Linux/ia64: Kernel testing effort

[Frank Scheiner <frank.scheiner@xxxxxx>]

Hi there,

as I usually only write to this list to report problems for ia64, I
thought it might be a good idea to also report a success story here.
Also in order to drive away any doubts about ia64 being a working
architecture for Linux.

This also goes CC to Debian's and Gentoo's respective ia64 lists.

In the past quarter or so (v6.4-rc7 to v6.6-rc4) I
"Build-n-Boot-to-login" tested nearly every RC and release version of
Linux (13 versions tested in total) on my Itanium zoo of machines, which
includes:

* rx2620 (w/2 x Montecito)
* rx4640 (w/2 x Madison)
* 2 x rx2660 (w/2 x Montecito, w/1 x Montvale)
* rx6600 (w/4 x Montvale)
* rx2800 i2 (w/1 x Tukwila)

...spanning multiple generations of Itanium hardware. And during that
timeframe I didn't face any major problems that affected all machines
and broke ia64 as a whole for Linux.

In short: Linux for ia64 continues to work on real machines.

I expect to continue this testing effort for the time being. It should
uncover all breakages that affect the mentioned hardware and my used
configuration.

This testing effort for example uncovered a boot problem for the rx6600
(not reproducible on any of the other machines, happens with SMT on and
off), which is now bisected and worked upon. Expect to hear about that
sometime in the future. I don't consider it a showstopper, as it only
affects this one machine, though I assume it might also affect a rx3600
(Gentoo has one) as this one is pretty similar to the rx6600 hardware-wise.

All information gathered during testing is documented on a private
website for now. If you're interested, please contact me directly off-list.

Cheers,
Frank