I was compiling the kernel 2.6 here, but even deselecting I lot of unused things my box is still taking more time them before to boot up the kernel. And the kernel its about 2.5mb. But maybe the problem is that the most options I selected to incorporate in kernel, like everything that I know is connected in my box, or things like mouse and some supports...

Modules starts automaticly when needed or they always need to be called with modprobe??

the generic kernel that I was using after the instalation (2.4) is about 1.9mb, I first thought that taking of the lot of things unused it able to come down 1.9mb...


:/

I'm not sure what is best, but I tend to keep hardware support in modules. The kernel will load what it needs and the kernel itself will stay relatively small.

In the long run it's also easier to add/replace hardware as you go along or to copy the kernel to another, similar cpu type, pc.

Personally I have never noticed much difference between different kernel sizes. I guess it's a myth to think smaller is faster.

modules can load automatically (just select the option in the kernel)

but they don't unload automatically, so once loaded they stay until manually unloaded, or restart happens

No...there IS a noticable difference with speed regarding different kernel sizes.

A great place to check is is with your stock 2.4- check out lsmod, and find what modules are being loaded and, more importantly, used. If you never use some stuff (firewire, for example), don't put it in there.

Personally, i've gotten my kernel to about 1.5M or so, and am pretty satifsied. Sure, there are still some things I could probably get out of it, but it is much slimmer than the stock 2.4. Just play around...eventually you'll get it. Then just save your old .config file and you'll be good for the 2.6 series .

Hope this helps

Andrew

For reference, I have a 2.6.12 kernel and it is 1.3Mb. I try to compile anything that I need at boot time (filesystems) into the kernel, get rid of what I don't need, and add everything else as modules.