[lug] What tweaks are done to kernels by distributors

[D. Stimits]

B O'Fallon wrote:
> 
> In general, what tweaks do Linux distributors do to the kernel before
> releasing it in their versions of Linux? I understand that Red Hat
> does some, but do the other distributors do also? If they do tweak
> them, what kind of tweaks are done --- I couldn't find anything about
> this at the RH site.
> 
> I ask this because I want to upgrade my RH 7.0 kernel to 2.2.18, which
> RH has not released under their own version. (I do not want to go to
> 2.4 right now).
> 
> I was thinking of using the version available from kernel.org, but am
> wondering what kind of problems that this might cause since it is not
> RH "tweaked".

One thing they do (not just RH I think) is to add bug fix patches. For
RH, I think they also add the patch to support large files (this doesn't
mean the applications understand alrge files though) over 2 gig. Long
ago, I think SuSE had something to aid YAST (but not required). If you
are not using something you know is specifically required, it probably
won't matter. For one thing, items like bug fixes are incorporated by
the next release anyway (or at least most of the time).

> 
> --
> B. O'Fallon
> bof at americanisp.net
> 
> 65,000 Bugs in Windows 2000? They only need 536 more and their whole
> Bug thing will wrap-around and go away. --- This should happen
> Real_Soon_Now. (Stolen from post on Internet)
> 

65,000 bugs is an interesting factoid. What it fails to take into
account is that the value is probably a signed value, and when it
reaches another 536, not only will the bugs go away, they'll become
valuable features.