Do you compile your own Linux kernels?

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

no point

Compiling your own kernel does not really get you any noticeable benefit.

Not worth the trouble

I know how to do compile custom kernel, I have done it and it's not worth the trouble.
Better to run a precompiled, prepacked AMD64 kernel than to compile a 32 bit custom kernel.

are you sure you use linux?

compiling a kernel is easy and doesn't take that long. Hell, it's one of the first things I'd have to do when installing gentoo. Using menuconfig or genkernel is easy, and you can compile your own 64-bit kernel no problems. (I have no idea where you'd get the idea that you can't compile your own 64bit stuff -- linux is open source and ported to practically everything).

In addition to optimizing the kernel to your hardware, compiling your own kernel lets you do things that might not be in the precompiled one you recieved; for example, most distos don't ship with the ability to write to NTFS partitions. If you needed that, you'd have to compile your own kernel. There are tons of cool things that you can compile in that often aren't part of the kernel, so if you're not compiling it yourself, you may be missing out on some nice options.

But, why not compile custom

But, why not compile custom 64bit kernel? Otherwise you're comparing apples and oranges.

Compilation of Linux Kernel

How to compile linux kernel?

Even simpler

How to compile a 2.6 kernel the "normal" way:

1. Untar the new kernel sources ("tar xjf " for tar.bz2)
2. (optional) apply patches (cd to your new "linux-", then e.g. "bzcat | patch -p1")
3. make menuconfig (some other options possible)
4. make (will do the bzImage and modules)
5. make modules_install
6. Either "make install" or copy the new kernel manually and modify your /etc/lilo.conf or GRUB settings

awesome... now i'm an

awesome... now i'm an instant kernel hacker, woohoo!

Easy as pie

http://www.freewebs.com/gutsygibbon

go to the tips/fixes/howtwos section, I have a howtwo on compiling easier than the aforementioned for ubuntu users - :) I don't do the module thing altho I do use the modules (I think) from the gutsy main kernel. I really should trythe module thing sometime, also my tutorial does NOT do restricted modules either, it's pretty basic.

cross_compiling

for a desktop, compiling the kernel, is not that important.
But if you are working with a embedded linux, then there will be too many things to try out. so cross compiling the kernel is a must, in such a senario.

The only change will be u need a toolchain, specific to your architecture, for cross compiling.