On Tue, 02 Jul 2002 00:45:37 -0500, JW wrote:

Hello,

Sorry this isn't really SuSE-specific but I don't have a more convenient place to ask right now. At least I'm running it on SuSE :-D

When working on a new kernel to compile, is it safe to fiddle around with make menuconfig and exit, and come back to it later? It would seem like it should be perfectly fine, and certainly when I 'come back later' all my changes seem to still be there, but who knows....

Of course. This is no problem at all.

Additionally: for those who compile their own 'vanilla' kernels, I'm curious to know:

1. What your favorite patches are to render your system more useable under normal conditions (I'm not talking about bleeding edge things, but rather things like RieserFS); and

ReiserFS is not a patch. It is included with 2.4 kernels. I don't use patches much. Occasionally I'll grab Alan Cox's patches.

2. What modules you usually have to enable that aren't enabled by default. I turned on some things related to parallel port and USB that looked like they should be on for an average workstation.

This depends entirely on your system and how you're using it. I tend to aim for monolithic kernels; everything that I absolutely will need most of the time is built in. But I have a couple systems which have functions I don't use much at all -- I go ahead and compile the kernel support for these as modules. Really nobody can tell you how to make these choices. That's the deal when you build your own kernel. You figure it out for yourself based on how you think you're going to use the system. -- David Benfell, LCP benfell@parts-unknown.org --- Resume available at http://www.parts-unknown.org/resume.html