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a wonderful day this is, i just compiled my first kernel, thanks to this forum.
one question thou, because what i did was that i copied the config file from my previous kernel (2.4.20) to the new directory (2.4.21) and did a "make menuconfig", and just did some minor adjustments. I added irda support and changed the processor family. my original kernel came with the slackware 9.0 cd.
so did i miss out on some new upgrades in the kernel by doing this? is this a way to do it right?
i read on previous posts here that you could type "make oldconfig" and just be prompted the new kernel features. is what i just did the same?
Copying the config from one version to another isn'tthe best idea, but it usually (when there's no big difference in versions) work fine. I don't think there were important upgrades you should choose in the configuration.
From my point of view, loading up your existing config file is a useful starting point. If you don't then you'll end up with whatever default selections are present on the latest kernel, which may or may not be important to you. In other words, if you already spent a lot of time customizing your kernel on a previous recompile (and thus changed various default options to better fit your own rig), then I think you would run the risk of losing all that work if you didn't re-use your old config. To illustrate, if by default a lot of modules would get included to support things that you just don't need and so you unchecked them during your previous recompile, then if you were to reuse that old config those settings would be preserved. On the other hand, if you just went with whatever new defaults were present, you may find yourself with all those unneeded modules being recompiled back into your kernel.
This probably wouldn't hurt anything, but then again, if you want the sleekest and tightest kernel possible, then I think you could save yourself a lot of time by preserving any previous config decisions you've made in the past. At least that's the way I understand it, if my understanding is incorrect, please steer me in the right direction. -- J.W.
If you copy your old config file the options you have selected from your previous kernel will be preserved. All the new options will be selected as its defaults, so only the new options need to be modified to fit your needs. It's the same as make oldconfig except it's graphical
thanks again. as this was my first try at compiling a kernel, it seemed as a way to go. i tried to start out from scratch, but so many things went wrong, guess after some more practice things will work out better...
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