[wellylug] Dumb questions 101 - How to compile a more modern Kernel for Debian

[Ben Hawkes]

Hey,

On Fri, Jan 23, 2004 at 06:57:46PM +1300, Enkidu wrote:
<snip>
> <troll text="You don't have to bite!!" >
> I don't know why people pick Debian (or other package based distros)
> for its package management system (they do!) and then compile things
> over the top of it! It might be necessary for the odd package or
> driver, but I've not felt the need over several years of personal and
> professional use of package based distributions!
> </troll>
<snip>

I'm feeling hungry so here's some possible reasons why the kernel binary 
package isn't good enough:

- Bloat. When you're configuring a kernel for use in a package you have
  to take into account that the compiled product is going to be used on
  a number of different systems with different device driver needs. In
  compiling your own kernel you have the luxury of being able to
  optimize the configuration to suit the needs of the individual
  machine. Disabling LKMs comes to mind..
- Not only can you optimize the kernel, but also cover the need for 
  obscure kernel configurations not covered by the binary package if
  that so arised. SMP comes to mind.
- Third party kernel patches or variations of the official source tree. 
  It's becoming more and more popular to use kernel hardening patches 
  such as grsecurity or openwall. Often people for some reason or 
  another insist on using modified kernel series such as -ac or -mm.

Any more? Possibly, but they get pretty pedantic. As for userland
programs, I tend to agree that in most situations packages suffice.
One of the situations where compilation comes to mind is needing a 
critical service to be optimized while still enjoying the niceties of a
binary distribution. Having cake and eating it too?

-- 
Ben Hawkes
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