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On Sunday 05 October 2003 09:17, Kumba wrote: |
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> Jason Stubbs wrote: |
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> > It would make most sense to |
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> > me to choose what classes of drivers/functionality I wanted through USE |
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> > flags and then do post-installation configuration through |
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> > /etc/modules.autoload*. Can anyone say why the kernel is special and |
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> > should be done differently? - other than if it ain't broke don't fix it! |
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> |
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> Honestly, the kernel is special. Everyone has a different x86 |
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> machine...different NIC card, sound card, video card, motherboard, IDE |
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> chipset, scsi card, CPU....Some have V4L, some have I2C stuff, some have |
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> parallel ports, some have ISA, some have PCI, some have both, some have |
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> serial console, some have radeons, some have nvidias.....See the point? |
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What I was thinking with the USE flag idea was that "audio", for example, |
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would build all of the audio drivers, etc. Similar to what "emerge xfree" |
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does. |
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> x86 is *way* too diverse an architecture to configure solely through USE |
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> Flags. How can it be set so we know whether someone has a VIA IDE |
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> chipset and not an SiS, or how someone have a RealTek 8139-based NIC |
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> card, and whether they need the old RealTek driver, or the newer one? |
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Hmmm... it is safe to build in drivers for several chipsets, if not a little |
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bloated. The old/new realtek driver couldn't be handled, however. But that's |
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why it would be imperative to have a source extraction option to mimic what |
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is presently done. |
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> As much as we all love Gentoo for it's ability to configure things |
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> easily (in most cases), the kernel to me is just that one little nuance |
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> that stands apart from the base system. Everyone should learn how to |
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> configure their kernel, in my opinion. It is probably the one thing |
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> every linux distro should teach people how to do. The advantages far |
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> outweigh the disadvantages, and by building their own kernel, the user |
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> becomes aware of what is inside their machine. |
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I agree that all users should really know how to build a kernel. But I also |
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think that every user should know how to download a source tarball and |
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compile and install it manually. Knowledge is power... |
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All in all, I'm happy with the way things are done now. I'm just a firm |
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believer in standards. |
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Jason |
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-- |
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