BurnInTest For Linux Version 2 Beta Release

[Tim (PassMark)]

The beta for the next major version of BurnInTest for Linux is now available to download from,

http://www.passmark.com/ftp/burnintest2.0Beta-c.tar.gz
OR as a tar/zipped
http://www.passmark.com/ftp/burnintest2.0Beta-c.zip

Major New Features

• 32-bit and 64-bit versions of both the GUI and CLI in the one download. Previously a graphic user interface was only available to customers using the 32-bit version of BurnInTest for Linux. Now customers may use either the graphic user interface version or the command like version in both 32-bit and 64-bit Linux environments.
• USB port testing has been added. This allows our Linux customers the opportunity (like our BurnInTest Professional for Windows customers) to check the integrity of one the most important communications ports used by modern PCs. With the increasing reliance on USB for keyboards/mouses, external hard drives and other external devices (e.g. printers and scanners) the need to check that all of a computer's USB ports are functioning correctly is critical. Testing will require USB2.0 Loopback Plugs such as those sold by PassMark.
• Scripting support has been added. Scripting enables our Linux customers to integrate BurnInTest for Linux into their existing test procedures and help with test automation. Scripts can be written instructing the application as to when it should run; what tests and how many iterations should be run; and what the program should do once it has finished stress-testing (e.g. launch a different application, run a report).
• Hard Disks / USB memory sticks with no partition can now be tested using the disk test. An expansion of the hard disk drive testing requested by many customers, this will negate the need to partition drives before stress-testing. This will not only reduce the time needed to test computer systems (particularly assembly production of new PCs), it will also enable PC Vendors to offer 'fresh' systems to customers that prefer not to have their hard drives pre-partitioned.
• Network Test can now force network traffic over each network card in the system (up to 6). Previously it was not possible to bind the test to a particular NIC which meant that it wasn't really possible to test just one out of several NICs that may have been installed. The ability to bind the test to a nominated NIC (or NICs) saves time and increases efficiency.
• Significantly improved the memory test execution speed without any reduction in the thoroughness of the testing. This will save time and increase productivity, particularly for those customers that use BurnInTest for Linux in their assembly process.

Free Upgrades

When BurnInTest for Linux 2.0 is released commercially, upgrades to version 2 will be offered free to our current BurnInTest Linux customers.


Current Beta Release Notes

Converted help file to browser based html format
Added support for reiserfs and XFS in disk test (previously these were being ignored) and ext4
Added -F font size command line parameter
Added -D duration (minutes) command line parameter
Added -X duration (cycles) command line parameter
Added -S script command line paramter
Added -p command line parameter to cmd line version, allows update interval to be set
Added command line parameters to command line version to match
Added USB2 loopback test for use with Passmark USB plugs

Added scripting
- In command line version use command line flag
- GUI version new menu item under Test menu

Memory Test
- Improved memory test execution speed significantly
- Added option for memory test to select test pattern

Disk Test:
- Added ability to test hard disks that are un-partitioned (Raw hard disk test)
- Changed disk test window design, added total drive capacity
- Changed references of MBytes to MB
- Added ability to display GB instead of MB when a drive is greater than 1 GB
- Tweaked hard disk duty cycle effect so effect is more linear, decreasing by a small amount
from 100 will no longer result in a drastic cut to the speed of the test

Network Test:
- Increases number of test IP slots to 6
- Added option "Test All NICs" to bind each network card to an entered IP
- Tweaked network duty cycle effect so effect is more linear, decreasing by a small amount
from 100 will no longer result in a drastic cut to the speed of the test
- Changed MB sent/received to packets to give a clearer picture of how many packets are being
sent/received
- Changed flow rate MB/S to packets/s
- Network test name will now include which eth device is being tested

Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug where tests could not automatically stop after a certain set amount of cycles
when running the CPU test on multi core cpus
- Fixed a bug with network test errors not displaying correctly
- Fixed a bug with the 2D graphics test where the total operations count was incorrect and
being inflated each cycle resulting in a higher operations count than there actually were
- Fixed a bug with command line version of disk test when testing multiple devices if the
underlying device block size differed the available and total space counts could be
calculated wrong and could lead to the disk test causing a "Device Full" error rather
than detecting when the device was running out of space and cleaning up files

Update: The official release of BurnInTest for Linux V2 has now taken place (19/Nov/200.

[schveiguy]

In the 32-bit command line version, setting the ActionOnError to Stop does not stop the test (this bug seems to exist in the 1.0 version also). I need this functionality in my automated test development...

Below is my config file (without comments)

<Logging>

LogFilename /tmp/

LogPrefix BiTLog2
Format Ascii
LogDetailLevel normal
TraceLevel 0
MaxFileLines 1000
LogMode ClearNew

</Logging>

<DutyCycles>
AutoStopMinutes 0
AutoStopCycles 0
CPU 50
CDDVD 0
Memory 50
Serial 50
Parallel 0
Disk 50
Network 50
</DutyCycles>

<Memory>
TestMemory
</Memory>

<Disk>

<Test>
Device /dev/sda
TestMode Cyclic
FileSize 1
</Test>
</Disk>

<CPU>
MathIntTest
MathFloatTest
</CPU>

<Network>

IP 192.168.1.1

BadPacketRatio 2
TimeOut 2000
</Network>

<Serial>

<Test>
Device ttys0
TestMode Loopback
</Test>

SendReceive 3500
BaudRate 9600
</Serial>

<Errors>
ActionOnError Stop
</Errors>

[Tim (PassMark)]

Thanks for reporting this, i've been able to reproduce it so there should be a new build available soon.

[Tim (PassMark)]

A new build of the beta version is now available;

http://www.passmark.com/ftp/burnintest2.0Beta-b.tar.gz
OR as a tar/zipped
http://www.passmark.com/ftp/burnintest2.0Beta-b.zip

The USB test should display which bus + port the plug is connected to and should be more stable, especially on Fedora 9. The command line "On error" options should now be working correctly.

[schveiguy]

Tim,

Thanks for the update, I verified that the new version does indeed stop on error.

One more request, and it's not really a bug, but it would make my life easier.

Could the program return an error code when it stops because of an error? With the windows version, there was an option to run a program on failure when stopping, and I used that to determine error status. Under linux I have to write an awk script to parse the log file for CRITICAL or SERIOUS, but it would be much much easier if the passmark process itself just returned 0 to indicate success or non-zero to indicate failure.

This isn't a blocker for me, but it would be much simpler to use, and probably less error prone.

Thanks,
-Steve

[Tim (PassMark)]

We'll add different exit codes based on pass/fail for the next release.

[allens]

Advanced Net end marker

I have just tried V2 beta and although the tests pass with the Green Passed screen I get an "Advanced Net end marker" as the last test result every time:
Cycles:0 Operations:0 Result: FAIL Errors:1024 Last Error (blank)
So, it logs "Test RESULT FAILED" in red underneath.
Just to repeat, I get this failed log while the green passed screen is flashing at me.

Also, on this and the current released version the logging option of "Clear test results and create new (or overwrite existing) log file" is not working for me. Each time I rerun the test I get all the previous Result Summaries ( CPU, Memory, 2D graphics" etc.

Finally, any plans to add a sound test.

Regards,

Steve

[rangans]

Full Speed and High Speed

Are both Full Speed and High Speed supported. I only see 5.5 Mbps in the test I am running on a 32-bit Ubuntu laptop. Is there a specific setting I need to enable. Thanks.

[Tim (PassMark)]

For the USB plugs:

Yes they are both supported, the USB2 plugs will connect at the highest speed available on the port and will drop from high speed to full speed if it needs to. However as it's a loopback test, we send the data, wait for it to return then error check it.

Due to the idle time in the testing for each plug the speeds won't be that of the maximum USB2 limit, we'll look into increasing the loopback test speed where possible and eventually porting the benchmark part of the test so the max speed can be reached.

Logging Errors:

Thanks for reporting this we'll look into what's causing it, which tests were you running at the time?

Sound Test:

We have had plans to add a sound test but adding the USB test took precedence. It won't make it into the 2.0 release but it's something we'll keep in mind for a point release in the future.

[allens]

Hello Tim,
Thanks for the quick reply.
I was testing CPU-Maths, memory, 2D Graphics, 3D Graphics, Network eth0 128.0.0.1, CD/DVD: CD/DVD

I have experimented by removing the network test (as the "Advanced Net end marker" sounded likely) but still this became the "last test run".

How do I enclose the BIT_log.htm here as an image:
Here is the html :

 RESULT SUMMARYTest Start timeTue Sep 23 03:03:43 2008 Test Stop timeTue Sep 23 03:04:44 2008 Test Duration000h 01m 01s TestCyclesOperationsResultErrorsLast ErrorCPU - Maths12 2.899 Billion PASS0 No errorsMemory (RAM)2 320 Million PASS0 No errors2D Graphics14 69870 PASS0 No errors3D Graphics2 4.475 Million PASS0 No errorsAdvanced Net end marker0 0 FAIL1024 TEST RUN FAILED

If you picture this in html and at the same time understand that I am looking at the flashing green PASSED screen, you will have the full picture.
Advanced Net end marker 0 0 FAIL 1024
TEST RUN FAILED

I will try individual tests to see if the error goes away and will let you know.

Regards,

Steve

[rangans]

Advanced Net Marker error

I am receiving the exact same error at the end of the log file when I ran the above mentioned USB loopback test ( only this test was enabled). The GUI did report that the test passed. But when I saved the log file and opened it I saw this error at the end.

**************
RESULT SUMMARY
**************
Test Start time: Mon Sep 22 15:57:12 2008
Test Stop time: Mon Sep 22 16:12:15 2008
Test Duration: 000h 15m 03s

Test Name Cycles Operations Result Errors Last Error
USB Plug 1 77 635 Million PASS 0 No errors
USB End Marker 0 0 PASS 0 No errors
Advanced Net end marker 0 0 FAIL 1280
TEST RUN FAILED

[Tim (PassMark)]

Thanks for the extra info, we've been able to reproduce it now so it will be fixed for the next release.

[Tim (PassMark)]

The newest build is now available;

http://www.passmark.com/ftp/burnintest2.0Beta-c.tar.gz
OR as a tar/zipped
http://www.passmark.com/ftp/burnintest2.0Beta-c.zip

Command line version should return error codes based on execution (0 on success, 1 on error, 2 on program related error like incorrect command line parameter).

The report Logging problems should be fixed and no longer display extra lines.

2D Graphics test window has changed slightly, the number of lines, shapes and squares are now displayed separately each time their particular section of the the test is being run.

[allens]

Hello Tim.

Thanks for the update.
The "Advanaced net end marker" has been removed but I am still unable to get the log option to "clear logs" to work.
In Preferences, I select

Clear test results and create new (or overwrite existing) log file

I then run the test, stop the test and start the tests again, I find my Bit_log.htm has both sets of test results displayed, the orginal block then the second block.
A block being, say, Cpu - Maths, Memory (RAM), 2D Graphics, 3D Graphics etc.

Also, could you give some info on how to use the raw hdd test.

Added ability to test hard disks that are un-partitioned (Raw hard disk test)

I wiped a drive and then ran the test. I get "File system not mounted" error on say hda. Have I mis-understood the definition of a raw disk or is there a method of mounting a raw disk? I am still new to linux!
I am attempting to run the test on a drive designated "Media: (/media/hda) [/dev/hda]. I would normally run it on a mounted partition eg hda1 etc

Regards,

Steve

[Tim (PassMark)]

We'll look into the logging a bit more.

The raw test is for disks that have no partition information, so BurnInTest will try to detect whether the connected drive contains any partitions and should flag it as a raw disk if it doesn't.

It's possible the beta version isn't correctly identifying it as raw disk (it shouldn't be flagged as media unless described as such in the fstab), could you please send me a copy of the burnintest config file and your fstab and mtab files to timr [at] passmark [dot] com. Could you also please create a debug log using the -d command line option and send me the file.

Also the information presented in /dev is used so if you have just deleted the partitions you might need to reboot as /dev might not have updated.