Again, more good suggestions. Lots to learn. Even 'modprobe' will tell all the dependencies, etc. We digress. I never needed sound, cell phones, laptops, etc. But my wife and 3 kids use it all, some now even make the stuff in China. They are making new laws to keep people from driving and texting. Perhaps just the personality of an old guy that moved his then new family out to the country for the "simple life." We watched way too many of the old "Waltons" TV shows. All of a sudden I have up to 5 cars, tractors, chain saws, tools, water, power, and just to keep the heat on in a blizzard at 20 below is life itself. So I try to find simple and reliable. Once a pretty good math guy, even my dulled old brain can understand we can't just keep adding to this system forever, as magnificent as it is. And I know the old core unix model is there under a mountain of great additions. I just think a lot of this new stuff can run in a separate box with user software. Still "back to basics" here. Anyway, I'll get off the soapbox and again say thanks for some good help. Clug wrote: > Clearly the kernel is loading a module for a feature of your card that > you don't even know exists (: Chances are this causes negligable (if > any) impact on your runnign system, but you can always unload the > module (the command is 'rmmod') and you can prevent that module (or > any others) from loading in the first place if you like by creating a > file called "blockmodules.conf" (or anything .conf) in > /etc/modprobe.d/ and saying > > blacklist module_name> > > in it. > > > I still remember the days of downloading the latest kernel (3+ hour > download over that 56K modem, and we were so happy about how fast that > was!), untarring it and then going "make config", and being sooo happy > when we could finally go "make menuconfig" or even "make xconfig" and > going though ALL the options to see if support for anything new showed > up. Then "make vmlinuz" and go to sleep, because that's how long that > was going to take! > > To be honest, I haven't felt the need to build my own kernel in > probably over a decade. Literally, over 10 years. The closest thing to > that I've done was force my new laptop to use a 4.4 kernel rather than > a 3.19 kernel, because the wireless adapter is only supported in 4.2+ > kernels. But, again, that was readily available - wget && dpkg the new > kernel, reboot, and It Just Works. > > The days when I was OK using an OS where I have to build everything > (and I mean /everything/) myself are over. I don't have the time to > build my own kernel, build my own GCC, build my own GIMP, build the > nVidia module, building XORG's version of X Windows, build whatever > window manager you like, build Firefox, etc, etc. Nowadays it's > install Ubuntu (or mint or whatever) and beat it up a little bit so it > works the way I want. I don't care if some of the (I just checked) 131 > modules it loads are not actually used. As long as everything works > and is responsive, it's all good. > > > > On Mon, 25 Apr 2016, Rick Engebretson wrote: > >> Good suggestion doing 'lsmod.' One of the goofy modules I didn't >> understand and deleted from the new configuration file was >> "matrox_w1" -- something about my MatroxG400 video card having >> "Dallas 1 wire master control." Huh?? Well there it was, in lsmod, >> loaded for what I still don't know. >> >> But your suggestion will help a lot. The last time I recompiled a >> kernel was SuSE 9.2, still a 2.6 kernel (??). And it had a nasty bug >> in the serial port driver that, when setserial was used, would >> disable the FIFO and not re-enable it as expected. By the time I >> patched and "cleaned up" that kernel I lost USB. So I can already see >> I'm headed in the same direction. >> >> Thanks. >> >> Clug wrote: >>> The drivers you are talking about probably don't belong in every >>> kernel - and kernels including them date back to about the same >>> timeframe. >>> >>> The Linux kernel has supported modules since the late '90s, and it's >>> been practially seemelss for over a decade. Kernels that come with >>> distribtions contain these drivers AS MODULES. They are NOT loaded >>> into the kernel unless they are needed. Very few drivers are actally >>> built into the kernel nowadays. >>> >>> Type 'lsmod' in a terminal window, and see the long, ong list of >>> modules that are loaded automatically. I just did that on one of my >>> machines, and there are about 80. 80! None of them are built into >>> the kenrel. They are loaded as needed. >>> >>> Those precompiled modules are, again, separate. They may take up >>> diskspace, but we're talking about a few hundred megabytes. That's >>> not the kind of diskspace a modern system is even going to notice. >>> It is absolutely not impacting memory or performance, either. >>> >>> >>> On Mon, 25 Apr 2016, Rick Engebretson wrote: >>> >>>> Thanks for your reply. >>>> >>>> Perhaps you are right. I really don't have one good answer, but am >>>> confused and interested in learning. >>>> >>>> Many of the driver modules for things like SCSI and Sound cards I >>>> remember go way back to ISA bus cards. I doubt you could find many >>>> of these cards if you tried. Hundreds of them that don't seem to >>>> belong in the same kernel source as high performance systems. In my >>>> downloaded pre-compiled kernel the ancient driver modules are >>>> included and litter up both the configuration file and library >>>> directory. An ancient hardware platform deserves the ancient kernel. >>>> >>>> I realize the PC desktop platform is obsolete to many users. And >>>> all the laptop features, etc., etc., are new to me. But I'm >>>> surprised by all the support for embedded, GPIO, and many things >>>> I've barely heard of. One of the pre-compiled driver modules (GPS) >>>> for serial port even used the carrier detect as a pulse clock. >>>> >>>> I guess what I'm trying to do is a standard master/slave control >>>> system over a standard RS232 link, exploiting standard ATX power >>>> supplies on both ends. >>>> >>>> I have an 84 year old farmer friend who likes Ubuntu on his >>>> laptops, mails pictures of his very old car rebuilding projects. He >>>> likes old cars because they're fixable. I would like to think I can >>>> still do things with a PC. >>>> >>>> Clug wrote: >>>>> Aren't al kernels nowadays pretty much 100% module-based? Which >>>>> means you can't really get them to be simpler, as such? >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On Mon, 25 Apr 2016, Rick Engebretson wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> I'm trying to compile a linux kernel that is simpler than the >>>>>> distribution version (using old opensuse 12.2 on an intel p4 >>>>>> mobo). I'm able to use the tools and documentation, and have >>>>>> compiled and installed some variant of the default opensuse >>>>>> download. However, I didn't get it to run the simple standard PC. >>>>>> It seems the grub2 bootloader is another learning process. >>>>>> >>>>>> I did this years ago on simpler pentium machines with lilo >>>>>> bootloader. But going through all the new configuration options >>>>>> and actual compilation literally takes days. From what I can >>>>>> understand, the "vanilla" linux kernel now supports technology I >>>>>> didn't know existed. >>>>>> >>>>>> I'm not sure I know how to get back to basic computing anymore. >>>>>> Just wondering if others have tried and succeeded slimming the >>>>>> kernel down, and any tips?? >>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >>>>>> tclug-list at mn-linux.org >>>>>> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >>>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >>>>> tclug-list at mn-linux.org >>>>> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >>>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >>>> tclug-list at mn-linux.org >>>> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >>> tclug-list at mn-linux.org >>> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >> tclug-list at mn-linux.org >> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >> > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >