On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 12:21 AM, Donald Allen <donaldcal...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'm running 4.6 stable on 5 systems, 3 of them with multiple > processors (amd64). On one of the multiprocessor systems, I just > noticed (from the output of 'top') that the stable kernel I'd built > for it was not a multiprocessor kernel. > > The documentation on building a stable kernel on > > http://openbsd.org/stable.html > > says > > "To rebuild the default kernel from stable: > > # cd /usr/src/sys/arch/i386/conf > # /usr/sbin/config GENERIC > # cd /usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/GENERIC > # make clean && make depend && make > > Replace i386 with your architecture, e.g. sparc, alpha, etc. " > > It says nothing about replacing GENERIC with GENERIC.MP, which I just > learned was necessary with a bit of detective work. > > I'd suggest adding something like "and GENERIC with GENERIC.MP to > build a multiprocessor kernel" to the last sentence in the > documentation above. > > A similar addition is needed in the "Rebooting with the new kernel" section.
A private email I received this morning in response to this suggests that perhaps I wasn't clear enough. I am not suggesting that this isn't documented *anywhere*. It is. My point is simply that whether you are building a multiprocessor kernel or not is nearly as fundamental as the architecture and I think that how to do it ought to be right up front on the "Following -stable" page. Furthermore, the section at issue begins by saying "To rebuild the *default* kernel ..." (emphasis mine), which on a multiprocessor machine is GENERIC.MP after installation. If you follow these kernel-building instructions literally, you do not get the default kernel on a multiprocessor system. And the fix is pretty cheap -- a few more words. /Don Allen
