Gaudenz Steinlin wrote:
On Thu, Jan 31, 2008 at 12:50:23PM -0800, Bob McGowan wrote:Well, the primary advantage to rolling your own is that you can customize the kernel for your hardware.Generic kernels include drivers for all sorts of things, most of which you don't have.This can reduce the size of the kernel, which can translate into faster operations, as well as reduced space needed to hold it (and the modules you build, if any).Do you have any numbers that kernel with unneeded hardware options not compiled in actually run faster? I would be very suprised by this as the additional code just never runs. AFAIK all applicable processor optimizations for powerpc are already activated in the stock Debian kernels.The space argument is theoretically true but I don't think it's relevant on any actual powerpc laptop which is able to run 2.6.24.IMHO the main reason to compile ones own kernel is to test new features. Either things that are beeing actively developed and therefore not in the latest released kernel (or not with all the features) like the b43 wireless driver or if you want to activated experimental features that are not enabled in the Debian kernel for safety reasons(like preempt which caused problems on powerpc in the past).Gaudenz
I did not say, nor did I intend to imply, that the amount of saved space might actually be large enough to be useful ;-)
Just that, generally, of reasons I've seen mentioned for doing this, it is to customize the kernel for your hardware and eliminate unnecessary code and modules.
One thing does come to mind, as a good reason for removing unused drivers, is that, in some cases, a driver probe can hang a system.
-- Bob McGowan
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