Re: Automatic Configuration of a Kernel

[Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu]

On Thu, 15 Sep 2005 14:18:13 +1000, Marek W said:

> Not so much the kernel. When compiling the kernel I'd prefer not to waste time 
> and space compiling the 100+ modules I will never ever use on my laptop.

It's actually  a lot worse than that - here's my minimized custom kernel that
drives everything on my laptop and then some, and a recent Fedora kernel:

[/lib/modules]2 find 2.6.13-mm1/kernel/drivers -name '*.ko' | wc -l
37
[/lib/modules]2 find 2.6.12-1.1400_FC5/kernel/drivers/ -name '*.ko' | wc -l
832

(OK, so I *do* have a few builtins that Fedora builds as modules. That's gonna
change the numbers by half a dozen or so...)

>                                                                          I'd
> prefer for something to select the modules necessary for my hardware. I can't 
> afford the time to keep up to date with that's new and what isn't, what has 
> changed, what has been superseded, which module works with which device, 
> chipset even, etc...

I'm of the opinion that if you don't have that much time, you should be using a
distro kernel where somebody *else* is taking the time.  If you're the type
that builds their own kernel, the *last* thing you want is a tool glossing over
the fact that a module has been superceded.  Who's going to take care of the
matching changes for /etc/modprobe.conf and similar userspace changes, and
other stuff like that? (I figure if 'make oldconfig' asks a question, I should
take notice, and any userspace changes that don't get made are my fault - and
if 'make oldconfig' switches drivers on me without asking, that's a *bug* that
lkml will hear about.. ;)

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