Hello,everyone.

I haven't compiled my kernel for a long time due to its time-consumption.So,I would like to ask:
Is it possible for me to install the appropriate module only instead of compiling the new kernel again?Because I only use some new devices which my kernel doesn't support right now.e.g.Bluetooth,WLAN.

Is it possible to install module for them?Will the hardware be detected afterwards?If possible,how can I install them?

P.S. I do like compiling kernel for experimental purpose,it takes too much time,though.

You already have a configuration? ( zcat /proc/config.gz or ls /proc/config.gz or /usr/src/linux/.config)
Then only the newly selected modules would be built.
You own a P4 2.8GHZ ?
This doesn't take more than 10 minutes with that machine - configuring the kernel to include your new modules will take longer than to build it...
Also looking for another solution will be much slower...
Just build it.

that's very true, it has been a lot easier to me compiling new kernels for hardware support than hunting off the network for drivers

jomen,raska,thanks for the replies.

You said that kernel compilation is less than 10 mins.However,I compiled the kernel on my PIII 733,512MB RAM takes me over (definitely) 10 mins! Besides,I have to choose from menu to menu and find out which driver I need.It really takes time...Or do you have any great idea?Please drop me a line.Because I do compile my kernel,but not very into it.So,I am not vey familiar with it.

Thanks.

i'm pretty sure it can be done, i mean, isn't that exactly what happens when you run the nvidia driver installer?? like, it compiles a new module without touching the kernel??

either way, i always recompile the whole shabang when i need to add something... honestly i don't think it takes too long on my box - about the amount of time it takes to smoke one cigarrette i think - and i'm on an old AMD Athlon 1.2ghz...

PS: it definitely takes less than 10 minutes on my box!!!

or you could find out which driver you need BEFORE trying to configure your kernel... google.com is great for this kinda thing... search and find which option(s) you need to select, and then when you run your menuconfig you'll know exactly where to go right away... and since you are basing yourself off your old .config there's nothing else to change...

Use the 'lspci' command to find out the actual model numbers for your components. Pretty easy after that.

lspci -v
yes - and you know what you need - do you? So there is not a lot of searching...
And on top of that you probably already have a configuration for your kernel - look at my other post...
All you need to do is to add the things you want now but did not compile in when you did it the last time.
Besides: your signature says:
P4 2.8GHZ
512MB DDR2 400 RAM
that is - at the very least - 4 times as fast as 733 Mhz

If you still have the kernel source dir, and a .config file there, then reconfigure with your new modules. So long as you dont change any 'compiled in' stuff, a make modules && make modules_install will simply add the new modules.
If you have qt installed, its make xconfig (my favourite anyhow), this loads you previous config, so you just add a module or two, save, and make modules && make modules_install.
This works for me anyway, and takes even less than 10 mins!
tobyl

Less than 10 minutes to compile a new kernel?

WTF?

I've compiled several kernels (about 8 or 10) on my P4 1.7 GHZ box and it always takes at least two hours. That's two hours of compilation, not including the configs. I keep trying to trim my kernel each time so that I wouldn't have to build so many modules, but oftentimes I trim too much and then this or that doesn't work after boot.

I'm sure I could trim a whole lot more, but I'm just not sure exactly what I need and don't need. Many of the modules are downright obvious and I know right off the bat that I won't need them, but many are not so obvious and I'm not sure whether to include them or not.

Ten minutes to compile a working kernel? That must be pure heaven!

LocoMojo

yup, it takes around 10 to compile on my laptop (HP pavilion zv5200), and no more than 5 minutes to compile on my (past Saturday's new) desktop system

desktop system is:
AMD Athlon64 3700+ ~ 2.2GHz
1 Gb RAM DDR400
mobo ASUS A8N-E with nVidia's nForce4 Ultra chipset
PCIx EVGA e-GeForce 6600GT 128 GDRR3 RAM
250 Gb SATA2 Maxtor HD

I'm not talking about compiling a whole kernel, just adding modules. However I am lucky enough to have an Athlon 64 3500 and the full compile is as i recall only a few mins, like win32sux says. :-)

I also got a PII 366 laptop, but I fell asleep waiting for it to finish...
tobyl

Two hours on that? I remember that compiling 2.4.x on Pentium MMX 166MHz took about that much time, two years ago I think; I don't know which 2.4 was then in play. Something must be wrong in your case, or are you compiling with all modules?


Non-off-topic
When you add new modules to config, typing make will build only them, and won't touch kernel at all. Even if you patch kernel (only with patches which bring us additional modules, not some bugfixes or stuff). Make is magical tool, even if you add something to kernel itself, it won't compile all stuff, just that new thing, and link it in kernel. Only if you didn't do make clean or something, that is.

I must be doing something wrong then. I started with Pat's configs and trimmed off everything I didn't think I needed so no, I am not compiling with all modules.

Thankfully, I'm not planning to add anything new to my machine so I won't have to deal with compiling kernels anymore.

If I ever have to, for whatever reason, I'll just start the process right before I go to bed at night

Hopefully my future machines will be faster.

LocoMojo

I compiled my first kernel the other day using Shilo's guide and it took me about 25 minutes from start to finish -- including config and compile time.