On 2009-03-20, Adrian Levi <adrian.l...@gmail.com> wrote: > 2009/3/20 Matthew Smith <m...@smiffytech.com>: >> Hi Folks >> >> Nearing the end of my journey now (Gentoo to Debian migration.) Setting up >> VMware Workstation from the official distribution (this is the commercial >> one that I use) requires me to re-build the kernel so that it and the VMware >> modules are compiled with the same version of gcc. >> >> I derived the .config for the kernel I am building from /proc/config.gz >> >> This is a HUGE build, taking forever. May sound like a daft question, but >> is the ease-of-use of the stock kernel due to the fact that drivers for >> EVERYTHING are built as modules? >> >> Not used to distros that just work - especially with odd wireless drivers - >> so forgive me if I sound a little stunned! > > Everything is compiled as modules, necessary items are included in an > initrd image that is loaded at boot time. so that the modules are > available for thins such as mounting you preferred file system and the > modules to access the required block device. > > If everything was compiled in the kernel would work just as well but > it would be huge! > > Note that (at least there used to be) specific Debian patches applied > to the Debianised kernel sources to allow things such as a cramfs > initrd. I am not sure if this is still the case for cramfs > specifically (may have been merged into the vanilla kernel) but there > are still specific kernel patches applied AFAIK. > > Welcome to Debian propper! ;-) > > Adrian >
You'd customize the config file, don't select those modules you do not need. The compile time may reduce. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
