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

[Stroller]

On 5 Jan 2008, at 16:05, reader@×××××××.com wrote:

> Configuring a new kernel is a dreaded task here.  It seems I walk
> through a bewildering array of stuff that when pressing F1 on them I
> get more bewildering information I barely understand a word of.
>
> For 8 or 9 yrs now I've mostly skirted the issue by using
> defaults.  ...

I'm not going to read all the details of all of the responses which  
have appeared here already, so here's my take.

1) The people who configure the kernel options for commercial distros  
are very experienced geeks.
2) I am unlikely to make sufficient performance savings by funroll- 
looping my own kernel to justify the time I'll spend doing so.

Now I periodically grab a copy of the latest knoppix CD I can find -  
I use these a lot, anyway - and take a copy the kernel .config from  
there. Chances are the kernel I want to compile on my Gentoo system  
is a little newer than the one from the Knoppix CD, so I run `make  
oldconfig` and add in most everythign as modules. I take a couple of  
minutes to look for my network card's driver in `make menuconfig` and  
compile it in statically. This results in a kernel config which  
surely supports all the hardware in my system. An awful lot of the  
drivers & also additional drivers that I don't need compiled as  
modules - perfect! If I need them they're loaded in dynamically at  
boot time, if not they don't consume any system resources.

Stroller.

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