[lug] Kernel Compiles

[Nate Duehr]

On 4/10/2010 12:49 PM, Maxwell Spangler wrote:
> Just curious,
>
> When was the last time you compiled your own kernel?
>
> And why did you feel the need to do it?
>
> I'm really looking for answers from non-kernel developers, and
> non-hardware developers.  End users who can't just install upgraded
> kernels, modules or recompile modules but for some reason need to do the
> whole kernel tree.
>    
When I was running desktop Linux machines on newer hardware, fairly 
often until the mainline kernel natively supported the hardware.  (One 
of the things that continually drove me AWAY from recommending Linux on 
the desktop to people not involved in the computer/IT world.  The amount 
of time explaining "this manufacturer won't publish hardware 
specifications that software driver engineers can write to" got old 
after the 20-30th time, while trying to help friends and acquaintances 
run Linux...)

Otherwise, when running servers... I avoided it as much as possible, to 
the point of buying "known to work" hardware prior to even loading Linux 
on the box.  Mid 90's the ethernet chipsets in the newer HP/Compaq 
servers the boss bought at one company were seriously flakey, and I 
updated them by hand to get by until the newer versions of the driver 
hit the mainline kernel, but that was 2 boxes out of hundreds... and the 
flakiness was a real driver bug...

I guess the only other times have been "playtime" with filesystems many 
years ago... early versions of ReiserFS, XFS, etc... playing around with 
them.  Never would have used those custom-built kernels for serious 
business or personal reasons back then, though... too unstable/unsafe 
back then.  (Warnings in the kernel modules I was playing with to the 
effect of: "You WILL lose data if you use this!", etc.)

Also did some custom compiles for an HP/Compaq iPaq handheld for JFFS2, 
etc... a very long time ago, just to get it to work...

These days, I just don't have/make time for that stuff, since all of the 
Linux machines I'm dealing with are heavily embedded, and mucking around 
with the filesystems is rare on them.

--
Nate Duehr
nate at natetech.com