[Fwd: Re: [seul-edu] In Need of the BIG Picture]

[Doug Loss <dloss@suscom.net>]

owner-seul-edu@seul.org wrote:

> From: "TJ Miller jr" <heretic@spark.org>
> To: <seul-edu@seul.org>
> Subject: Re: [seul-edu] In Need of the BIG Picture
> Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2000 07:28:59 -0600
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> One thing you may wish to consider:
>
> Instead of 'make menuconfig', you might want to go ahead and do it the hard
> way with 'make config' (CLI of course)...
>
> The reason is that I believe 'menuconfig' still installs device drivers for
> nearly everything (system-wise, not option-wise), including all kinds of
> oddball and legacy device support.
>
> Get a very good idea as to what you have (exactly) on the motherboard, and
> you can safely remove support for nearly everything else. I'm thinking that
> you wound up with a whole lot of device support in the kernel that you
> haven't any use for.
>
> HTH,
> TJ Miller jr,
> http://www.datc.tec.ut.us
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Maynord <maynord@terracom.net>
>
> >Dear SEUL Friends:
> >
> >As per your suggestions, I have been exploring the process of compiling the
> >Linux kernal for use on my P90s at school. I have been using "make
> >menuconfig" to select what is to be included.  Just to see if I could make
> >a VERY small test kernal, I removed checks for 99% of the possible choices,
> >leaving only a very few items such as the Pentium chip, a cdrom, and the
> >floppy. No sound, alternate file systems, radio, or anything like that is
> >included.  After "make menuconfig", I use:
> >
> >make clean
> >make dep
> >make bzImage
> >make modules
> >make modules_install (which gives me a "target" error, presumably because I
> >have no modules checked in "make menuconfig".
> >
> >The problem is, I end up with a kernal (vmlinux) that is 1082 K compared to
> >735 K for the original (Slackware) distribution kernal. The original
> >distribution kernal uses 16 MG ram after loading, and then needs the swap
> >drive.  I hate to think what my kernal would do!
> >
> >This is one of those situations where I am obviously missing out on the BIG
> >picture.  The standard distribution kernals are supposed to be very
> >bloated.  How big should a "streamlined" kernal be?
> >
> >I would very much appreciate any ideas...
> >
> >Thanks!
> >
> >Robert Maynord

--
Doug Loss                 God is a comedian playing
Data Network Coordinator  to an audience too afraid
Bloomsburg University     to laugh.
dloss@bloomu.edu                Voltaire