Hey everyone,

I've been spending the last bit researching and reading about compiling a kernel and am currently in the process of slimming down the kernel and playing with the options.

Yea sure, why mess with what is working so perfectly fine, but I'd like to learn.

One thing I'm having a problem with though is determining which support options I should be enabling. To give an example, there are many many options for Device Drivers -> Hardware Monitoring support (as well as many of the Device Drivers options) but I'm having troubles determining what exactly sits inside my system and I'm not even sure how to find out what it's composed of.

I'm running a Dell Inspiron 5150. Where would I go to find in depth information about what is inside? I've looked around on the web to find the very uninformative "52x cd-rom, pentium 4 3.06 GHz, ..." and was hoping there was some way to determine the specific hardware on the motherboard.

Thanks in advance,
Coto

From a running system, the following commands can be helpful:
This lists all of the PCI interfaces on your computer in fairly good detail. It will tell you what the majority of your hardware is -- but not all of it.
Tells you about your CPU.
A very handy command. This lists all of the modules currently being used. If you run the generic-smp kernel, most things are built as modules -- so the module for most of your hardware will be listed here. If you use the huge kernel instead, then many modules are built into the kernel and will not be listed in lsmod output (unfortunately).

You should use the default Slackware kernel's .config file as a starting point to prevent accidentally missing a module (and therefore either reducing functionality or completely trashing the kernel). Advice for doing so is located here. That is a GREAT kernel compiling guide for Slackware.

If you're interested in hardware monitoring, running `sensors-detect` as root will output a list of modules that your system can use to monitor the hardware status (like temperature, etc.).

Beyond all of that, you may wish to go through your /var/log/dmesg file to see more details about what's in your system (dmesg output is often noisier than the other commands, but contains some valuable information).

Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks T3. I've read the guide mentioned above as well. I was more or less searching for things I could get rid of that were being compiled into the kernel.

I think you should take a look at chapter 7 of this free online book:
http://www.kroah.com/lkn/

It's a good book, recommend you read some of it.

Hi,

The 'Linux Kernel in a Nutshell' that 'H' recommended is a great desk reference to have on hand.

This link and others are available from 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

Thanks both. I just finished downloading.. I guess I'll make it a weekend project.

This Script will list all modules that are loaded in your system. I sometimes find it quite useful when recompiling a kernel.

In addition to that, you can boot from latest slax cd and see what settings are selected automatically. Slax usually gives a very good auto configuration of the system.

And read the linux kernel in a nutshell=) that helps as well=)

Make sure that you make a backup of your current kernel and you have internet access when booting from a new kernel. It might help you deal with kernel panic quikly=)
Good luck!

1. Be sure that all your device drivers are starred as built-in or M as Module.
2. Set CPU type, and review other configurations
3. Turn off any unessecary components (like experimental drivers for more than one gigabit netcards)
4. Patch it (Only if you have special configurations)
5. Make (Compiling...)
6. Copy
7. Add to grub menu.
8. Reboot.

If failed first do "make mrproper", this will clean up building directories and give you a second try.