From the buildmaster's main status web page, you can force a build to be run on
your build slave if you set the proper authorization options in your
master.cfg file see WebStatus Configuration Parameters.
Figure out which column is for a builder that runs on your slave, click on that
builder's name, and the page that comes up will have a "Force Build" button.
Fill in the form, hit the button, and a moment later you should see your
slave's twistd.log filling with commands being run. Using pstree
or top should also reveal the cvs/make/gcc/etc processes being run by
the buildslave. Note that the same web page should also show the admin
and host information files that you configured earlier.