Neil Bothwick schreef: > On Thu, 26 May 2005 10:24:52 +0200, Holly Bostick wrote: > > >>For changing series, I definitely prefer to look at the kernel config >>anyway, to see what options the series' patches have added, but for >>upgrading within the same series, if nothing has really changed, it's >>nice to know you can just make menuconfig, save immediately (because you >>don't have to do anything, but you can also confirm that the settings >>really are the same if you like), and head right into make >>modules_install, etc. I find that actually faster than selecting X >>number of new (and usually irrelevant to me) options with make oldconfig >>anyway (n, n, n, etc). > > > The disadvantage of this approach is that you don't get to see what new > options have been added. > > Within the series, I probably don't care (i.e., moving from gentoo-sources -r6 to -r8, which I only even did because -r6 was removed from Portage). For changing series (moving from gentoo-sources to mm-sources), I do care, but that's why I manually go through the menuconfig in that case. $DEITY knows I've compiled enough kernels to recognize most new stuff, and if I'm not sure, I read the option's Help, as I've always found it invaluable.
But my hardware is all pretty old-- KM266A mobo/Athlon XP 2200+ (so no hyperthreading and no amd_64), no SATA, no PCI-e, only usb devices a mouse and gamepad, no mp3 player/iPod, no usb keys (no usb 2.0, even), no external hdds or devices, no bluetooth or firewire, no mobile phone, external sound card is a C-Media 8738 (second only to my onboard VIA 8233 for bog-standardness), no TV-in or out (unless I try out the ati-gatos drivers for TV-in, but I don't feel like being bothered yet), no wireless, heck, no scanner or printer connected to this box (yes, I'm a dinosaur, but I get along)-- so most new options really don't make the first bit of difference to me, as the kernel options I need have been stable for eons. The major ones that do change (video card, the eternal automount-patch war between supermount, submount and hal/dbus/ivman), are external, and for kernels like ck-sources, the new stuff (schedulers) are generally defaulted on anyway, which is fine by me. So I mostly just check for sightseeing purposes (to see what's available/stablilizing for future upgrade planning), and on the off chance I want to try something out, as well as to confirm that the options that I must have turned off (DRM, Registers) are in fact off. Afaics, I don't need to chase the future with the kernel; I just keep it more-or-less up to date for increased stability and patch issues, and looking for speed increases. But obviously, others may have different needs. Holly -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
