There ought to be a site where you could enter the hardware that you have (mobo, video card, drives, etc.) and the kernel you are compiling, and then be able to download kernel config files that other people with similar hardware have uploaded.

Does anyone know if such a site exists already (I have looked but not found one)?

If nothing like that exists and I were to help create/host such a site (I would gladly accept help in the programming phase), would anyone be interested in using it (posting your config files and/or downloading other people's config files)?

If you think this is a good idea, what sort of information do you think would need to be collected in order to get something useful out of it? Are there major downsides to this idea that haven't hit me yet (besides perhaps not learning how to do your own configuration)?

Your thoughts?

never seen this cos configs can be so various...
compiling with a bad config file (wrong version, wrong parameters...) can lead to troubles...
BUT if you use EXACTLY the same hardware, that could be a great idea.

I'd be more than happy to donate some Dedicated T1 access to it for the next couple of months, maybe a year, I'm not sure how long I have the access for though. Email me if your interested at all.

I appreciate the offer of bandwidth. The first step, provided more people speak up and say that they would use such a site, would be to code the database. What sort of server do you have access to, and what back office apps are there? I was thinking of an SQL application, but not necessarily.

Wouldn't it be better to just write an app that generates a .config when you tell it what hardware you have? Come to think of it, isn't this what `make (g|x|menu)config` do?

No. They simply allow you to step through all of the configuration options. Alternately you can load a config file that sets all of them for you.

I know how long it took me to figure out which options I needed the first time I tried to compile a new kernel, and Im sure I ended up putting a whole bunch of things in there that I will never use just because I thought it "might" work. I suspect that the many Linux users have the same problem, which results in one of 2 things:

1. A bloated kernel

2. Limited functionality

But once you get it right, you can save that config file and use it again. It is these files that I am suggesting we find a way to share.

Well its a mandrake linux webserver i believe, running probably the latest version of mysql no doubt, latest php and CGI probably also. Its some server space that i bought from a college i went to, i have it for three years I think. so should be 1 year left on it. All this T1 does is serve up our portfolios to help us get jobs, but I dont need that. I already had a good job and went there with the soul purpose of aquiring more knowledge. Other than this. I could not offer much help. New to linux myself.