Recovering .config from vmlinuz and System.map

["Paul Rolland" <rol@as2917.net>]

Hello,

I've a box running a linux 2.4.18-14 (RH stuff), for which I've lost
the .config file...

I've gone through a long .config recovery process by looking at the
entries in System.map, changing the configuration, building the kernel,
diffing the new System.map with the reference one, again and again.

The diff process was done only on the symbol names and the last diff
states :
diff -urN System.map-9 System.map-2.4.18-sound | less
--- System.map-9        Tue Feb 18 13:36:33 2003
+++ System.map-2.4.18-sound     Tue Feb 18 09:47:47 2003
@@ -10776,6 +10776,7 @@
 d __setup_str_console_setup
 d __setup_str_reserve_setup
 d startup.0
+d configs
 d zone_balance_ratio
 d zone_balance_min
 d zone_balance_max

Could someone direct me to where is located this "configs" stuff
that I can't find ?

Second question : the addresses in front of the symbols don't match
(except for the first ones)... I'm using the same kernel tree, the
same compiler... Any idea ? First diff is :
--- /usr/src/linux/System.map   Tue Feb 18 14:12:14 2003
+++ /boot/System.map-2.4.18-sound       Wed Nov 20 17:52:19 2002
@@ -441,244 +441,244 @@
 c010d380 T sys_modify_ldt
 c010d3de t .text.lock.ldt
 c010d400 t show_cpuinfo
-c010d5f0 t c_start
-c010d620 t c_next
-c010d640 t c_stop
...
+c010d5e0 t c_start
+c010d610 t c_next
+c010d630 t c_stop
...

Thanks in advance,

Paul