Configuring a new kernel is a dreaded task here. It seems I walk through a bewildering array of stuff that when pressing F1 on them I get more bewildering information I barely understand a word of.
For 8 or 9 yrs now I've mostly skirted the issue by using defaults. I hnow the shortcoming is mine but still it is a massive amount of knowledge needed to really know what most of those settings do. Of course I know the easy ones but it appears thats never enough to walk through and end up with a pared down but fully usable kernel. In the end I usually just `genkernel all' and let ten thousand modules be made and forget it. I'd like to know more... enough so that when kernel config time rolls around its not a frustrating and time consuming chore ... unless I go the genkernel route. I see plenty of howtos out there about kernel configuration but the ones I've scanned or used take you through the steps but never really teach you how to understand what all those setting do or entail. I also realize that the kernel is a moving target and configurations change literally with every kernel. But there must be a major base of settings that change only slowly. Ones a user can learn enough about that it isn't such a bewildering experience to try to get the settings right in one or two goes. And of course the kicker is that I'd like to learn this without weeks and weeks of pounding away at it. My current quest involved getting a kernel with full barrel iptables and conn_track settings in place. The usual problem is that the howtos are dealing with a much older (in kernel devel time) kernel that actually has different or not all the setting currently available. Can someone steer me to a more `in depth' tutorial? Or to something they've found to really throw some light the chore? Not necessarily about iptables but just the general chore of configuring a kernel wisely. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
