[Newlug] An Idea for a Group Discussion

[Darrick Hartman]

On Tuesday 01 June 2004 15:26, BBingham at belkauusa.com wrote:
> Over the weekend I had a need to re-compile my kernel and I found it to be
> kind of confusing.  I did find another way around the problem that I was
> having by changing the cards I was using.  But you never know when the
> kernel would need re-compiling again, so, leaning how to re-compile the
> kernel would be nice.  I would think that we could also discuss the
> ramifications of loading modules in the compile as opposed to linking them
> in as well as a discussion of how to do both.

Brad,

Recompiling the kernel simply requires you to know more about your actual 
hardware than you probably ever had to before.  Once you can identify 
everything correctly the kernel options will make sense.

lspci -vvv is your friend (the more v's the more verbose the output).  That 
should give you most if not all of the clues you need to make the right 
choices in the kernel.

With the hotplugging options that are available now, the hotplug daemon can 
detect what devices you have in your computer and properly load the modules 
on boot up (based on what it sees in /proc).  So basically you only NEED to 
include the parts of the kernel that are necessary to access the disk drive 
etc.  I like to include as many devices as I know I will use on a regular 
basis.  usb core, ieee1394 stuff, my NIC.  Others I'll leave as modules.  One 
of the main reasons modules came into being was the limited size of floppy 
drives.  You had to fit the kernel on a floppy drive in order to boot.  With 
all the other boot options available, that size limitation is no longer 
there.

Darrick