Re: [gentoo-user] kernel config strangeness

[Jack <ostroffjh@users.sourceforge.net>]

On 2019.08.01 22:05, Adam Carter wrote:
>> However, if I start with the .config which workd, and "make xconfig"  
>> and select "Supported processor types" under "Processor type and  
>> features" and then unselect "Support Intel Pprocessors" (I have a  
>> Ryzen) and save the config, it decreases the size of .config from  
>> 169K to under 13K, losing almost every setting in the file.
> 
> Checking my systems, .config is 131k (AMD system, so  
> CONFIG_CPU_SUP_INTEL is not set) and an Intel system is 116k.
> 
> Try following the same procedure using make menuconfig instead of  
> make xconfig and see what happens.
> 
First, I finally figured out this is not really important for me.   
"Supported Processor types" is ONLY for 32 bits.  One or more of those  
need to be set ONLY if the kernel needs to run on a 32 bit system.   
That is why it would be set for any live image which will run on 32  
bits, but would all be off for any distro that no longer supports 32  
bits.

Using menuconfig does not truncate .config.  However, my current guess  
is that some combination of settings where "Supported processor types"  
(CONFIG_PROCESSOR_SELECT) IS selected and perhaps one of it's sub  
settings (CONFIG_CPU XXX) is NOT selected causes make xconfig or  
gconfig to completely reset the configuration, reducing the next saved  
version to under 10k.

I found a (not much used) linux-config mailing list, and I'll probably  
post the issue there.

Jack