1 |
On Sunday 05 October 2003 14:22, Kevyn Shortell wrote: |
2 |
> > I think the main point to the discussion is new users. I, too, have never |
3 |
> > used genkernel so don't know how viable the idea of using it in its |
4 |
> > current state would be. Nor am I admonishing that it should be the "only |
5 |
> > way to go". However, everything in Gentoo is configured, compiled and |
6 |
> > installed through the single emerge command. It would make most sense to |
7 |
> > me to choose what classes of drivers/functionality I wanted through USE |
8 |
> > flags and then do post-installation configuration through |
9 |
> > /etc/modules.autoload*. Can anyone say why the kernel is special and |
10 |
> > should be done differently? - other than if it ain't broke don't fix it! |
11 |
> |
12 |
> Because the kernel is much more than that. Linux as a whole has never |
13 |
> setup kernel building for new users, and probably never will. You |
14 |
> actually need to know a lot about your hardware to build an optimized |
15 |
> kernel for it. |
16 |
|
17 |
I'm not talking about a fully-optimized kernel. I'm talking about for the "new |
18 |
user" who is competent enough to reach building a kernel but is at a loss |
19 |
once reaching that point in an installation. |
20 |
|
21 |
> To put into basic perspective, if you want to have USE flags for kernel |
22 |
> building, would you know to use something like: |
23 |
> |
24 |
> USE="pnp network pci radeon 16550 tulip ohci ps2 ipv4 ext3 idecd ata100 |
25 |
> dma |
26 |
> |
27 |
> The list goes on and on. There are somethings as a user your going to |
28 |
> just have to decide to learn how to do. If not you can always use the rh |
29 |
> sources, and thier config to have a kernel that will boot almost |
30 |
> anything. Using use flags as you suggested, still requires you to know a |
31 |
> lot about your hardware, which wouldn't help you from using the current |
32 |
> kernel configuration system, which is not gentoo specific. |
33 |
|
34 |
To take your example, I would prefer something like: |
35 |
|
36 |
USE="network 3daccel usb cdrom" |
37 |
|
38 |
Comparing to your example, what I'm suggesting as a simple possibility is: |
39 |
"network" = "network" + "tulip" + "ipv4" |
40 |
"3daccel" = "radeon" (+ "i810", etc) |
41 |
"usb" = "ohci" (+ "uhci" + "ehci", etc) |
42 |
"cdrom" = "idecd" (+ "idescsi", etc) |
43 |
|
44 |
"comm", "ps2", "usb", "pnp", "pci", "ext3" & "ata100" would all be installed |
45 |
by default as they don't add any negatives other than a small amount of |
46 |
memory usage or wasted time attempting to load modules. |
47 |
|
48 |
A while a go there was one email to -user asking what he was doing wrong when |
49 |
genkernel was taking several hours. The simple reason was that it was |
50 |
compiling almost everything. I'm simply offering a solution where it is easy |
51 |
for a user to be pretty sure a compiled kernel will operate all his/her |
52 |
hardware (as far as the kernel is capable) without spending time building all |
53 |
drivers for some class of device that isn't in the system. |
54 |
|
55 |
> > I'm with almost all other people in that it would not be a high priority |
56 |
> > for some time to come. On the other hand, I'm against people who are |
57 |
> > putting forward arguments that the kernel is somehow special. Almost |
58 |
> > every other package is installed with extra cruft so that can't be used |
59 |
> > as an excuse. Gentoo is about making things easier for everyone which |
60 |
> > means safe defaults and easily accessible complete customisation, so |
61 |
> > Luke-Jr's idea at least deserves consideration rather than instant |
62 |
> > dismissal. |
63 |
> |
64 |
> I don't think anyone has an argument with making things easier, but we |
65 |
> shouldn't make things easier for new users to the detriment of making |
66 |
> things more difficult for everyone else. There is a point where Gentoo |
67 |
> just might be more advanced than a new user is skill wise, and accept |
68 |
> that. |
69 |
|
70 |
Nobody's talking about making things harder for everyone else. "emerge |
71 |
linux-gentoo-src" as Luke-Jr suggested is detrimentally difficult when |
72 |
compared to "emerge gentoo-sources" is it? 2 extra keystrokes?! There are |
73 |
also many people saying that Gentoo might just be too hard for lusers. Why |
74 |
then was genkernel created in the first place? |
75 |
|
76 |
Jason |
77 |
|
78 |
-- |
79 |
gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list |