Re: reiserfs

[Rohan Nicholls <rohan.nicholls@answerweb.nl>]

At Tue, 28 Oct 2003 21:34:31 +0200,
Micha Feigin wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 2003-10-28 at 17:38, Rohan Nicholls wrote:
> > At Tue, 28 Oct 2003 00:14:01 +0200,
> > Micha Feigin wrote:
> > > 
> > > On Mon, 2003-10-27 at 18:03, Rohan Nicholls wrote:
> > > > At 27 Oct 2003 10:31:01 -0500,
> > > > Vivek Kumar wrote:
> > > 
> > > You need the kernel-package package, don't remember what others
> > > (libncurses or something like that for the graphic setup).
> > > You then do a make xconfig/menuconfig to config the kernel (It can be
> > > hard the first few times) and then to build the kernel (debian way):
> > > make-kpkg --revision=<pick a personal version> kernel-image
> > > You will then get a deb one directory up which you install using
> > > dpkg -i kernel-image-<version>.deb
> > > Try looking in /usr/share/doc/kernel-package/README.gz after you install
> > > the package.
> > 
> > Damn, that sounds really easy, people have mentioned on the list how
> > easy it is, and that proves it.  The linux kernel is surprisingly easy
> > to configure and compile, which is amazing considering its complexity.
> > 
> > Thanks for that.
> > 
> > rohan
> 
> Compiling the kernel is easy. The hard part is configuring it the first
> few times (untill you start understanding what the options are.)
> It does give you a few defaults. You can also install a stock kernel and
> copy /boot/config-<version> to .config which will give you a starting
> point.
> The problem is that it is a serious overkill for a non-generic kernel.

It is one of those things you decide you will take an evening to do,
get a list of the hardware you need to support, and then go through
for a couple of hours reading the help information for options that
look promising.

That I think is the best advice I can give, as the biggest mistake to
make is thinking that the first time you can just zip through and have
it configured and compiled in an hour.

Points of interest, if you have an ide burner remember to include the
ide-scsi module, and there are whole groups of things you can skip.
Also, when including support for the file system your boot/root
partitions use, it cannot be a module, but must be directly compiled
into the kernel.  The mistake I made the first time was trying to
compile too many things in, now that I am used to it I compile
only what I need and anything that I don't understand that is selected
by default ie. stuff about the type of bus I have, and other
weirdness.  Another thing, one of the first options has to do with
"unstable" sections, make sure you say yes to this, otherwise it hides
all unstable modules, which in my case included my maestro3 soundcard,
this will save you a lot of "what the ....? where is it?".:-D

Well that was probably confusing, but if not I hope it helps.
And the /etc/modules is where you list modules that you want loaded at
boot time, and I believe kept in memory the whole time.  Things like
soundcards, and network cards are good things to list here, although I
have found that even if you leave them out, the kernel will load them
automatically. 

Good luck,

rohan