[lug] stock kernels

[David Morris]

On Fri, Oct 04, 2002 at 09:21:30AM -0600, John Hernandez wrote:
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> David, can you explain why?  I'm curious because I used to build my own
> from kernel.org source, but once the novelty of keeping up with the
> latest wore off, I find the RH kernel binaries to be very adequate.
> 
> What's the benefit of using a "stock" Linus kernel?

Let me re-phrase my below statement:

If you are going to compile your own kernel, I recommend you
get the source from kernel.org rather than using a distro
source package.

If you all you want is to use a "stock" pre-compiled kernel,
then you you should without question use the one provided by
your distribution if it suits your needs (they don't for my
systems usually, but then I'm hardly your average user).

If you *do* want to compile the kernel yourself, the reason
to get the *source* from kernel.org directly rather than
using a source package is that you know exactly what you are
getting.  In some distributions, the source code package is
modified a bit.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, I just
don't trust such modifications of a stable product without
reading in detail the reasons for their
modifications...which with a kernel, I certainly am not
about to do.

So, when I compile my own kernel, I get the source from
kernel.org.  If I then need it patched for some reason, I
will ordinarily only accept patches from one of the official
maintainers (such as Alan's -ac patches)....which might
often be necessary if you are trying to use a very new
feature of the kernel.

The other problem with distro source packages is they might
be old.....a co-worker of mine recently tried to compile and
install one of the early 2.4 kernels, and had many troubles
with the system after that simply because it was a
(relatively) old version of the kernel he comipled.

--David

> David Morris wrote:
> | (if you get the kernel from kernel.org
> | which I *highly* recommend over a pre-packaged kernel)
> 
> - --
> 
> ~  - John Hernandez - Network Engineer - 303-497-6392 -
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