Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: reader@×××××××.com
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-user] A pared down kernel config
Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 16:14:22
Message-Id: 87r6gwxnpu.fsf@newsguy.com
1 Configuring a new kernel is a dreaded task here. It seems I walk
2 through a bewildering array of stuff that when pressing F1 on them I
3 get more bewildering information I barely understand a word of.
4
5 For 8 or 9 yrs now I've mostly skirted the issue by using defaults.
6
7 I hnow the shortcoming is mine but still it is a massive amount of
8 knowledge needed to really know what most of those settings do.
9
10 Of course I know the easy ones but it appears thats never enough to
11 walk through and end up with a pared down but fully usable kernel.
12
13 In the end I usually just `genkernel all' and let ten thousand modules
14 be made and forget it.
15
16 I'd like to know more... enough so that when kernel config time rolls
17 around its not a frustrating and time consuming chore ... unless I go
18 the genkernel route.
19
20 I see plenty of howtos out there about kernel configuration but the
21 ones I've scanned or used take you through the steps but never really
22 teach you how to understand what all those setting do or entail.
23
24 I also realize that the kernel is a moving target and configurations
25 change literally with every kernel. But there must be a major base of
26 settings that change only slowly. Ones a user can learn enough about
27 that it isn't such a bewildering experience to try to get the settings
28 right in one or two goes.
29
30 And of course the kicker is that I'd like to learn this without weeks
31 and weeks of pounding away at it.
32
33 My current quest involved getting a kernel with full barrel iptables
34 and conn_track settings in place. The usual problem is that the howtos
35 are dealing with a much older (in kernel devel time) kernel that
36 actually has different or not all the setting currently available.
37
38 Can someone steer me to a more `in depth' tutorial? Or to something
39 they've found to really throw some light the chore? Not necessarily
40 about iptables but just the general chore of configuring a kernel
41 wisely.
42
43 --
44 gentoo-user@g.o mailing list

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] A pared down kernel config "Hemmann
Re: [gentoo-user] A pared down kernel config Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com>
Re: [gentoo-user] A pared down kernel config Dale <dalek1967@×××××××××.net>
Re: [gentoo-user] A pared down kernel config Stroller <stroller@××××××××××××××××××.uk>