Re: [gentoo-dev] Speaking of new kernels being added to the tree

[Jason Stubbs <jasonbstubbs@mailandnews.com>]

On Sunday 05 October 2003 09:17, Kumba wrote:
> Jason Stubbs wrote:
> > It would make most sense to
> > me to choose what classes of drivers/functionality I wanted through USE
> > flags and then do post-installation configuration through
> > /etc/modules.autoload*. Can anyone say why the kernel is special and
> > should be done differently? - other than if it ain't broke don't fix it!
>
> Honestly, the kernel is special.  Everyone has a different x86
> machine...different NIC card, sound card, video card, motherboard, IDE
> chipset, scsi card, CPU....Some have V4L, some have I2C stuff, some have
> parallel ports, some have ISA, some have PCI, some have both, some have
> serial console, some have radeons, some have nvidias.....See the point?

What I was thinking with the USE flag idea was that "audio", for example, 
would build all of the audio drivers, etc. Similar to what "emerge xfree" 
does.

> x86 is *way* too diverse an architecture to configure solely through USE
> Flags.  How can it be set so we know whether someone has a VIA IDE
> chipset and not an SiS, or how someone have a RealTek 8139-based NIC
> card, and whether they need the old RealTek driver, or the newer one?

Hmmm... it is safe to build in drivers for several chipsets, if not a little 
bloated. The old/new realtek driver couldn't be handled, however. But that's 
why it would be imperative to have a source extraction option to mimic what 
is presently done.

> As much as we all love Gentoo for it's ability to configure things 
> easily (in most cases), the kernel to me is just that one little nuance 
> that stands apart from the base system. Everyone should learn how to 
> configure their kernel, in my opinion. It is probably the one thing 
> every linux distro should teach people how to do. The advantages far 
> outweigh the disadvantages, and by building their own kernel, the user 
> becomes aware of what is inside their machine.

I agree that all users should really know how to build a kernel. But I also 
think that every user should know how to download a source tarball and 
compile and install it manually. Knowledge is power...

All in all,  I'm happy with the way things are done now. I'm just a firm 
believer in standards.

Jason

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