[H-GEN] Rebuilding kernel modules

[Robert Brockway]

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On Sun, 9 Jun 2002, Tony Nugent wrote:

> It wasn't that bad :-)
> 
> My first linux box was a trusty old 386/8Mb which ran a 1.2.13
> kernel [1] that used to take 2hrs 42min to compile.  (+/- ~5min)

I started on a 486DX-33 compiling kernel 1.0.8 (When I was a lad... :)

With 4Mb the 1.0 series took 2 hours on this box.  With 8Mb the compile 
time dropped to 1 hour & I learned the value of a system that was not io 
blocked :)

This box was pretty much unusable during a kernel compile with 4Mb but
much improved with 8Mb.  I used to run X11R5 in 4Mb.  Can you believe it 
:) I was just stubborn I guess :)  Note: X was not running during the
above mentioned kernel compiles :)

> I too also heard of horror kernel compiles taking that long.
> Personally I think it is all a myth hanging around from overstated

I wouldn't be surprised :)

> Interesting now that I've got a PIII650/512Mb with a scsi subsystem,
> I'm noticing that a full compile ("make dep clean bzImage modules")
> is now stretching out to close to an hour.  Heh, that doesn't take

It's all the modules.  When I've built monolithic kernels for whatever 
reason the build is over pretty quickly.

> into account that it can take that long again to *configure* it with
> "make {menu,x}config".  It says a lot about how such a big and
> complex beast the kernel has become. [2]

Indeed :)

I believe that 2.6 is going to be "Solaris style" with everything 
modularlised but modules more hidden than they are now.  It will appear to 
be a monolithic kernel but won't really be.  This is what I heard anyway 
:)  It has implications like no more make config (and family).

Rob

-- Robert Brockway B.Sc. email: robert at timetraveller.org  ICQ: 104781119
   Linux counter project ID #16440 (http://counter.li.org)
   avon: up 1 day, 19:07,  0 users,  load average: 0.03, 0.03, 0.00
   "The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens" -Baha'u'llah


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