Kevin O'Gorman wrote: > On 5/29/07, Denis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I usually dread kernel updates because then I have to go > > through kernel menuconfig all over again, and for me, that > > takes some time. I guess one can reuse the old .config file, > > but I understand it's not always a safe thing to do. > > You can use the old .config safely if you "make oldconfig" before > anything else. It will prompt you for replies to any new things, > and quietly ditch anything it doesn't recognize.
And this can ditch needed options when they get renamed or replaced, like happened with the netfilter stuff on the upgrade to 2.6.17, and with some IDE/ATA stuff on the upgrade to 2.6.20. Just running 'make oldconfig' on a 2.6.x to 2.6.y upgrade will not always give you a fully working kernel. > > Is it reasonably ok to wait for every "major" 2.6.x release to > > update, or is it necessary to update on every minor 2.6.x.y > > release also? If your kernel does everything you need and you are content with its performance, there's no need to upgrade to a new 2.6.y. Just put a ~sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.y into /etc/portage/package.mask and forget about it. But the -rn upgrades for your current version you normally _do want to install because they fix serious bugs. Often those bugs affect only specific hardware, but there's no harm in blindly upgrading: these little rev bumps _are safe. Benno -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
