[PlanetCCRMA] compiling one's own kernel

[Fernando Pablo Lopez-Lezcano]

On Mon, 2004-02-02 at 10:26, Noel Bush wrote:
> What would it be worth, for any given user of planetccrma, to fine-tune
> and recompile the kernel available through this channel (after selecting
> the appropriate one for one's architecture, of course)?  I mean, would
> it be potentially worth it (in any sense: performance, memory usage,
> etc.) to go through the kernel configuration process and, for instance,
> remove items pertaining to hardware one doesn't have?  Or are the
> various versions already provided already as "custom" as one would
> reasonably need to go?
> 
> I know this is kind of a general linux question, but I'd be interested
> to hear comments on it (esp. from Fernando) with respect to what's
> available via planetccrma.

I don't think rebuilding the kernel would gain you any advantage. Most
of the drivers are compiled as modules so not building them would not
affect the RAM footprint of the kernel. I guess it would be possible to
customize the monolithic core (ie: anything that is not compiled as a
module) to not include code you will not need, thus minimizing the
ammount of RAM used. I don't think the effort would result in any
perceptible difference in behavior, unless you have very very little RAM
(and even then I don't know). Probably not worth the effort. 

The only possible reason to rebuild the kernel would be to _add_ modules
that are there but are not being compiled (I pretty much try to follow
the choices RedHat made, mostly to try to be compatible with their
kernels). 

-- Fernando