[gentoo-amd64] Re: Re: kernel config file for A8N-SLI Premium

[Duncan]

Steve Herber posted <Pine.LNX.4.64.0603141009540.17364@×××××.com>,
excerpted below,  on Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:37:12 -0800:

> I am doing all the things you mentioned.  But because you spent some
> time to help me I realized I should do a bit more work.  I checked
> bugzilla and discovered this:
>
> http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=105978
>
> Commenting out /etc/conf.d/ntpd.conf -u ntp:ntp and now it works.
>
> Can't wait for that bug to get fixed.
>
> Now if I could just get a new kernel to boot.

Hmm... yes.  I remember needing LinuxCaps for either BIND/named or ntpd.
However, that was back several years ago on Mandrake that I discovered
that.  Now, I just make a note to myself to include it, and both work.

IIRC it was BIND, and it did have a more sensible error.  That ntp doesn't
have such an error might be explained by the note in the bug that its
handling of running as a user has changed over the years.

Anyway, I have that in my kernel here and can confirm it works as
expected, so hopefully that's the issue.

As for the kernel, I've been configuring mine manually for years.  In
fact, I didn't consider that  I had learned Linux until I was doing so. 
Within the first three months of running Linux, I learned three major
customizations:  How to configure LILO to do what I wanted (I wanted it to
switch BIOS boot order drives around to a different order), how to
configure then XF86Config for triple monitors on dual cards with two
separate drivers enabling Xinerama, and how to configure and compile a
kernel on my own, rather than using the distro supplied one.  I learned
all that before I even dealt with choosing what apps I was going to use
for stuff like mail, so I was rebooting too MSWormOS to use OE to check
mail and news, and at first, to use IE to browse the web, as well.  Rather
steeper learning curve than most, but I was an MSWormOS power user at the
time (to the point that some folks were shocked it was MSWormOS I was
running, when they saw it, as it was almost unrecognizable, I had it
customized so much), and realized that I'd never stick with Linux unless I
could get it to work equally well with my style. I knew what I wanted,
knew how to get it on MSWormOS, knew Linux was more configurable than
MSWormOS, and wasn't going to settle for half-way.  It was either learn
how to do it, or learn the specific reason why it wouldn't work as I
wanted, and I learned how to do it.

Anyway... once you go thru each option and decide whether it's something
you need or not, then compile and try to run the kernel, reboot to
what you had if it won't run and try again, then do that several times
until you have a kernel that works on your hardware with the features you
want... once you do that... it's not hard to do it again.  That was back
on x86.  When I switched motherboards and CPUs and architectures and went
SMP all at once, to dual Opteron, I went thru the same process, but having
done it once, I already knew what most of those options were, and IIRC it
booted the second try, tho I had to tweak a couple options to get stuff
like the real-time-clock working on the third, and didn't setup the more
complicated lm_sensors stuff until later.

Of course, it also helps to do your research before getting the mobo,
choosing one that has good chipset documentation and where the
manufacturer is relatively Linux friendly, as was/is the case with Tyan,
my choice for dual Opteron mobo supplier.  The board was certified to
support Red Hat, SuSE, and TurboLinux, out of the box, and Tyan had pretty
good Linux FAQ on the board and even an lm_sensors.conf downloadable from
their support site, which helped when I decided to get that up and running
and needed to know which sensor chips to configure support for in the
kernel.

The point is, yes, it takes a day or two of hard work going thru all those
options manually, but once you do, you get a feel for how the kernel is
laid out and organized, and it's not difficult to find any option you
want, or to configure a new mobo the same way, as you already know what
all the options mean (to some extent) or at least have an educated guess
on whether they apply to any new mobo you might get or not.  It's  only
hard the first time.  After that, it's much easier, and that's knowledge
that no one can take away from you, certainly not a distro, by providing
for failing to provide tools that work or don't work, but that you won't
have to rely on anyway, because you'll know how to do it using the
kernel's own native config system.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman in
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html


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