Re: What Distro is best for Starting Kernel Dev?

[Michael S. Zick]

On Mon May 25 2009, Jonathan Corbet wrote:
> On Sat, 23 May 2009 11:44:11 -0400
> Rik van Riel <riel@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > John Walsh wrote:
> > > What Distro is best for Starting Kernel Dev?  
> > 
> > If you want to learn more about the system than
> > anybody should ever need to know, you can stick
> > with a bleeding-edge development distro like
> > Fedora Rawhide, Mandriva Cooker or Debian Unstable.
> 
> I do the bulk of my work on such distributions, but if you're really
> wanting to get started with *kernel* development, there is one thing to
> be aware of: development distributions can be an independent source of
> instability/weirdness in a system.  If you're at an early stage with the
> kernel, you may want to minimize the number of variables which can be
> changing at once.  So it might make more sense to base your work on a
> distribution which is not changing underneath you.
> 

One of the major "outside" variables is the tool-chain you use - -
For that reason, I suggest you use one of the "Build From Source"
distributions.  At least you know your tool chain is working.  ;)

Personally, I use both 32-bit and 64-bit Gentoo.
Also, I avoid doing any updates that would change the tool chain
while in the midst of trouble shooting something.
Just keep your hands off of the --update button. ;)

Currently (both flavors, 32/64):
gen2-32# gcc-config -l
 [1] i686-pc-linux-gnu-4.1.2 *
 [2] i686-pc-linux-gnu-4.3.2

The 4.1.2 tool chain is "good" across the board for all Gentoo archs.
The 4.3.2 tool chain is not marked as "good" for hp-parisc.

Mike

> jon
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