On 6/19/2008 3:47 PM, randall wrote:
Does anyone know if there is a program that looks at the hardware on a linux platform, then lists the necessary kernel modules and no others? I want to optimize a kernel for one of my platforms, but a recent glance at menuconfig shows literally hundreds of possibilities that is becoming confusing and I am afraid to do this manually.
Check out http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/kernel-config.xml Some of the followers of the Gentoo distribution revel in streamlining their kernels to only what they absolutely need.
You didn't say what your machine is for, but for some uses you might not even want kernel support for all the hardware on your motherboard. Stuff like IEEE-1394, parallel-port printing, etc. Or you might want to play with stuff like RS-232 console support. You could compile the kernel for the processor you're using rather than a more generic default.
You'll probably not see any appreciable speed difference but you'll learn a lot in the process. As was mentioned, just make sure you leave a working kernel as an option in your boot loader and be sure it has access to the modules it needs.
Karl -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
