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

[Alan McKinnon]

On Sunday 06 January 2008, reader@×××××××.com wrote:
> People in this thread speak of 2 and 3 boots and editing in between
> in the same message where `5 minutes' is mentioned.  That doesn't
> wash. You're way past that time frame.  But still not in the guiness
> book realm I guess... hehe.

I guess the English phrase '5 minutes' is a symlink to another longer 
phrase: 'A reasonably short period of time that doesn't cause me 
massive amounts of inconvenience'. I have a spare 2.6.23-gentoo source 
tree here with everything enabled. With no changes to the config a 
second 'make' still takes 2m29.414s

2 to 3 boots with a new kernel version, especially one where sub-systems 
like libata got moved around, sounds perfectly reasonable.
>
> > Removing all these unused drivers is the single largest improvement
> > in reducing kernel size. The general rule with drivers is that if
> > you are familiar with YOUR hardware and you've never heard of
> > something in the config then you don't have it and don't need it
> > :-)
>
> Just to know more on this... Is there really any reason to worry
> about kernel size... I mean in most cases with a standard desktop
> install?

By "kernel size" I actually meant disk space used, including it's 
modules.

Seeing as almost every other mainstream distro gives you a full-featured 
kernel with all modules included and /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ weighs in 
at around 400M, I'd say no, it's not worth worrying about.

Some people do worry about it, and that's cool for them. Some folk do 
lots of kernel testing, if they have 10 kernel versions on disk then it 
does become a factor. The beauty of gentoo is that if you don't feel 
like caring, you don't have to.

alan

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com
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