At first I have to say, I'm not quite sure if this question even belongs to this forum...

I've tried to search these (and some others too) forums for a solution, but either my eyes can't see it or then there is no thread for it...well, either way, hopefully someone can tell me something (I found a page from Google yesterday, which had something like this inside it, but lost it and I'm not even sure if it could have helped..)

So, I'm going to upgrade my kernel from 2.4.20-something to a newer version. I've emerged the sources, so the next thing I should do is "make menuconfig" (or xconfig, but I prefer menuconfig). I've done this many times before - actually I think last time I used a "ready" kernel was when I had RH back in the days. Anyway, until this day I've always (when updating - or upgrading, should I say - my kernel to a newer one) done all the changes and choises from scratch. And you folks know, this takes some time.

So here's the question: is there _any_ way to "copy" at least a part of my old config to the new one? I have done quite a lot of "own" choises when dealing with different problems and devices in order to make them work as I want, and remembering all the different modules and other stuff isn't that easy. And when something gets forgotten, all the dirty work starts all over again, eating up my time.

It'd be nice to get the old choises copied or something, from the old config to the new one, and after that check the new one out and do some new changes if needed. It would be more than nice. But I assume copying the old .config to the new source directory won't do?

If some of you have an idea how to get this thing done, please tell me...or do I really have to do things all over again every single time I need to update kernel?

Well, yes, copying your previous .config will work. If you're doing a major upgrade, like 2.4 to 2.6, there might be some issues, but otherwise there's no problem doing that.

John

Your choices are saved in a file, I think it is called $(LINUX_SRC)/.config (somebody verify or correct that?). However, it is not always advisable to copy configurations over, as options may have changed or new options may have been added. I have never bothered copying it over as I like to make sure what options are used each time. There is also `(EXPERIMENTAL)' code that becomes well enough tested to remove that tag, and I will sometimes then want those options too.

Ok, thanks for both of you. My original idea was to copy the old config (except that I wasn't sure if it works) and then look it quickly over to see if it needs something to be done.

And no, this isn't a major update...2.4.x to 2.4.y, so nothing that big.

By the way, what could happen if I would make a very big update, and it would happen that some options I had chosen in the old config would have been removed from the new one for some reason, and I would copy over my old config and compile it? This means, that I would have got an option(s) chosen that do not exist, but how would it affect the compilation process - I guess it'd start shooting error messages or what? This is, of course, just theoretical situation, but I've wondered that too...well, good I don't need to do that big things at least now

But thanks once more to you!

I would guess that anything menuconfig doesn't understand in the .config file is ignored and when the new .config file is written they would be lost.

I think you are always safe copying over a previous .config file, but of course you should scan down through the menu for changes. There's always a list of changes available somewhere with each kernel release that you can look at too.

John