Re: [gentoo-user] Can't boot with kernel 3.5.7: init not being started

[Bruce Hill <daddy@happypenguincomputers.com>]

On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 01:23:03PM +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> 
> ;-)  I've built quite a few in my time as a Gentoo user, and one or two
> when I was still using Debian.
> 
> Configuring a kernel is more difficult than the available documentation
> might lead one to believe.
> 
> There are many hundreds of options to be considered, a large part of
> which are "irrelevant" (i.e. the kernel will work regardless of these
> options).  Distinguishing the critical options from the irrelevant ones
> is difficult.  Precisely such an error is what I made.
> 
> Some options are relatively easy to set, for example, those under
> "drivers", where you select drivers for all the hardware you've got.  But
> what about sections like "general setup"?  Do I really need CONFIG_AUDIT?
> On reading the help, I shouldn't, but some program (can't remember which)
> complains if it's not there.  What about "Checkpoint/restore support"?
> About what?  Reading the help for each of these mysterious options is
> _hard work_.
> 
> Normally, I can get through 'make menuconfig' in about an hour and a
> half, with the help of a checklist I wrote in June 2011.  I can't
> remember how I managed when I was first installing Gentoo.
> -- 
> Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

emerge -av app-doc/linux-kernel-in-a-nutshell

Also available online http://www.kroah.com/lkn/

It's a bit dated, but the most comprehensive read IMO.

Then there's the kernel source, esp. /usr/src/linux/Documentation
-- 
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