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On Thu, 11 Jun 2009, Tom Potts wrote: > On Thursday 11 June 2009 09:00, Gordon Henderson wrote: >> On Thu, 11 Jun 2009, Tom Potts wrote: >>> Does anyone know of a piece of software to check what modules are loaded >>> and can modify the compile script so I can compile small fast kernels >>> for old machines? Or even new ones? >> >> This is essentially what I do when brining up a new system - you don't >> necessarily save that much memory though, but booting can be a lot faster >> as everything gets dumped into RAM at once. >> >> I have a quick look at what modules the standard distro has brought in, >> but mostly use lspci to find out what's under the lid, then build a kernel >> to suit. There is a lot you simply don't need to compile in either - easy >> for me to do as I've been doing it since the year dot, but harder for >> someone to come in from scratch these days though, but mistakes are just >> time consuming :) >> >> These days it's quite frustrating starting from scratch too as there are >> so many dependencies being wired in too - you find you can't disable >> something until you disable something else, which depends on something >> else, and that's a module, so everything else is modules ... >> >> Compile, install, boot. Bother. Lather rinse repeat :) >> >> But once you have the basic kernel .config file, you can use it as a >> template for just about anything else, as in reality only 3 bits of >> hardware change - disk drivers, network drivers and video drivers... (then >> once you have something that boots and runs OK, you can fine-tune other >> stuff later like the hardware monitoring, powersaving, etc.) >> >> Biggest problem I now have is getting rid of udev off a running system >> that installed it by default. >> >> Gordon > I haven't compiled a kernel in a few years - I gave up when 1/2 the options > meant nothing to me and the whole config-config script took about an hour to > go through all the option. > I seem to remember making things a lot smaller/faster many moons ago and some > of the 'optimised' kernels -netbook remix - seem to be a lot livelier and I'm > sure its not beyond the ken of someone with a little experience to write > something to check your system after a new kernel release and then build you > a kernel wot do what you need and no more. Have a look at: http://unicorn.drogon.net/configs/ There's just one file there right now - config.aao.gz - this is the config file I'm using on my Acer Aspire One for kerel 2.6.28. It might not be perfect, and there are 1 or 2 modules still in it, (wi-fi and sound), but it's a good starting point for just about anything. Gordon -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html