Re: A couple "normal user" questions..

Jacques Gelinas (jack@solucorp.qc.ca)
Sat, 1 Feb 1997 10:46:04 -0500 (EST)


On Sat, 1 Feb 1997, Jon Lewis wrote:

> On Fri, 31 Jan 1997, Hugo Van den Berg wrote:
>
> > > That way.. for newbies to kernels, a userland program could parse /proc/config
> > > and tell them exactly what is configured into the kernel.
> >
> > Not only that, but if you get a kernel from somewhere else (mostly in
> > distributions) you can see what's in and what isn't. I think it's a good
> > idea. It could be made optional.
>
> Most any reasonable linux platform can compile a new kernel in no
> time...and generally, you're better off doing so rather than using a RAM
> wasting kitchen sink kernel from some distribution.
>
> My first Linux box did make zImage in about 3 hours...my latest has it
> down to about 7 minutes. Either way, it's time well spent. At worst,
> this should be a config option so people who know how to keep their config
> files don't have to waste the RAM.

I suggest you ask your mother (assuming your mother is not a computer
expert, mine is not) to compile a kernel and check

1-her face when you ask this
2-her face when she looks at "menu menuconfig" options
3-her face while she start the compile process (she is ... hoping)

(7 minutes ... sure!)

Recompiling a kernel should not be needed except for very special cases.
There are still feature that are not modular yet and they are taken care
of in 2.1.

The ability to append stuff at the end of the zImage is not bad, yet a
/proc/config is simply needed for the few options which are currently
invisible elsewhere. Many people maintain a collection of kernel and they
don't know easily which one is operationnal. Telling those people over
the phone to look at /etc/lilo.conf to find out which kernel they are
using (and finding out later that they are using loadlin with another set
of kernels) is really not fun!

--------------------------------------------------------
Jacques Gelinas (jacques@solucorp.qc.ca)
Linuxconf: The ultimate administration system for Linux.
see http://www.solucorp.qc.ca/linuxconf