Tony Nugent wrote:
>
> That's not necessarily a good thing. Monolithic kernels are usually
> bad news because they rob you of a lot of flexability with managing
> device drivers.
>
> With obvious exceptions, build everything as much as you can as
> modules. (Believe me, I've been using linux for more than 6 years,
> and driver modules ARE the way to go).
I beg to differ. Like most everything, the decision of monolythic vs.
modularized depends on what your intentions are. If you're building a
machine for running something specific and don't expect to update its
hardware in the near future, for instance, monolythic is better because
it can produce a smaller, faster kernel. Of course, if you can't afford
the downtime of a kernel recompilation every time you add/change some
device and you add/change devices all the time, go with modules. It all
depends. It usually comes down to a flexibility vs. performance
compromise and you must reach that compromise according to your goals.
There's no rule of thumb for this.
>
> Use the default standard distribution kernel (or rather, replace
> this with the updated kernel from ftp.redhat.com) - it will do
> everything that you need to do here.
Again, that depends. The default standard distribution kernel usually
comes compiled for the 386 on Intel distros, because they're aimed at
the lowest common denominator. If you're running on a Pentium-class
machine, you may benefit from a recompile. Also, the standard kernels
come with lots of unnecessary options and drivers enabled because
whoever packaged your distro can't know beforehand what your hardware
will be. You know that info, however, and you can customize the kernel
to be as "lean and mean" as possible.
--
Jorge R. Csapo
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Jorge R. Csapo
http://www.completo.com.br/~jorge
===========================================
With a PC, I always felt limited
by the software available.
On Unix, I am limited only by my knowledge.
--Peter J. Schoenster
