I made a small article on my blog how to compile kernel easily.
Some people may disagree the way I do it, as it is not “openSUSE” way, but it is quick and easy. Anyways, article is not intented for expirienced users who can fine-tune kernel with their eyes closed, but for common users.
Here it is: Compiling kernel in openSUSE - easy way | Beli’s blog
I hope it will be of help to someone.
Nice job. Next time kernel compile, I’ll try your ‘easy way’…
Hi
I tried your howto and it ** my system, lost all my photos,
videos everything!!!
And NO It didn’t really, but always expect the unexpected…Scary
stuff…
Always preface something like this with a note about backing up any
important data etc and also checking/testing the backup to make sure
everything is good to go before doing something like this 
The observation with the howto is running as root user, there is no
need to as you can copy the kernel config to your user space and use
the kernel source from kernel.org
Have a read of user lwfinger’s post (#3) here about it;
http://forums.opensuse.org/pre-release-beta/421320-questions-help-regarding-kernel-2-6-31-a.html
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.37-0.1-default
up 1 day 22:21, 2 users, load average: 0.03, 0.04, 0.02
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - CUDA Driver Version: 190.18
Well, if it is done as I wrote there, no need for backup as after “make install”, it just adds one item in GRUB, and not default. By setting local kernel suffix, as I said it is important, will not overwrite.
Never had problems…
Anyways, didn’t want to go into details. Just nice and easy, not complicated way to speed up things. lwfinger’s post is absolutely awesome but it is complicated for new users, my opinion. I wished to avoid all of that command line stuff as possible. I found that common users are repelled by more than 2 commands on sight.
Why you didn’t mention at all that if you’re in a graphical environment, a much easier solution would be to run ‘make xconfig’ (for QT-based interface) or ‘make gconfig’ (for GTK based interface)? It’s much easier with those two (which provide you a click & config like menu) than with make menuconfig
Probably because I never used it. Ehehehe… this is a same thing as, for example, when I was young, liquid soap was not widely used. I learnt to use standard brick-shaped (choose brand you like) soap, which I use till today…
there’s nothing much to learn, it’s a graphical front-end to config, where you choose your options by clicking with the mouse and expanding the tree, then selecting/deselecting them… it’s much easier, esp for newbies, than to scroll with the up/down/left/right arrow keys through a menu on the terminal
Oh dear, reading that article, I can only facepalm. cloneconfig in an rpm-provided directory and claiming your kernel gets “much faster”. I can see why some goverments want Internet censorship…
I know you provide us with custom built kernels and latest nvidia modules. How do you configure before building the kernel?
you configure specific options, not just cloneconfig and then build the kernel 
obviously, one needs to know a little bit about said options and what advantages (or not) they provide
well, is that really the “easy way” ?
It reminds me of what we did long ago, when kernels had no modules and recompiling the kernel was a must to get the ethernet card working at all. And when eliminating all unnecessary functions was the key to a productive system, because it would free some memory to be used by other apps than the kernel.
Today I would never touch a custom SUSE kernel known to work well. I admit that it’s not a big problem to recompile, but the problem is elsewhere. I no longer know what all those acronyms mean. Acronyms describing some fancy functions of the latest hardware. Now, how can I possibly know what can be disabled and how do all those functions interact? The real question, once you are fiddling around with all the options, is what to select and what to deselect. I leave this to the specialists who know what they are doing.
BTW: no criticism of your work. It will be helpful for those who want to “give it a try” ™
Obviously, compiling kernels is only for those who at least have a bit of understanding of the whole thing. It isn’t necessary to compile a kernel if the default one just works™ but lots of geeks still do it anyways, either out of curiosity and wanna learn something new, or they want to have the latest and greatest, which sometimes can provide benefits in the speed and/or drivers area. Compiling a kernel every now and then is actually nothing compared to what kernel devs do, where they sometimes compile one and the same kernel up to 10 times a day, just for testing purposes
I knew that I would get my feet, not burned but warm enough… but I dont mind.
Actually “Just Works ™” default kernel == (make cloneconfig + make)
If you just change processor type and uncheck generic x86 optimizations you get:
Just works™ + Just works a bit better ™
Now, if you are geeky enought to know what to completely remove from kernel, and exactly what you have and need, which will take 5-15 failed attempts and crashed systems, then (after gaining expirience),
You get:
(Just works™ + works better + works much better + works much faster)
adding the most important thing: + works AS I LIKE
…
but article was to get easiest to the Just works™ + Just works a bit better ™, for the guys who doesnt speak binary.