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Is anyone really wanting to get back into the business of building their own kernels? I started using Linux heavily in '92, and I've built a lot of kernels, an

Is anyone really wanting to get back into the business of building their own kernels? I started using Linux heavily in '92, and I've built a lot of kernels, and am quite happy to not be building them anymore.

ssl-3 2y ago
I kind of liked compiling my own kernels. I felt I was better-connected to the state of things, and it was fun to see it all evolve from the vantage point of "make menuconfig". But initramfs isn't so bad, and it allows things like ZFS root to have a modicum of smoothness and integration.
megous 2y ago
It's easy (2-3 commands), takes like a minute on a modern machine with trimmed down kernel configuration, and you can customize the kernel to your liking (write/patch drivers, embed firmware blobs, fix things that are broken or missing). What's to hate? :) Though I only do it for my ARM based devices currently. And if you're not throwing away build artifacts after each build, then getting stable updates is just a `git pull` and incremental make, which is usually very quick.
teo_zero 2y ago
I build my own kernel. I did invest some time to select the right configuration, but now it's just a question of copying over the old .config and running "make". What's annoying about that?
adamomada 2y ago
https://www.funtoo.org/Support_Matrix#Kernels https://www.funtoo.org/Support_Matrix#Kernels
prmoustache 2y ago
kernel compilation is easily automated. I don't want to do that and like the initramfs approach mostly because I like the fact I can take a hard drive out of a computer and boot the system on another one in case of a hardware failure. That is a lot faster than recovering from a backup.
account42 2y ago
I never stopped. What's so bad about building your own kernel?
checkyoursudo 2y ago
I understand not wanting to. I have been compiling my own kernels since about 2008, I think. I have occasionally thought about switching to something else, but really it has only gotten better (faster) over time. When I was young and spry, I used to compile them with every new minor revision. Now, it is just maybe a couple times per year. I think that cooling it on how often I do it has helped it not become annoying.
lproven 2y ago
> am quite happy to not be building them anymore. Me too. I go back to within about 3 years of that. But I expect my distro to handle this for me now. If the distro compiled and updated the kernel for my hardware then there's be no need for an initramfs. While initramfs was a simplistic kludge, the UKI idea does not fix it, it wraps a kludge inside a fugly ball of lack of understanding.

ssl-3 2y ago

I kind of liked compiling my own kernels. I felt I was better-connected to the state of things, and it was fun to see it all evolve from the vantage point of "make menuconfig". But initramfs isn't so bad, and it allows things like ZFS root to have a modicum of smoothness and integration.

megous 2y ago

It's easy (2-3 commands), takes like a minute on a modern machine with trimmed down kernel configuration, and you can customize the kernel to your liking (write/patch drivers, embed firmware blobs, fix things that are broken or missing). What's to hate? :) Though I only do it for my ARM based devices currently. And if you're not throwing away build artifacts after each build, then getting stable updates is just a `git pull` and incremental make, which is usually very quick.

teo_zero 2y ago

I build my own kernel. I did invest some time to select the right configuration, but now it's just a question of copying over the old .config and running "make". What's annoying about that?

adamomada 2y ago

https://www.funtoo.org/Support_Matrix#Kernels https://www.funtoo.org/Support_Matrix#Kernels

prmoustache 2y ago

kernel compilation is easily automated. I don't want to do that and like the initramfs approach mostly because I like the fact I can take a hard drive out of a computer and boot the system on another one in case of a hardware failure. That is a lot faster than recovering from a backup.

account42 2y ago

I never stopped. What's so bad about building your own kernel?

checkyoursudo 2y ago

I understand not wanting to. I have been compiling my own kernels since about 2008, I think. I have occasionally thought about switching to something else, but really it has only gotten better (faster) over time. When I was young and spry, I used to compile them with every new minor revision. Now, it is just maybe a couple times per year. I think that cooling it on how often I do it has helped it not become annoying.

lproven 2y ago

> am quite happy to not be building them anymore. Me too. I go back to within about 3 years of that. But I expect my distro to handle this for me now. If the distro compiled and updated the kernel for my hardware then there's be no need for an initramfs. While initramfs was a simplistic kludge, the UKI idea does not fix it, it wraps a kludge inside a fugly ball of lack of understanding.