LocoMojo
You might not be doing anything wrong...there are a few things I noticed slowing down the process.
One is:
I observed a _lot_ more compile-time was needed when I was doing my compiles - not just kernel but any other thing (Gentoo...) from the terminal in my Desktop-Environment which happens to be Gnome, so I'm talking specifically about gnome-terminal here.
This is due to the redrawing of every line of output to the terminal - and there are a lot on a compile - is pretty slow in this particular terminal (takes a lot of time/resources away from the actual job of compiling).
When I start the job from xterm or rxvt or just from console it is a _lot_ faster.
The same could happen to running a compile on console if it is equally slow at redrawing the output - I've seen this when using vesafb in standard mode - compared to radeonfb (I have a radeon card...).
But still - a P4 1.7 GHZ which takes two hours...
there is eighter something wrong or you are running a lot of resource-hungry apps at the same time.
Another possibility is that you are throtteling your CPU to a lower speed maybe - and did not notice yet?

Hi Jomen,

Because of this thread I have decided to try compiling a new kernel and I'm going to time it this time. I don't really need to do this as my kernel is fine, but I'm just doing it for the hell of it.

The last few compiles I used KDE's Konsole, not Gnome-terminal. I think I'll try using the console this time just to be sure. Typically, when I compile kernels I shutdown all my apps and I don't touch the computer so there shouldn't be anything really stealing resources.

Right now I'm aggressively trimming my kernel configs via make menuconfig. I'm taking it real slow to be sure to exclude anything I don't need. I'm reading the (?) help file for each and every item. I'm about halfway through now, but it'll take me a while to get through it all.

Thanks for your tips, I really appreciate it and I will take heed for sure.

I'll report back here the results when I'm finished.

Wish me luck

Thanks again.

LocoMojo

Wow!

Much better now. Took 25 minutes for the make process. Not quite as good as the 10 minutes some people are reporting, but much, much better than it was before.

I trimmed the hell out of it. There were a lot of things I missed before and now I'm stumped as to how I missed them.

Anyway, everything seems to be working pretty well so far. I compiled some things I had as modules before into the kernel, such as alsa, parallel port stuff, agp, and a couple of others. Now I'm getting fatal modules not found errors at boot because I have it explicitly set to modprobe those particular modules somewhere. I'm a little tired right now and I can't seem to remember exactly where that was. I'll find it, I'm sure.

Well, I'm really happy to have cut down my kernel compile time. I'm sure that the trimming had a lot to do with it, but I wonder if compiling from the console instead of KDE's Konsole had any impact as well?

Anyway, thanks all for your input...it is very much appreciated!

Take care!

LocoMojo

Edit: I'm such an idiot. /etc/rc.d/rc.modules is the file I was looking for the fatal modules problem.

Look, I'm tired...ok?

Thanks for all the replies.

I think the time it takes to compile the kernel depends on whether you've given the config file.If you've given it,it will take much shorter time because some driver or modules have been compiled.Is that right?Please correct me.

Anyway,I compiled my new kernel 2.6.15.4 from scratch on my Slackware 10.2 last night.However,it's not successful because when I type "lilo" to update my boot list,it said that my boot image is not a file or invalid,something like that.When I saw the vmlinuz in boot directory,which is pointing to vmlinuz-2.6.15.4 and it contains an image (size is quite large).So,what's the problem?I stuck at this point.

Your help is much appreciated.

No!
I was suggesting to use the config-file from the previous time you compiled the kernel.
You said that you already did it...
This way you would have saved the time for going through everything again and instead just add a few things that were not yet in there.
If you already have compiled a kernel and use the same configuration and then decide to add a module - just the module will be built instead of everything from scratch...

Before you update lilo make sure that the files it is pointing to
1. really exists
2. is your newly installed kernel
(update the symlink or change/add an entry to the config-file)
You may have to copy the kernel and the System.map to /boot yourself.
And please - keep your old kernel until you are sure the new one is working ok for you.
You can have multiple entries in /etc/lilo.conf...

do it consistanntly
this is my small how to for kernel compilation this is not needed for u
but wil help u i think

#%%%%%%%%%%%%config how to start%%%%%%%%%%%
download the kernel source to ur home/build/ dir
http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v...2.6.15.tar.bz2
say /home/xxxx/build (u have a dir called build in home. $mkdir build ..wil do)
now u r in /home/xxxx/build$,
$wget -c http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v...2.6.15.tar.bz2
$tar -xvjf linux-2.6.15.tar.bz2
(if needed, u can create a simlink as we do in /usr/src,
$ln -sf linux-2.6.15/ linux)
$cd linux-2.6.15/ directory, then issue:
$ make menuconfig (from text node)
{make xconfig or gconfig, i do gconfig
-both this are for xwindow}
(make your changes then save the file)
--->how simple!! it will take some time if doing first time,
if u read the helps a day week ....
$ make
then su to root and
# cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.15 ; ln -sf /boot/System.map-2.6.15 /boot/System.map
# make modules_install
# cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15
# lilo <----before doing this edit lilo
# reboot <--if u want to try this kernel

editin lilo
---------
image = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15
root = /dev/hda1 <-- put your / (root/boot) partition here
label = 2.6.15 <-- or lin2.6
read-only
-------------
in the top add a line default=lin2.6(xxx) if needed
imp.(attach the .config file to ur mail, for furhter use)
#%%%%%%%%%%%%config how to end%%%%%%%%%%%

=========these things u need to go through
# cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.15 ; ln -sf /boot/System.map-2.6.15 /boot/System.map
# make modules_install
# cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15 <----- this is important

i think no need to create a simlink in boot and make confusion
instead when editn lilo add the name as i do in my lilo
run lilo

while $make do u have any error mess, if problem persists send the entryin lilo along with other linux entries and $ls -al /boot
regards

edit: before 2 of my post. one post of jomen came. as he said "keep your old kernel until you are sure the new one is working ok for you."

rkrishna,thanks for your mini-howto.

I think I have no problem to compile a kernel.However,one last thing.Is that right if I want a particular device(must have) should compile into kernel.And something that is optional should be installed as module?Because I am hesitated about this regarding my USB IRDA dongle.Whether I should make the driver compile into kernel or as module.

Thanks all you guys.

There is no need to compile it in kernel, and it is generally better that support for devices which are not so important for booting or other low-level stuff is added as module. You can later decide for yourself if you want to load module or not (if you are troubleshooting some problems caused by unknown force or if you simply don't want to use device, and free resources). In last five years or so, there is practicaly no difference in performance between loaded modules or integrated kernel support for stuff.

Cheers!

that depends, sometimes builting in wil cause error (like for some network and graphix) use which one is good for u.
do not built in much things unnecessarily making kernel big and junk

most advantage of slack is its modular property, u can compile any thing as module and load it into a working kernel

usb things make it as modules, hotplugging wil do the job, when u pluggin it wil take it

do an #lspci , find whatever u want, enable it in kernel and the rest is up to u to decide, to make a perfect kernel(after many recompiling)

rkrishna,is there any chance my usb irda wouldn't be detected on boot if I compiled it as module?Actually,my question is,if I want to make my usb irda dongle to work,what should I compile into the kernel/module?

Thanks a million.

You may find something here: http://tuxmobil.org/Infrared-HOWTO/Infrared-HOWTO.html

I also have a USB dongle as you, unfortunattly there's no software to communicate with my cellphone on Linux (actually it does, but it can't interpret it), if you can't find anything usefull on that link (you should since I used that guide to compile mine) I'll try to see what I did, it's been a long since I tried.

Hello,gbonvehi.Thanks for your reply.

I will try your link tonight because I am not at home right now.You said that your mobile phone cannot talk with your linux box.However,did you try gnokii?It should work fine with most of the Nokia mobile phone.

yeeeeah, greets LocoMojo! good to know you fixed your kernel up!

I think 25 min is OK for a P4 @ 1.7GHz, at the office I have a P4 @ 2.0GHz (with 768Mb RAM) and takes about half an hour for a clean (I just keep my .config file always to modify) compile.

Yeah, you got a fair point on this one.

I always compile kernel through a tty virtual terminal also leaving the entire machine only to that process (switch to another terminal with top so the one compiling doesn't mess up with the screen refresh); though in the office I have to keep myself working (on KDE) while the compilation is being taken, so I believe that squeezes more resources up

Godspeed gentlemen (and ladies, if any)

I have a Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.60GHz
- and I just was curious and took the opportunity to compile my fresh sources for kernel linux-2.6.15-gentoo-r1
(wich is a normal vanilla kernel with some patches - nothing that would influence compile-time...)
and I have these results:
in other words - less than 10 minutes for the whole thing...
I always thought that P4 is playing in the same leaguge as a Pentium M
and what would matter then is just the frequency at which it is running - so I really expected a P4 @ 1.7GHz to be faster than this.