Bill Longman wrote:
On 06/21/2010 03:37 PM, Dale wrote:
I'm not saying you can't use it just that it doesn't always work. Thing
is, when someone uses genkernel to make the kernel, when someone asks
'did you include some driver', the usual answer is 'I don't know, I used
genkernel' and then nobody knows whether it is there or not. If a
person builds their own kernel, they usually know if it is there and
better yet how to check and make sure it is there. Also, I don't use
initrd and not sure why most people need one. I don't use modules
either, hence the reason I don't need initrd. Just build in the drivers
and such that are needed to boot until the modules are loaded and that's
it. It's not rocket science. Driver controller, file system that root
uses and that's about it.
And all I'm trying to point out is that you're making a leap of
incorrect logic by ascribing to genkernel characteristics that it
doesn't have. The root cause is that they've misconfigured something, so
the red herring of "I blah blah blah genkernel blah blah blah" shouldn't
set off alarms.
I've been using it for years and it's always worked for me. Very few
times I have seen it crash while trying to build, but never have I seen
it do anything untoward or unexpected. Maybe part of the issue is that
users might rely on it without supplying enough arguments to it. I had
to write my script because I was getting carpal tunnel from typing out
the stupid command so many times. That said, I *always* use the
--kerneldir argument, so that might explain some things. By default, it
just uses /usr/src/linux, even if you're in some other directory, and if
you're not aware of that, yeah, I can see how you could bite off your
own toes pretty easily and not even notice.
Things is, I have seen genkernel fail for lots of people. I have never
had my way to fail. I may forget a option or have to add a option when
adding hardware but I have never had make && make modules_install fail.
The copy process always works too. It's not a leap from my point of
view. Maybe you are just lucky so far. Some people use genkernel and
it works but a lot have problems with it too.
Funny thing is, when a person comes for help and genkernel is being
used, not much help is offered. The other thread I mentioned earlier is
getting help but not with genkernel. We are helping him with building
his own tho and figuring out the options. This sort of reminds me of
cdrkit and cdrtools. You can use cdrkit of you want. Thing is, you
won't get much help with it because it is buggy and just doesn't work
with some hardware. You can use it tho. It's still your choice.
By all means, use genkernel.
Dale
:-) :-)
