From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Qnz5q-0008LD-0c for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:28:06 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id AD36D21C39F; Mon, 1 Aug 2011 20:27:49 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail2.viabit.com (mail2.viabit.com [65.246.80.16]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4BAC321C099 for ; Mon, 1 Aug 2011 20:26:29 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [172.17.29.6] (unknown [65.213.236.242]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail2.viabit.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 05B5F37AD8 for ; Mon, 1 Aug 2011 16:26:27 -0400 (EDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=simple/simple; d=orlitzky.com; s=mail2; t=1312230388; bh=63dXoW3SNQcqIowJcm/JUJQFBtUXbe/GLja/D8zrTAg=; h=Message-ID:Date:From:MIME-Version:To:Subject:References: In-Reply-To:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding; b=NUPvdLCJmTP2MRz7mXFVvmr/i2wX1kqHz6J8/Jl9KwcX7IQdx2+xev7jE1WMmDJUs tws2ZQOlte55ed/1LdLw3xhRp9GVz9ob2HibvolvxuxXuGowtfuUW0rQ4RXGXkyVW2 uEkOrQq7Jr2WRtMWYDIMJH1oq2g7J9OyLTfionKk= Message-ID: <4E370BEE.2060004@orlitzky.com> Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:26:22 -0400 From: Michael Orlitzky User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110713 Lightning/1.0b3pre Thunderbird/3.1.10 Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] make oldconfig necessary? References: <4E36CD86.5040109@badapple.net> In-Reply-To: <4E36CD86.5040109@badapple.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: X-Archives-Hash: fb3f8f7cc8f4a8531a5abaa4bc77dea4 On 08/01/2011 12:00 PM, kashani wrote: > On 7/31/2011 7:06 PM, Pandu Poluan wrote: >> Let's say I have a .config from an older kernel version (for example, >> 2.6.38), and now I want to install a newer kernel (let's say, 3.0). >> >> Is it necessary to first do `make oldconfig`, or is it safe to go >> directly to `make menuconfig`? > > Necessary to run make old config? No. > > Easier and simpler most of the time? Yes. > Use oldconfig. Running 'oldconfig' will prompt you for any new sections/drivers that have appeared since your last kernel. Running 'menuconfig' will silently accept all of the defaults for these new options. Why is it safer if only the new stuff gets defaulted? Because on more than one occasion, there has been a group of drivers, e.g. wireless chipsets, that got a new "enable anything" option. So while you may have had your Atheros chipset enabled in the old kernel, the new kernel has a "enable wireless networking" option that defaults to "no" despite the fact that your old kernel had one or more wireless chipsets enabled. This also happened with the entire SATA subsystem, resulting in at least one extra trip to the office for me. I'm not bitter, though.