is it possible to find out with which options the kernel has been compiled.
I am new to all this kernel stuff.

greets

Most current distributions store the config file for the installed kernels in /boot, so if you are running linux-2.4.20 chances are you have a file in /boot called config-2.4.20 or something to that effect.

To re-use that old configuration when you configure a new kernel, copy the config file to /usr/src/linux/.config, where /usr/src/linux is a symlink to the actual kernel source tree location. Then, in /usr/src/linux, run make oldconfig. You will be asked several questions. These are options that are new in the current version (the one you're configuring) and that were not available in the old version. The answers you give here aren't final - once you're done answering the questions you can do a regular make menuconfig or make xconfig to make sure everything looks OK and that you have all the options you want in there.

The 2.6-test series kernels provide a means of grabbing the configuration directly from /proc/config.gz, if that option was enabled during the configuration of the running kernel.

Håkan

Thx for your support,

does disabling hardware modules i don't need eg for some special soundcards which is not in my system enhance the performance?

If they're included as modules (indicated by an 'M' in menuconfig) rather than built into the kernel (indicated by '*') then the only difference it will make is to the time it takes to "make modules" when you compile it all. It will make no difference at runtime. If they're build into the kernel then the kernel size will be smaller, and maybe it will run a bit faster too (although I can't say for certain about that).

know i have compiled my "own" kernel and modules. I have copied bzImage to /boot and altered my /boot/grub/menu.lst acordingly and tried to reboot, it failes.
I have red a few things about initrd and System.map i have copied the new System.map to /boot. But didn't change anything else. I think i have forgotten something. How can i tell grub to use this new system.map in conjunction with my new kernel. Must i alter initrd???

Greets