Hi Arne, hi all, Am Donnerstag, dem 11.12.2025 um 13:00 +0100 schrieb Arne Fitzenreiter: > Hi, > > i have compiled a first test kernel 6.18 for x86_64. > > https://people.ipfire.org/~arne_f/highly-experimental/kernel/ > > please help testing and report your findings... > > Arne
I have been running kernel-6.18.1-ipfire.x86_64 for over a day now on real (quite old) hardware and everything is working perfectly so far. Hardware: - SECO 0949 motherboard - Intel Atom N2600 @ 1.6 GHz (4 threads), 2 GB RAM - 2× Realtek RTL8111/8168 (r8169 driver) – green0 and red0 at 100 Mbps - USB Wi-Fi: Ralink RT5572 (rt2800usb) – blue0 - Crucial BX500 240 GB SSD Installation as described in the README (with fixed typo) went smoothly. dracut correctly included the initqueue module, and grub- mkconfig placed the new kernel at the top. Tested (all working flawlessly): - Normal boot (multiple reboots) - Web interface - Internet access via RED - Clients browsing normally behind GREEN and BLUE (Wi-Fi stable) - OpenVPN tunnel (tun0) starts, routes are set - WireGuard interface (wg0) present - No kernel errors/warnings in dmesg - System stable for 18+ hours, normal RAM usage, no swap Additional stress tests: - CPU stress (stress --cpu 4 for ~15 minutes): - Load average ~4.0–4.3 (100% on all threads) - CPU frequency stable at 1596 MHz (no throttling) - Temperatures max. 56°C (Core 1) / 55°C (zone) – safe and cooled down quickly - No kernel errors - Network tests: - LAN TCP (client to IPFire green0): stable 94 Mbits/sec (full link speed) - LAN UDP overload: ~60 Mbits/sec with only 4.4% loss (expected on 100 Mbps link) - Local loopback TCP (4 parallel streams): ~2.71 Gbits/sec aggregate - Local loopback UDP: 25.3 Mbits/sec with 0% loss - No packet errors on r8169 interfaces (ethtool -S shows all error counters at 0) - No drops in /proc/net/softnet_stat Conclusion: On this older low-power hardware, kernel 6.18.1 runs absolutely stable with no noticeable regressions – network performance is excellent and the system handles both CPU and network load very well. I will keep it running as my daily driver and report if anything changes. Many thanks for the test builds, Arne – great work! Best, Erik
