So, how does it work? Boot the machine, configure and compile a kernel. The harder you want to test the machine, the more things to turn on (you don't have to ever run the kernel, just compile it). I usually do kernel compiles without Xwindows running. Nothing says you can't have X running, the kernel compile gets more processor time if you have less stuff running (and X is big, KDE and Gnome are outright). If you do this from an xterm in Gnome or KDE, it will just take forever, that's all.
If your machine is stable, it will make it all the way through. You can reasonably expect crashing is not due to hardware issues if it will compile the kernel.
If it fails (and it should do so spectacularly), note where it fails and try again. If you're using a stable kernel, it should fail in a different spot--if so, you've got hardware stability problems. If it fails in the same spot everytime (do more than two tests on this one), something in software is wrong (which means you likely did something wrong...).
One more tip: use
Code: Select all
make -j3 <target>
when compiling on your BP6 (the -j option tells make to split off multiple jobs, in this case 3 at time, to make use of parallel processing capabilities--you've got two processors, right?). Things will go faster, and you'll hit your system harder, as well as test the multiprocessing. You can also do this for a speed boost when compiling anything from source.
Jeff