2006-03-29 14:29:33

by Eric Persson

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: kernel config repository

Hi,

I hope I'm not totally wrong here, but I figured this would be a good
place to start, the kernel-config list seems a bit dead.

I've been thinking about creating a community-driven .config repository,
since I havent found any good place for this sort of information.
I would see it as a place for people to contribute .configs for various
hardware/platforms and keep them updated and current with the kernel
releases.

Perhaps this exist(i havent found any easily), or is considered a bad
idea(please tell me), or is actually a good idea.

Tell me what you think, sorry if I might have sent this to the wrong list.

Keep up the good work.

Best regards,
Eric


2006-03-29 15:21:09

by Andyliu

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: kernel config repository

Eric,

For ppc and ppc64, there are some config files:
arch/ppc/configs/ and arch/powerpc/configs/.

Seems none for i386.

2006/3/29, Eric Persson <[email protected]>:
> Hi,
>
> I hope I'm not totally wrong here, but I figured this would be a good
> place to start, the kernel-config list seems a bit dead.
>
> I've been thinking about creating a community-driven .config repository,
> since I havent found any good place for this sort of information.
> I would see it as a place for people to contribute .configs for various
> hardware/platforms and keep them updated and current with the kernel
> releases.
>
> Perhaps this exist(i havent found any easily), or is considered a bad
> idea(please tell me), or is actually a good idea.
>
> Tell me what you think, sorry if I might have sent this to the wrong list.
>
> Keep up the good work.
>
> Best regards,
> Eric
> -
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--
Andyliu

2006-03-29 23:05:48

by Jesper Juhl

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: kernel config repository

On 3/29/06, Eric Persson <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I hope I'm not totally wrong here, but I figured this would be a good
> place to start, the kernel-config list seems a bit dead.
>
> I've been thinking about creating a community-driven .config repository,
> since I havent found any good place for this sort of information.
> I would see it as a place for people to contribute .configs for various
> hardware/platforms and keep them updated and current with the kernel
> releases.
>
> Perhaps this exist(i havent found any easily), or is considered a bad
> idea(please tell me), or is actually a good idea.
>

For some users being able to grab a pre-made .config may be valuable,
but for most people I doubt it will be very useful. Peoples hardware
differ a lot, so a "best" config is always going to be one that you
tweak personally to match your system. If you don't want to do that
you are probably just going to use a generic distro kernel anyway (or
you could use the .config of the distro kernel with make oldconfig
when building a new kernel).

Maybe it's a good idea, dunno, but I don't really think so.


--
Jesper Juhl <[email protected]>
Don't top-post http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/top-post.html
Plain text mails only, please http://www.expita.com/nomime.html

2006-03-30 04:18:44

by Randy Dunlap

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: kernel config repository

On Thu, 30 Mar 2006, Jesper Juhl wrote:

> On 3/29/06, Eric Persson <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I hope I'm not totally wrong here, but I figured this would be a good
> > place to start, the kernel-config list seems a bit dead.
> >
> > I've been thinking about creating a community-driven .config repository,
> > since I havent found any good place for this sort of information.
> > I would see it as a place for people to contribute .configs for various
> > hardware/platforms and keep them updated and current with the kernel
> > releases.
> >
> > Perhaps this exist(i havent found any easily), or is considered a bad
> > idea(please tell me), or is actually a good idea.
> >
>
> For some users being able to grab a pre-made .config may be valuable,
> but for most people I doubt it will be very useful. Peoples hardware
> differ a lot, so a "best" config is always going to be one that you
> tweak personally to match your system. If you don't want to do that
> you are probably just going to use a generic distro kernel anyway (or
> you could use the .config of the distro kernel with make oldconfig
> when building a new kernel).
>
> Maybe it's a good idea, dunno, but I don't really think so.

Yes, I save the configs for every kernel that I install, so I could
post those, but I don't see the usefulness of this idea.

--
~Randy

2006-03-30 21:39:08

by Eric Persson

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: kernel config repository

Jesper Juhl wrote:
> For some users being able to grab a pre-made .config may be valuable,
> but for most people I doubt it will be very useful. Peoples hardware
> differ a lot, so a "best" config is always going to be one that you
> tweak personally to match your system. If you don't want to do that
> you are probably just going to use a generic distro kernel anyway (or
> you could use the .config of the distro kernel with make oldconfig
> when building a new kernel).
>
> Maybe it's a good idea, dunno, but I don't really think so.

I understand your point, and you might as well be right.

I have experienced a very tough testing phase to make myself believe and
thrust a new kernel config, before I put it to live use. I only use HP
machines, most of them the same model and the difference in hardware are
usually just disks, memory and speed of cpu, which affects the config
inself very minmial, otherwise theyre all the same.
And to hook up and see other HP(replace with any brand/model) users and
see what configs they use, so all can benefit from config testing, would
be a great idea, thats what I think at least.

People compiling custom kernels for whatever piece of hardware they can
find will most likely not benefit, but the overall "community wisdom"
that this might generate would perhaps everyone benefit from.

Today, I find it hard find information about all the different configs,
more than whats in the help function in make menuconfig, but thats me.
And I think its a waste if good kernel development get ignored since
people dont know what config options to turn on. ;)

Well, I hope I might inspired or given some clarity on the topic, any
new input from this?

Best regards,
Eric

2006-04-01 00:18:23

by Adrian Bunk

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: kernel config repository

On Thu, Mar 30, 2006 at 11:39:08PM +0200, Eric Persson wrote:
>...
> I have experienced a very tough testing phase to make myself believe and
> thrust a new kernel config, before I put it to live use. I only use HP
> machines, most of them the same model and the difference in hardware are
> usually just disks, memory and speed of cpu, which affects the config
> inself very minmial, otherwise theyre all the same.
> And to hook up and see other HP(replace with any brand/model) users and
> see what configs they use, so all can benefit from config testing, would
> be a great idea, thats what I think at least.
>
> People compiling custom kernels for whatever piece of hardware they can
> find will most likely not benefit, but the overall "community wisdom"
> that this might generate would perhaps everyone benefit from.

Even excluding the case that many computers are more or less unique
combinations of half a dozen different components, everyone will use
different settings for most hardware-independent things like e.g. file
systems, preemption or networking options. Even if I had the same
hardware as you have, my config settings would therefore most likely be
completely different from yours.

> Today, I find it hard find information about all the different configs,
> more than whats in the help function in make menuconfig, but thats me.
> And I think its a waste if good kernel development get ignored since
> people dont know what config options to turn on. ;)
>
> Well, I hope I might inspired or given some clarity on the topic, any
> new input from this?

The help texts for the config options should be enough for an
experienced system administrator to set the right options.

If you know about help texts that could be improved, patches to improve
them are welcome.

> Best regards,
> Eric

cu
Adrian

--

"Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
"Only a promise," Lao Er said.
Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed