A different approach to kernel configuration

Posted Sep 12, 2017 12:46 UTC (Tue) by tao (subscriber, #17563)
In reply to: A different approach to kernel configuration by WolfWings
Parent article: A different approach to kernel configuration

Yeah, the config system is a nightmare, especially when new options are introduced--the choices of what to default to N or Y by default seems arbitrary at best. defconfig should probably default to a modern machine.

A different approach to kernel configuration

Posted Sep 12, 2017 21:35 UTC (Tue) by rodgerd (guest, #58896) [Link] (3 responses)

At this point the defconf would probably be most accurate as a Xen or KVM guest.

A different approach to kernel configuration

Posted Sep 13, 2017 3:15 UTC (Wed) by Frogging101 (guest, #113180) [Link] (2 responses)

They already have kvmconfig and xenconfig.

In my opinion, the defconf should enable the components that one could reasonably expect to find on an x86 desktop or server system, and disable the more exotic drivers that one would never find on such a system to reduce the number of unnecessary components in a build.

A different approach to kernel configuration

Posted Sep 13, 2017 15:10 UTC (Wed) by Frogging101 (guest, #113180) [Link]

Actually, I don't even care what the defconfig is. But a "generic x86 desktop" config would be nice. My current method to get a base config for my desktop is to download a Debian or Ubuntu kernel .deb and extract the config.

You can get said debs at https://packages.debian.org/unstable/kernel/linux-image-a... or http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/?C=N;O=D . Make an empty directory to extract it to, and run dpkg -x <deb file> <destination dir>. Look in boot/ under the destination for the config. Copy it to your kernel tree as .config. If it's an older config, run "yes '' | make oldconfig" before using it.

A different approach to kernel configuration

Posted Sep 13, 2017 23:16 UTC (Wed) by Yui (guest, #118557) [Link]

Or perhaps distro-specific minimal configurations like Linus proposed five years ago. This would at least make the job of people who are working on a distro based on an existing one a bit easier.

https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/7/13/369