Me Vs Kernel.

[Swiss]

Hi All,

 

Since I start learning Linux I have always installed from the CD's, which has served me fine to date.

 

However I've got to the point where I want things to be more efficiant and organised. When Installing from the cd's it always installs various things that i either never use or just dont need now.

 

Im looking for either advice or good documention on the kerel.

 

I have found more documentation on the kernel than i know what to do with and most of it is custom to other versions of linux which i dont have.

 

All I want to do is compile a kernel that...

 

1) Acctully loads (This would be a nice start)

 

2) Loads the required support for motherboard, cpu, memory, hdd, video & keyboard.

 

3) loads a shell.

 

I know this isn't very hard to do, I found docs all over the place telling me it fairly simple, however in a month I haven't managed to do it once.

 

I'm either missing something fundamentaly stupid, or the docs i've been trying to follow don't mach what im trying to do. I susspect its the first one.

 

Im currently using mandrake 9.1.

 

 

Swiss.

[Guest anon]

You can install mandrake and choose the "expert" or custom install. This lets you choose which packages are installed, so you get exactly what you require not what it wants you to have.

It won't give you a custom kernel, but do you really need one? Have you checked your hardware compatability with mandrake? http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/hardware.php3

You might also want to upgrade to MDK 10.00 .

[devries]

What you need is a config that works. And when you installed Mandrake you got one!!

 

So after you hav einstalled the kernel source (from kernel.org or whatever) cd to /usr/src/linux, type make xcondig, choose open and pick /boot/config (that is the mandrake config). This gives you all the settings for a working kernel.

 

You can change the obvious (legacy CDROM support, OSS, hamradio all the networkcards and filesystems you don't use) but don't touch anything you don't understand.

 

Good luck

[bvc]

Hi All,

 

Since I start learning Linux I have always installed from the CD's, which has served me fine to date.

 

However I've got to the point where I want things to be more efficiant and organised.  When Installing from the cd's it always installs various things that i either never use or just dont need now.

 

Im looking for either advice or good documention on the kerel.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

the kernel has nothing to do with what software is installed. Also, mandrake is rpm-based, so there will always be depenedncies installed that you either think you don't need, or don't need.

 

I had an almost up2date ML-8.1 when 9.0 was released. It was very likely that I was going to break things by attempting to get jus 3 apps up2date that I really wanted. So I dloaded 9.0's 3 cd's on a conexant 56k winmodem for 2 weeks while I slept Hey, it worked :lol:

 

What makes you think you need to compile the kernel? Do you have hardware that's not working?

What kernel are you trying to get? 2.6? It'd be easier to upgrade the distro because of the dependencies/pkgs required for the 2.6 to work. You could loose everything, so either way, bkup!

[phunni]

If you want more control over what is or isn't installed it might (just might...) be time to look at a different distro. Or even a different DE/WM

 

I always found that installing either KDE or gnome gave me loads of stuff I didn't want - regardless of distro. Now that I use fluxbox, I have a much leaner system...