All,

This is my first effort in making something more appropriate for laptop users (exclusively). This is a kernel config for 2.6.30.5. I started with the Slackware Generic-SMP 32bit kernel config (this is a 32bit kernel config). All credit for (in my opinion) the best starting place for any kernel config goes to Patrick Vokerding. (Please tell me if I am or am not doing this properly in terms of respecting the work of others, GPL, GNU, etc.)

Here is the changelog:

- Enable NO_HZ: 1% battery life savings is better than nothing.
- Use LZMA compression: a smaller image is better for some machines.
- Optimize for size: a smaller image is better for some machines; -Os is (I hear) a better way to optimize for Pentium-M or other processors with big L2 caches, and is recommended by the kernel help file on the subject.
- Unselect Disable Heap Randomization: hopefully this will improve security a small bit; better something than nothing. Laptop users will probably be interested in security due to the mobility factors.
- Disable support for non-PCs.
- Disable MPS table.
- Select 586/686 as architecture: I doubt anyone's going to have a more ancient laptop, and we need to consider who will possibly use slackware on such an old system: few exist. This is my best attempt to get closer to the minimum recommended CPU for this laptop concept: the Pentium-M. Please contact me if you have a 486 laptop.
- Disable PentiumPro memory errata: the kernel help says it's unlikely and rare; please contact me if you need it.
- Voluntary Kernel Preemption (Desktop): because we're not designing this for throughput (per se)
- Disable CPU Microcode: I doubt anyone needs to update their CPU's microcode. This sounds very dangerous. Please contact me if you need it.
- Disable Math emulation: everything 586+ has a math coprocessor: this is not needed. Please contact me if you have a 486 laptop.
- Enable x86 PAT
- Disable APM: most laptops that had past kernel issues with APM versus ACPI are dead by now, but if you need APM, please contact me.
- Enable Smart Battery System: in case someone has such a laptop.
- Make default CPUFreq governor OnDemand: this is what most laptop manufacturers seem to recommend in the sense that almost every laptop I have used sets "automatic" or basically "ondemand" as the default governor. But feel free to email me if your opinion differs.
- Set UserSpace governor to <M>. If you really need this <*>, please contact me.
- Disable Intel Enhanced SpeedStep (depreciated): ACPI P-states does all this stuff now, and I want to prevent any possible conflicts. Email me if you need it.
- Enable PCI Express ASPM support: in an effort to save even more power. It's marked experimental, so if you find problems, please let me know.
- Enable One Laptop Per Child support.
- Enable SPI support.
- Enable Tablet Input devices.
- Make <M> all new drivers: since the generic-smp config was 2.6.29.6 and a few new modules came out since then.
- Enable Voltage and Current Regulator Support: just in case your laptop has any of this.
- Set default AC97 powersave mode to 1 second time: I have not had a problem with this, and this is my second laptop to have the AC97 codec. If it causes you problems, please contact me.
- Set Intel HD Audio to support digital beep input.
- Set usbcore to <M> and auto-suspend enabled: this is to hopefully have a default /etc/modprobe.d/usbcore.conf that auto-suspends USB system at 1 second. Remember, the goal here is battery life. Please contact me if this causes problems.
- Enable EDAC (error detection and reporting)
- Enable <M> all staging drivers: normally I would not use any of these, but just in case someone does....
- X86 Platform Specific: all laptop modules to <M>. My experience with the Toshiba and Sony modules, and on other people's laptops with the Dell modules, so far this works fine, as Slackware's userspace loads these as needed. Please let me know if you have a laptop where one of these is absolutely required for the laptop to function properly.
- Filesystems ext2|3|4, xfs, reiserfs, jfs to <*>: this is because I will soon be making this the installer kernel. The "slap" will be similar to "huge" and the "slapped" to "generic" in concept (all credit to Patrick for his naming system).
- Windows Logical Disk (Dynamic Disk) enabled: I don't know why support for this is not enabled....

Again, please contact me with your comments. Again, this is not a distribution: it's simply a minor retool/reconfig to be more targeted to laptop users. All credit goes to Patrick Volkerding for my favorite Linux distribution: Slackware Linux. If I did not credit someone, let me know.

Feel free to discuss and give advice, as I am a n00b.

You would make testing a lot easier, if you would upload your config file

I'd like to see KMS, but this is not laptop specific

I don' t think non-modular filesystem drivers are a nice idea for a generic version. The rest looks nice so far.

config-slap-2.6.30.6

All filesystems set to <M>

Since 30 minutes I'm runnig this configuration on my EeePC 901. Until now no errors. I'll give feedback, if something gets wrong.

What i can say is, that the digital beep sucks
How can i make this not that loud? I use google for that

cu

I think it's tied to your mixer volume.

Thank you for testing!

Yes, it can be configured every mixer. Nice. Never noticed this possibility.

I have a suggestion:
It would be cool to set
To get iotop working. I saw you are interested in performance tuning (using powertop). iotop shows the current io of the system. This is for example interesting when using slow ssds to find bootle necks or processes that don't close files properly.

The point of the kernel is to save battery if possible. Powertop helps do that, and iotop is for I/O. I would like to include that, but the point of this kernel is power savings. For now, I'll leave it out. But thanks!

I see the original poster pooh-poohed this suggestion. Pity. The reason he did so was to "save battery". But by using iotop to identify processes that write to disk (or read) and thus cause the disk to keep spinning, would certainly be of help to preserve battery life. So this would seem to me to be a very good idea. The accounting details gathered are in memory and won't themselves cause extra powerloss. I urge a re-consideration.

Ok, I will include it. Thanks!

http://www.puresimplicity.net/~twinr...-slap-2.6.31.1

Includes I/O stats changes.

New kernel config for 2.6.31.3

Changes:
- New firewire stack now included as <M> so that you can specify which of the two you want using rc.modules and/or blacklist.

Notes:
- HFS+ no longer marked "EXPERIMENTAL" in kernel (but no change to config).

http://www.puresimplicity.net/~twinr...-slap-2.6.31.3

Will there be a 2.6.32 version? I could of course create it myself but it looks like you are better informed on what is useful or useless

I am keeping the configuration current. Here you go:

http://www.puresimplicity.net/~delah...-slap-2.6.32.2
http://www.puresimplicity.net/~delah...lap64-2.6.32.2

Thanks!

the links are broken