Kernel Configuration Tips?

eddieparker · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 09 Sep 2004 Posts: 147

Hey!

As much as I love Gentoo and Linux in general, the one part that always mortifies me/infuriates me is configuring my kernel. I get it done, but there's always blood sweat and tears, and I'm just wondering if anyone has some better solutions than what I do.

Basically I'm curious if:

- Anyone knows of a tool that will build you a default/basic .config to start from (ideally as minimal as possible but still functional... too much to hope for?

)
- Perhaps something that polls lspci and builds it automatically?

Also, while I'm on the topic, something that's not totally unrelated, I often get packages that say "You must make sure CONFIG_* is (set)|(not set)". Is there an easy way to find those settings inside of makeconfig? Ideally I'd like to read the help that usually accompanies a kernel setting to understand what it is I'm enabling/disabling.

Thanks in advance!

avx · Advocate Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 2152

Well, our beloved forummember pappy_mcfae is doing things like this

his thread on this -> https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-707499.html
his space with some more info -> http://62.3.120.141/~pappy/

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 7:33 am Post subject:

Beloved? Shucks, I'm speechless.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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nick_already_taken · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 15 Jan 2005 Posts: 137

eddieparker,

I don't know a tool like that, but think you don't need that if you have once configured a proper running kernel.

After I had received my new motherboard/cpu I was unsure which kernel options and modules were needed. So I booted a recent gentoo livecd. To determine what modules had been loaded by the livecd, I ran "lsmod".

After that I ran "make menuconfig". To search for the relevant options to set in the kernel config press "/" and enter the module names.

Whenever you update your kernel copy the .config file to the new kernel directory and after that run "make oldconfig". Now you are shown the kernel options that have been added between the to kernel versions. I usually accept the defaults which are shown in big letters. In the dialog you can open a quick help, if I remember things right. That's it.

As I have written this from memory I am not 100% sure if everything is perfectly correct.

Regards,