OSDev.org

I got pretty bored, so I decided to take a swing at kernel compilation and installation into my Ubuntu box.

I wanted to remove as many excess modules as possible, while still allowing me the ability to use some of the less common devices I had kicking around (fat/ntfs flash/usb drives, serial-based switches, etc...). So after about 20 minutes of selecting and deselecting, I finally finished the initial configuration.

Some of the things I chose:
newer xeon optimizations
full SMP support.
1000hz timer freq.
deadline scheduler

As my server/workstation does not have a soundcard and only has a NVidia GeForce 5500, I removed ALL support for soundcards and left only bare minimum graphics support.

unfortunately, on reboot (after installing), i found out that I left the RIVAFB graphics support installed in the kernel, and now I cant install my Nvidia drivers as there is a huge conflict between them.... so now I am re-recompiling the kernel without that stupid module.

Btw, this is the second time I've ever compiled a customized kernel, so I'm still learning quite a bit about this.

I have tried to compile Linux 2.6.x for my own use 8 times, and have succeeded in making a working system 7 times, and succeeded in making a working system that also worked with my hardware/graphics (nVidia) card.
Note: By succeeded I mean not giving up and reverting to my old kernel.

So....I guess that means that I'm batting .750!

I find that messing with the scheduling and memory and processor configurations actually does give me a speed/stability boost compared to the defaults from openSuse.

My one issue is that it takes long time to compile (but what can you expect). So if you miss one option, you just lost another 1/2 hour to an hour (to a day).

-JL

ya lol.
it takes me about 10-15 minutes to do a full compile + install. but then again, I'm running two quad-core 2ghz xeons with 8 gigs of memory. =)

I've noticed that using the high freq timer and using deadline scheduling actually boasts a noticable speed increase for UI interactions.

I never got a prebuilt kernel (SuSE, RedHat, Debian) to work to satisfaction. Happy Gentoo user building his own custom kernels since Gentoo 1.4 (that's... like... 2003?).

You sure learn a lot that way... it takes more time, but it's educational.

I am compiling kernel quite often since I am working with linux source at work.
Fortunately I don't need most of the modules so compilation takes max. 7minutes.
I would suggest to everybody to make a backup of running kernel image before you
install a new one.

I don't overwrite the existing kernel, I just add another line to GRUB and point it to the newly compiled kernel.