Re: [RFC] Simplifying kernel configuration for distro issues

[Dave Jones <davej@redhat.com>]

On Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 01:37:41PM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote:

 > The point I'm slowly getting to is that I would actually love to have
 > *distro* Kconfig-files, where the distribution would be able to say
 > "These are the minimums I *require* to work".

As long as you don't mind these being added after the fact, I suppose
it would be workable.  The reason I say that is sometimes, it even catches *us*
by surprise.  We recently found out our virtualisation guys started
using sch_htb for example, and we inadvertantly broke it when we moved
its module to a 'not always installed' kernel subpackage. (and before that, 9PFS..)

People don't tell us anything, but somehow expect things to keep working.

 > In addition to the "minimal distro settings", we might also have a few
 > "common platform" settings, so that you could basically do a "hey, I
 > have a modern PC laptop, make it pick the obvious stuff that a normal
 > person needs, like USB storage, FAT/VFAT support, the core power
 > management etc".

I wish defconfig was actually something useful like this, instead of..
what the hell is it exactly ? No-one even seems to agree, other than
"random selection of options, many of which were removed n years ago"

	Dave