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Re: kernel-{image,headers} package bloat



On Tue, May 01, 2001 at 12:19:29AM +1000, Craig Sanders wrote:
> > This is the point where I disagree. I really hate having to build my
> > own kernel just to do some tests with a fresh installation.
> 
> so you have spent good money on a high-end SMP machine but you're not
> willing to put in 5(*) minutes work (running "make config" or menuconfig or
> xconfig) to build a kernel which is optimised for your hardware.
> 
> strange.

Yes, really strange. When I had money I spent it on buying a SMP machine
since I wanted to experiment with parallel code. It's now only half a 
year since I actually had the money to buy two PII-400 processors to
actually make use of the SMP feature. Not to mention that the board has 2
UW-SCSI Slots but I have only a 4GB DDRS drive which is slow as hell compared
to current disks. 

And it is not 5 minutes time but 5 minutes on top on each installation.
And, BTW: It's even 5 minutes if I don't need to build a new kernel 
since I have to reboot to get into the new system and that takes quite
a long time on this system even without Zope being installed.

I wouldn't have commented this but I am getting really pissed if somebody
accuses me of not being willing to spend x minutes on something. I am
doing all my Debian work in my spare time and if 5 minutes of that perhaps
60 a day go away for senseless work I think it is okay if I don't like
that. 

> of machine if you have a bunch of similar or identical machines). after
> that, it's less work because you can re-use the old .config file and
> just run "make oldconfig" to handle any new compile-time options.

It's even less work since I have my kernel .deb around.

Anyway, I would like to have an smp kernel readily available in Debian.
Mandrake for example installs the SMP kernel by default if the target
machine is a smp box. If another kernel-image is needed to support that
I can life with only UP.

Basically I don't care if our distributed kernels squeeze the last 10%
out of the processor(s). But in an ideal world it should at least support all
installed processors so that I don't lose 100% compared to a custom kernel. 
Anyway, if it's impossible to do that without adding bloat I can do without.

cu
	Torsten

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