LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] How do you test a Linux Kernel?

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How do you test a Linux Kernel?

I read a note of Linus Thorvalds for Linux 3.17 rc6. The note ends with:

Quote:

Nothing particular stands out, and I'm not aware of any big pending
issues either. So please go out and test, because this *should* all be
pretty close to release.

My newbie question is: how do you test a Linux Kernel? Do you install it next to the kernel you already use and then test it in user space? Or can you test it in other ways?

If all my peripheral hardware works. I have a lot of different hardware.
My CPU does not start hammering.
All my ram gets recognized.
No smoke starts coming out of my hardware.
My boot does not hang waiting for something to find something.

These are all kinds of things I do when testing kernels that the main developer on the distro team I belong to releases a new
kernel for us to test. The last 2 would not complete booting up. Kernel Panic.

Like I said. I have a lot of different hardware.
I'd like to test the 3.17 kernel on my Chromebook just to see if the scuttlebutt on it supporting Chromebook touchpads is true or not. But I am not running a Linux distro on it yet.

I always keep a good kernel on hand in case the testing kernel is fubar.

Okay, I understand it now. Thank you, rokytnji.