[wplug] I'm a Linux whimp (need kernel help)

Patrick Wagstrom pwagstro at andrew.cmu.edu
Fri Aug 12 10:29:44 EDT 2005


> Since I didn't see anybody else mention it, one thing SuSe does is
> include the current kernel configuration inside the kernel itself, which
> you can find at /proc/config.gz.  They have made it as simple as:
> 
> cd /usr/src/linux && make cloneconfig
> 
> Of course you could also 'zcat /proc/config.gz > /usr/src/linux/.config'
> and work it from there with 'make oldconfig'.  

Likewise, Ubuntu and RedHat store their configurations
in /boot/config-KERNELNAME.  Doing a
"cp /boot/config-KERNELNAME /usr/src/linux/.config"
should get your started with a base configuration.

A couple of notes regarding the new cracktastic mode of linux kernel
development.  First of all, the vanilla kernel's aren't really
considered to be end user quality anymore[1].  This means that there is
active development going on in the 2.6 branches of the kernel.
Secondly, most distros have their own patches anyway (largely because of
[1] above) that you'll want to make sure get included.  Usually if you
use the distro's source package you'll be fine.

Finally, when compiling a kernel for some new feature, resist the urge
to go all gentoo on it and remove anything you don't think will be
useful.  The performance benefit is rarely worth the headache of dealing
with it.

--Patrick

[1] http://kerneltrap.org/node/3513



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