linux ?
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 16:31:39 -0800
Organization: Digital Technology International, Inc.
Lines: 58
Message-ID: <seth_leigh-2102971631400001@s_leigh.dtint.com>
References: <dkleinh.854654600@isotope.ps.uci.edu> <5crh6q$44j@synge.maths.tcd.ie> <5d830v$4bf@secmon.sarnoff.com> <5d85t9$ipd@helena.MT.net> <5dapv0$d09@cleon.cc.gatech.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: itchy.itsnet.com
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:35890

I didn't know anything about this until I read some articles in this thread.

I went into the msun directory (wherever the heck it is, I don't remember
offhand, and I am still very new to this whole system) and remade the math
library in there (was it libm.a ?  I forget.).  I also rebuilt my kernel
using -O3 for optomizations, and have HAVE_FPU=TRUE in the make.conf file,
and I made sure the new math library and kernel were installed.  I
rebooted, and ran the bytebench benchmark, and none of the values really
changed at all, just the normal small run-to-run variations.  Is there
more that I should be doing?  I wouldn't mind having optomization jacked
all the way to the max on my kernel and any libraries my programs use. 
Not that my system isn't already fast enough... But hey, if I can do it, I
want to.

When you guys mention "math libraries" in the plural, which libraries are
you talking about?  I only rebuilt one math library this way.  Perhaps
Bytebench didn't make any calls to this library, which is why the numbers
didn't change.

Is there some way I can rebuild all the commands as well?  I don't think
anything will really be much faster on my machine (Cyrix P166+ text only
(no X Windows installed)), but hey, I am going to upgrade from 2.2-BETA_A
to 2.2-RELEASE when it comes out, so it would be fun to play around with
this for a few weeks and see what happens.

I am not a unix guru, so I don't know where to expect all these libraries
to be, or what libraries there are, etc., so please forgive the
ignorance.  Hey, there's no way to learn faster than jumping in with both
feet, and since I built this box I have been doing just that.  Thanks for
all of you unix gurus who help folks like me out.

Thanks,
Seth

In article <5dapv0$d09@cleon.cc.gatech.edu>, viren@cc.gatech.edu (Viren R.
Shah) wrote:
[cut]
> Hmm..maybe we could make it more obvious/easier to get the math libraries:
> 1. Put it in the install docs.
> 2. Make a package of some sort?
> 
> I don't think it's all that obvious that the libraries need to be recompiled
> if you have a FPU, and I wonder how many FreeBSD users know about it, and 
> how many actually do it.
> 
> >Nate
> 
> Viren
> -- 
> Viren Shah ++ viren@cc.gatech.edu ++ (404)881-8563 [H] ++ (404)894-4650 [W]
>      ======     FreeBSD: It's free, it's fast, it's fun.     ======
>         "3 syncs represent the trinity - init, the child and the
>              eternal zombie process."  -- Jordan Hubbard

-- 
J. Seth Leigh                          seth_leigh@dtint.com
Digital Technology Int.               (801)226-2984
500 W. 1200 South, Orem UT, 84057     FAX (801) 226-8438