Buliding a kernel...

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hope this is the correct place, since it’s about installing a new kernel…
Anyway, I’m thinking about building a custom kernel for my lappy… and I have a few questions: (Note the SuSE default kernel works fine, I just like fiddling with such things and I want the experience, and my Elantech touchpad requires a kernel rebuild for full functionality.)

  1. Is it really worth it? Are the performance improvements all that great, or is it a minor boost?(Fairly new lappy, 2GB ram, 2Gz Core Duo CPU etc.)
  2. How do I go about configuring? I know to do ‘make gconfig’ and can view all the settings… but how should I go about changing?
    i.e. make all drivers for the lappy’s hardware built in instead of modules, select the exact CPU type, and so on… is that just about it, or is there more kernel config settings that can be tweaked for a performance boost?
  3. Is there an easy way to optimize the init.d procedure? I’ve read things about making processes load in parallel provided all dependancies are met… but can this be done easily? Or does SuSE already have an optimized init.d setup?

TIA,
VintagePC

2
  1. No and you’ll have to keep your kernel up-to-date yourself.
  2. It’s already parallel. Check /etc/sysconfig/boot -> RUN_PARALLEL=“yes”

Whilst the zealots tend to come up with “BUT I COMPLZ MAH PRUGZ THEIR B 5% FAZT!!11” they tend to forget the fact that the time it takes them to compile all those programs by hand (and with optimizations) is also “lost time”.

The SuSE kernels are pretty well tuned for general use - you may find some gains by fine tuning them but you can also decrease performance / response etc.

3

Hi

  1. I don’t think it is…

  2. I personally like the modules as if there is an issue, you can just
    recompile the module rather than the whole kernel :wink:

Someone here posted this link (apologies to the link OP)

  1. Should be already set.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.0 x86 Kernel 2.6.25.11-0.1-default
up 8:09, 2 users, load average: 0.01, 0.14, 0.21
GPU GeForce 6600 TE/6200 TE - Driver Version: 173.14.12

4

Hehe. I figured it was the zealots bragging about their custom kernels…
From what I’ve read, modprobing all of the modules takes the most time on startup, so putting them in the kernel itself should speed things up…but as Malcolm points out, if there’s a new version of the module you need… you’re out of luck short of recompiling the kernel… which takes quite a while for a fresh compile.

In light of this, I’ll just stick with the default SuSE kernel… and though it would be nice to have full functionality on my touchpad, it’s no biggie, since it works fine now with the regular mouse driver. (just no horizontal scroll area etc.)

Thanks for the input,
VintagePC

5

Hi
I thought the kernel had been patched and you could use the synaptics
driver?

Have you started a thread on this issue?

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.0 x86 Kernel 2.6.25.11-0.1-default
up 2:24, 1 user, load average: 0.17, 0.16, 0.18
GPU GeForce 6600 TE/6200 TE - Driver Version: 173.14.12

6

I think all you need to do is go here: A Frustrated User’s Guide to Linux by Andrew Dorney - openSUSE Forums
and
read that part about “Configure your Kernel” and use that to “turn on” that feature (I’d make it a module).

Success doing that here: Compal FL91 - Gentoo Linux Wiki

Then there are later kernel versions: Index of /repositories/Kernel:/SL110_BRANCH/openSUSE_11.0
though you may still have to do the config.
and
KOTD @ Index of /pub/Linux/SuSE/projects/kernel/kotd/SL110_BRANCH (which may be the same as the above link now).

Have fun:)

7

Nope. Synaptics doesn’t work with the driver yet… that was the first thing I tried.
Unfortunately, I’d have to recompile the whole kernel either way, since the current kernel has psmouse.ko built in , the code which the driver adds to.

I’m e-mailing the driver dev right now, since I did load it, but there are some issues with my touchpad(unsupported model)
Thanks!
VintagePC