Re: [gentoo-user] Re: kernel build - back in the soup.

[Mike Edenfield]

On 11/3/2009 11:10 PM, Harry Putnam wrote:
> hamilton<hamilton@×××××.com>  writes:

>> Just checking - but you didn't mention: did you copy the .config to the
>> new kernel src directory?  If not, that would certainly explain the
>> disparity in configuration settings you're seeing.
>>
>
> I think you can say make `oldconfig' and the `old config' is supposed to
> be incorporated so no I didn't
>
> If I had put .confg into the new sources, then plain make menuconfig
> is what I would have used.
>
> Do you know where the man pages or docs for that stuff is .. its not in
> `man make'

The 'make' man page wouldn't know anything about the kernel's makefile. 
  You want the README file that's included in the top of the kernel 
source folder.  That file says, among other things:

"make oldconfig"   Default all questions based on the contents of
                    your existing ./.config file and asking about
                    new config symbols.

You need to already have a .config file in the source tree in order for 
'make oldconfig' to work; otherwise you are going to get the default 
answers to just about every question.  The benefit of this is that you 
don't have to search through the entire menu tree in the UI to find 
what's new.

When you're ready to build a new kernel version, you should copy the 
.config file from your current kernel into the new source tree.  For 
example, if you use 'make install' it will copy .config to 
/boot/config-<kernel version>; from there you can copy it back to 
/usr/src/linux/.config for the next version.

When you run 'oldconfig' you should rarely get more than a few dozen 
questions, and it should all be on truly new items that didn't exist in 
your previous kernel.  The hardware drivers you selected should all 
carry over as-is.

--Mike