I know demand for this probably would've been much higher about 5 years ago, but I just had a thought that might be interesting to implement, but I'd first like to get thoughts.

What does everyone think of a webapp that would let someone configure a kernel, including which version they want, select from a certain set of patchsets, input their email address, and then when the compilation is done, download a .tar.bz2 containing the kernel, modules tree, .config, and System.map from a link provided in an email to them.

Additionally, does anyone know if i386 and x86-64 can compile kernels for other architectures just by setting up the proper config, or if a cross-compiler is required?

Thanks for reading, and hopefully responding.

A cross-compiler can work, but it's a PITA to setup.

And why worry about compiling your own kernel? Distribution kernels make everything a module, so you get no speed gains. And most of the time people don't know what options they actually need anyway, so they end up with a broken system.

True. Maybe there isn't much point.

I always roll my own kernels, personally. Been doing it that way for 8 years, so maybe it's just habit... well, that and using Gentoo

Yea, Gentoo is known to cause people to do things for no good reason :/

I see you run Debian... I used to, but got so tired of waiting for updates, that I had to completely abandon using APT and revert to installing from .tar.gz. That and the millions of dependencies and lack of sane configuration. But that's just my .02. To each their own.

I run unstable and while a few things lag behind, I don't have any uncontrollable urges to update. The system runs fine as is.

And what do you mean by "lack of sane configuration"?