On 17/04/2024 10:10, Michael wrote:
I am not sure the assumption "... aging hardware possibly can less and less cope with newer and newer kernels" is correct. As already mentioned newer kernels have both security and bug fixes. As long as you stick with stable gentoo-sources you'll have these in your system. Later kernels also come with additional kernel drivers for new(er) hardware. You may not need/want these drivers if you do not run the latest hardware. Using 'make oldconfig' allows you to exclude such new drivers, but include new security options and/or functionality as desired.
Given that I remember the announcement that the linux kernel's memory requirements had increased to 6MB - in the days when Fedora et al demanded gigabytes simply to be able to run - I think almost any ancient hardware you can actually buy will be able to run the linux kernel no probs.
You might have difficulty compiling it, though, now 386 support has been pretty much dropped from the toolchain. Have they dropped i686 as well?
Cheers, Wol
