the venerable 2.0 kernel series

[Brian Densmore]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jonathan Hutchins
> 
> On Monday 06 December 2004 09:55 am, Brian Densmore wrote:
> 
> 
> > Although the size [of later kernels] is by default much much
> > larger, this can be changed to some degree by compiling a 
> custom kernel and
> > leaving out all of the code for hardware and features you 
> do not use. 
> 
> I haven't seen a monolithic kernel in all of the time I've 
> run Linux, starting 
> pretty early in the RedHat release era (2.1).  Once the 
> kernel went modular, 
> all of the HOWTO's that started with "first recompile your 
> kernel" were 
> obsolete, and so were considerations of slimming down by 
> leaving out hardware 
> support.
I never said monolithic, but if you go into your RH 2.1 default
kernel compile you will see options that are compiled into the
kernel (such as SCSI support and one SCSI driver are compiled 
directly into the kernel, not as modules). While some of the 
better distros do a good job of modularizing the kernel, there
are still some pieces that are compiled in and some that must
be compiled in. If you want sound, sound support must be compiled
in then the sound drivers can be in modules. If you want to do
I2C then support for I2C must be compiled in, and then drivers
for I2C devices can be compiled as modules. etc. All I'm saying
is if you don't need sound, scsi, I2C, webcams, shortwave, IPv6,
etc support turn it off in the kernel. You will then remove the
stub code and frequently a default built in module from your kernel.
Generally if there is an option for hardware that you don't know
what it is you don't need it in the kernel so remove it and make 
your kernel a lean mean computin' machine. Of course SCSI support
probably not one of them if you have a CD, but the default SCSI
device for the ACME Roadrunner X9000 SCSI controller could be
deselected, which might save 10KB of space. So I say the "first
recompile your kernel" is still a good recommendation.


Brian D.

<disclaimer: I'm not responsible should you remove support for some
 vital function in the kernel, like support for ext2 filesystems, and
 trash your machine.>