The Documentation is Great but...

volospin · Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2002 3:15 am Post subject: The Documentation is Great but...

Are there any documentation (except the help)
which tells us what to enable or disable in make menuconfig?
_________________
PIII-S 1.4G / 512MB / TUSL2-M / 3C920 x 2 / Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB

ShadyMilkman · n00b Joined: 20 Apr 2002 Posts: 57

I assume you're talking about kernel configuration. There aren't all that many guides about it, you just sort have to play around and find out what works. In the documentation it does mention some stuff about devfs (/dev file system support), but that's about it.

The basics are:
* Always have filesystem support for ext2, and of course the one you're using, possibly msdos/vfat if you have windows floppies
* Have some kind of power management support (Either APM or ACPI depending on your bios) so you can shutdown properly.
* Don't enable options that you're never gonna use.
* Don't disable preselected options unless you know what they do
* Drivers for your network/sound etc...

It's your call whether to compile drivers into the kernel or as modules, I personally prefer them as modules but you'll get a lot of different opinions about that.

Anybody else want to chime in w/ their suggestions?

_SkeLeToN_ · Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2002 6:34 am Post subject:

in the menuconfig you cand use ? to get more informations.

If you dont think you will change often the driver make it into the kernel. If you want to try stuff before you are sure this is what you want you can compile it as module.

What is great about module you can always deactivate or activate. If you compiled into the kernel well you will have to reconfigure the kernel and make it again to change the setting.

The only module I use is sound for Alsa.

jlg · Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2002 2:53 pm Post subject:

If you have an nvidia video card and plan on using nvidia's drivers make sure you read this http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/nvidia_tsg.xml before compiling your kernel. This will save you a lot of time and trouble..

pjp · Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2002 4:40 am Post subject:

Moved from Newbies.
_________________
Safety is my gaol.
US Constitution | Amendments

slais-sysweb · Apprentice Joined: 14 Jun 2002 Posts: 221 Location: London

Jesore · Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2002 7:57 am Post subject:

Here is a nice tutorial on kernel configuration. It doesen't go that deep but following this you can get a decent kernel config (after adding your hardware of course).
You have to register though.

The other tutorials are quite usable as well.

EDIT (rac): inlined link to help phpBB break lines

Mat_le_ouf · Apprentice Joined: 13 Sep 2002 Posts: 257 Location: France

The best is to enable only things you understand, unless requested by a new hardware or software.
It doesn't take so much time to compile a new kernel.
By the way most of the options are self-explanated when you know what they mean

Raccroc · n00b Joined: 08 Sep 2002 Posts: 46 Location: Austin

Another thing you might want to consider is temporarly not using Gentoo. Problem is, if things don't work out of the box it is sometimes hard to tell if it's a kernel, driver, OS, etc. problem until you get used to the way things work.

You might try installing Mandrake or Redhat, get a (very) basic, bootable system and start recompling your kernel. That way you have a base working system and you can see exactly what happens when you make changes to your kernel.

After you are done playing and have a better working idea of what does what, come back to Gentoo