Hi.

Relatively newbie in Linux world, have installng and done som distro hopping and using various distros in daily tasks.

So I have this question: Does it exist a pool out there a place where users can choose and pick custom made kernels? If yes, what is the security risks?

And I may be misleading myself, but I have this idea that If I got to find an old computer in the scrap yard, and if I try to install Linux on it, it may or may not work.

I actually did got one old P3 computer that old distro worked well, but newer distros didn't supported the graphic card. That is the idea behind this question.
So I was thinking - is it possible to go get a custom kernel that support anchient hardware that is taken away from modern distros?

Does my questions make sense? If not, please explain

SOme persons do need and use custom kernels, either because they have custom things they want to do or custom applications they want to use. It's not terribly common, but it is indeed a thing.

This article from the Arch Wiki looks like a good place to start your research: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel

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In almost every distro the creators of it build a custom kernel. Some distro's let you insert a vanilla or stock one.

There are still folks that insist on making a kernel just for their system and programs. Gentoo and LFS are starters.

It is unlikely that you can get a modern kernel on some of the older hardware easily. Either pick an older version of get one of the distro's made for older hardware.

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Moved: This thread is more suitable in <Linux - Kernel> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

There is just one Linux Kernel, or rather 2, LibreLinux is also a thing. But it's just an adapted version of the regular Linux Kernel.

Custom Kernel means that you configure and compile your own version of the Kernel. Normal Kernels that come with most distroes is a "huge kernel" with "everything" included, put together by the Kernel team of the distro to serve as many needs as possible. This is done with both included parts of the Kernel, but more so with a huge number of included modules. Most people don't need all that stuff.

Anyways, building your own custom kernel is indeed a thing. I do it all the time, mostly for some purpose, but also just to make a smaller kernel. And the smaller it is, the faster it is to build. I've adapted my Kernel to my computer hardware and needs, which was not a very easy task. It took about 10 versions to make it "perfect".

While I'm not really sure what you mean by "pool", I assume you mean "is there a single place where I can pick a kernel with a particular set of customization's?". If that is what you meant; not that I personally know of, but as said above, you can pick probably any distribution you like, and the developers of said distribution have likely done something you might be able to call "customizing the kernel". I think you'll find for the most part, that's probably simply adding particular patches to the kernel, and enabling or disabling certain "features" of it. The biggest security risk in that case, and to my way thinking would be the experience of the developers concerned. If it's a mainstream distribution that's been around for a long time, then it's likely there won't be much of a risk in that case. If it's a kernel you've customized yourself, then it depends on you own experience and knowledge.

Personally, the stock kernel in my distribution of choice tends to serve me quite well, and therefore I don't generally see a need to customize a kernel myself. So unless you have good reason, and/or you're a "build it yourself kind of person", then there's probably not a lot of point going to that sort of trouble. As you'll likely get very little benefit from it, other than maybe if you want to learn more about kernel's and operating systems in general.

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We had a thread like this once before, possibly over at Linux Forums when I was a member there. At that time, I always built my own kernels because I had old hardware that booted painfully slowly with a stock kernel. The consensus of that thread was that you should use the stock kernel if you could, especially in a major distro, because it was probably customised to get the best performance out of the system software.

Now that I have a decent computer, I generally use the kernel provided. And if I do need a different one (for example for a security patch) I still use the system config file.

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Thank you very much for posting good and helpfully answers.

As far a building a custom kernel? Yes, this is an everyday thing for some, but those would be Linux developers, not everyday users.

As far as getting Linux running on a desktop, and especially if it is x86 architecture, instead of custom kernels, I'd look instead for distributions which have been cited to work with your specific hardware.

Sometimes what you feel may be very old, is nowhere near considered to be old by others, and as a result, many kernels may run perfectly fine on your hardware.

The best thing to do is to describe your hardware (you sort of have done so) and see if anyone has any distribution recommendations.

I think you're best served by looking for a distribution which gives you the user experience you prefer, such as those you see in modern distributions, but also is capable of running on your P3 hardware.

Meanwhile, you should define what attributes of a modern Linux distribution you would like to see run on this older hardware. What software you feel you need, and what user experience you feel you need, or prefer.

It's a good to know kind of thing though. I'd generally recommend mature newbies try it to get a feel of it and hopefully learn it.

Doesn't make much difference on normal computers if you use distro kernel or custom kernel though. But I've had a few cases where I've actually needed to make a custom kernel.

I ran into that problem with my previous desktop machine. I'd never had any problem running Linux on it, then suddenly a new kernel panicked on boot. And every subsequent kernel did the same. I can't remember the exact version where the problem started, but linux-4.12 definitely worked and later versions did not, unless I disabled acpi (which I didn't want to have to do for obvious reasons).

Apparently the cure for this is to "bisect the kernel" to find the actual change that is causing the problem, so I did that. Curiously that change had nothing directly to do with acpi but was a memory mapping problem that must somehow have affected the acpi driver. So from that time on, I had to build all my kernels by hand after patching the source to get rid of the unwanted change. It was a great relief when I bought my present machine and didn't have to do that any more.