From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Oct 28 23:37:47 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 443A016A41F for ; Fri, 28 Oct 2005 23:37:47 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from djp@polands.org) Received: from corinth.polands.org (CPE-72-129-222-120.new.res.rr.com [72.129.222.120]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3D15643D62 for ; Fri, 28 Oct 2005 23:37:43 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from djp@polands.org) Received: from jericho.polands.org (jericho.polands.org [172.16.1.35]) by corinth.polands.org (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id j9SL9lOd084350 for ; Fri, 28 Oct 2005 16:09:47 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from djp@polands.org) Received: from jericho.polands.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by jericho.polands.org (8.13.4/8.13.1) with ESMTP id j9SL9lMc047312 for ; Fri, 28 Oct 2005 16:09:47 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from djp@jericho.polands.org) Received: (from djp@localhost) by jericho.polands.org (8.13.4/8.13.1/Submit) id j9SL9lnA047311 for questions@freebsd.org; Fri, 28 Oct 2005 16:09:47 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from djp) Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 16:09:47 -0500 From: Doug Poland To: questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20051028210946.GF46357@polands.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.11 X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.87/1149/Thu Oct 27 15:20:09 2005 on corinth.polands.org X-Virus-Status: Clean Cc: Subject: Removing kernel options and devices in today's world X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 23:37:47 -0000 Hello, I've been using FreeBSD since 2.1.5 and have dutifully tweaked my kernels to include devices I need, and remove unwanted things. This made a big difference on 486's with 16MB of memory. Over the years I've developed a procedure for keeping track of changes in GENERIC and reducing the amount of time it takes to build a custom kernel for a given box. Fast-forward to 2005, PCI, SMP, gigabytes of RAM, kernel loadable modules and FreeBSD 6.x. As I begin preparing some boxes for updating to 6, I'm wondering if it's really worth the effort to tweak a kernel? And by this I mean removing devices and options. It's trivial to have an include for the devices/options I need to add to every kernel. But the list of things to take out keeps getting bigger and bigger and the chance for errors in editing increase. I'm thinking of just running GENERIC with necessary additions. Most of my boxes are workstations or department-sized servers supporting basic web, email, and file/print services. Architecture is all 32-bit Intel ranging from modest PIII to 4-way Xeon P4. I can come up with several arguments for both cases (running GENERIC vs. trimming all unneeded "fat" from a kernel). Has anyone else wrestled with this issue and come up with interesting conclusions? -- Regards, Doug