Re: [gentoo-user] Re: A pared down kernel config

On Samstag, 5. Januar 2008, reader@×××××××.com wrote:
> "Hemmann, Volker Armin" <volker.armin.hemmann@××××××××××××.de> writes:
> > On Samstag, 5. Januar 2008, reader@×××××××.com wrote:
> >
> > you want to read this:
> > http://www.kroah.com/lkn/
>
> Thanks... I'm getting started now.
>
> > configuring a kernel is a matter of minutes. And seconds, if you just
> > copy over the old config and do 'make oldconfig'.
>
> Yeah if you  do that... but if you want to go through and look at all the
> different stuff and try to understand.... the minutes, and seconds
> theory is history.

even than it does not take that ling.

>
> > It is not hard - the first time read all the help texts and think about
> > them. That is the hardest part. Do you really need I2O? Almost nobody
> > does. I2C? Yes. ...
>
> You are clearly on a much different plain than I.
> `Read all the help texts and think about them.'  If you can do that and
> feel you've understood even a small portion of it, that puts you way
> up the knowledge ladder compared to us lesser endowed.

you have to start somewhere. When compiled my first kernel (2.2.14) nobody 
hold my hand - and I needed several tries to get a booting one. But over the 
years a lot of experience accumulates. Do I need fibrechannel? Certainly not.

>
> Unless you mean all those places that say `if unsure just say yes'.

is there better help? If you don't know what to do, say yes. Easy!

> Or better yet those that say:
> `There is no help available for this kernel option.'

there are only very few of those - and usually it is best to let them 
unchanged.
>
> Here is a good one.
>
>  CONFIG_PARAVIRT:
>   | Paravirtualization is a way of running multiple instances of
>   | Linux on the same machine, under a hypervisor.  This option
>   | changes the kernel so it can modify itself when it is run
>   | under a hypervisor, improving performance significantly.
>   | However, when run without a hypervisor the kernel is
>   | theoretically slower.  If in doubt, say N.
>
> Unless you are talking about the last `If in doubt...'
> Then you are stuck figuring out what on earth a hypervisor is.

Nope, the helptext tells you exactly what it does. And it tells you, that you 
can say no, if you don't know what to do here.

>
> Or here:
>   | CONFIG_HPET_TIMER:
>   |
>   | This enables the use of the HPET for the kernel's internal timer.
>   | HPET is the next generation timer replacing legacy 8254s.
>   | You can safely choose Y here.  However, HPET will only be
>   | activated if the platform and the BIOS support this feature.
>   | Otherwise the 8254 will be used for timing services.
>
> Unless you mean `You can safely choose Y here' then you have a few
> days work figuring out what any of that means.

no, you have some SECONDS to figure it out:
gg:hpet
(with konqueror).
And what is wrong with 'you can safely choose Y here'? It tells you that it 
does not harm to turn it on. So why turn it off? Why think about it, if you 
don't know what a hpet is (btw, hpet is also explained in detail in the 
Documentation directory. a single grep -R hpet /usr/src/linux/Documentation 
would show you where).

>
> This goes on and on through the menus..
> So no.. I don't think we are dealing with minutes here.

you can, if you accept that you should use the recommended choice, expet when 
ou knmow what you are doing.

>
> If you mean you can get it done if you just skip all of that.... then
> yes it might be minutes.
>
> If you wanted to pare down all the junk that is in a default
> config... now you are taking days even weeks to get a handle on that.

to de-junk a default config - even if you don't know what you do, is in realm 
of half an hour to an hour. If you read everything.

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