Re: Petition against kernel configuration options madness...

Brad Hards
2002-11-03T22:20:45Z

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On Mon, 4 Nov 2002 08:59, Dave Jones wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 03, 2002 at 12:52:48PM -0500, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> > This is potentially becoming a FAQ... I ran into this too, as did
> > several people in the office. People who compile custom kernels seem to
> > run into this when they first jump into 2.5.x. AT Keyboard support is
> > definitely buried :/
>
> Documentation isn't enough. It _has_ to be made simpler.
> Its obvious that this is the #1 stumbling block to a 2.5 virgin right now.
> I fell over it myself when I merged it, as did Linus I believe.
> It's just not obvious enough.
This is a general merging issue. I personally didn't get affected (because USB
only is good), but it was a big problem for 2.4.19-pre10, when HID input
support became optional (so you can have HID for an embedded USB UPS server,
without getting bloat).

The idea of using a kernel revisioning system is good, but things change
between any two kernels (2.4.19-pre9 and 2.4.19-pre10 in this case).

Suggest that the kernel .config should be revisioned, and if the version
doesn't match, make $BUILDTARGET (eg bzImage, vmlinux, modules, whatever)
should not run. make install and make modules_install shouldn't run either.

Instead, if the version differences are minor (definition TBA), then make
[|x|menu|old|m]config should copy the old .config to an alternative name (eg.
.config-previous) and then for each option, we should pull from
.config-previous, then def-config (if no entry in .config-previous), which
we'd then have as a default. and allow the user to override.

Also note that this will NOT solve the problem described. When you move
functionality into an existing section, which is turned off, you have to
check every option. Consider the impact of creating a "make kernel boot"
option three levels down in the AX.25 code. 99% of kernel builders wouidn't
see it. Generally you only get this level of breakage in unstable series, so
people need to rebuild their config from scratch anyway. Also, the intent of
some options changes (consider those that no longer need any SCSI, because
their IDE CD-RW device is now native)

Fundamentally, if you don't know how to build the configuration, this is a
good time to learn, even if only by trial and error.

Brad

- --
http://linux.conf.au. 22-25Jan2003. Perth, Aust. I'm registered. Are you?
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