From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Mar 17 00:40:38 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8FB5B16A400 for ; Sat, 17 Mar 2007 00:40:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jeffrey@goldmark.org) Received: from out5.smtp.messagingengine.com (out5.smtp.messagingengine.com [66.111.4.29]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 51D0513C489 for ; Sat, 17 Mar 2007 00:40:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jeffrey@goldmark.org) Received: from out1.internal (unknown [10.202.2.149]) by out1.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id F010E1F97F7; Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:40:36 -0400 (EDT) Received: from heartbeat1.messagingengine.com ([10.202.2.160]) by out1.internal (MEProxy); Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:40:36 -0400 X-Sasl-enc: OZGj13KCCJCRfVi1wC4QdqK9Nq3YXLYHBCoYvQ/ZVT53 1174092037 Received: from [10.1.10.136] (n114.ewd.goldmark.org [72.64.118.114]) by mail.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id AB3342A6DD; Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:40:37 -0400 (EDT) In-Reply-To: <20070316150014.GG75446@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> References: <45F9C6ED.2010306@wcborstel.com> <707D1CE0-F7E3-4D29-A755-3AB7495FB66C@goldmark.org> <200703160219.25929.danny@ricin.com> <20070316150014.GG75446@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.2) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <195E8F06-0D3F-48FB-A4E2-0C22EEC9246C@goldmark.org> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Jeffrey Goldberg Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 19:40:34 -0500 To: Jerry McAllister X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.2) Cc: Danny Pansters , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Optimizationn questions? 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: Sat, 17 Mar 2007 00:40:38 -0000 On Mar 16, 2007, at 10:00 AM, Jerry McAllister wrote: > On Fri, Mar 16, 2007 at 02:19:25AM +0100, Danny Pansters wrote: > >> On Friday 16 March 2007 01:04:51 Jeffrey Goldberg wrote: >>> me, too. >> >> Of course it will speed up booting but then again how much time >> does one spend >> booting, compared to using the puter: not much (at least I hope so >> for them!) Ah but some of us boot frequently. We have to after each kernel rebuild. >> If I do build my own kernel, for example to switch schedulers, I >> tend to toss >> out a heap of devices that I don't have anyway. But other than a >> bit more >> memory usage (which compared to the software that's run will >> typically be >> minor anyhow unless you're talking embedded system or maybe not-so- >> embedded >> but still of low spec special purpose boxes, like a satellite >> receiver box) >> you're not going to have a slower system because your kernel >> happens to have >> some built-in drivers that it doesn't use. The exception is a >> debug kernel of >> course that will impact performance because it increases runtime >> tasks/load. >> >> On a server I'd strip down the kernel, but for other reasons >> (avoiding any >> unneeded complexity). On a desktop I don't care as long as thingie >> works. >> YMMV of course. > > I think what he was saying is that if you already need to build a > kernel for some other reason, then go ahead and strip out the > unused stuff. But, if you don't have any other reason to do it, > it is not worth the bother to build another kernel just to strip > it of unused stuff - that it won't make THAT much difference. > > I'd agree with that. me, too. I've got some linux workstations for which I've never felt the need to compile my own kernel. But my FreeBSD box is a headless ITX-mini board that will run as a public server. Because there was so much of GENERIC that I could discard for my box, it seemed to make sense. But I suppose the single most important factor in my decision to compile my own kernel is "Building a custom kernel is one of the most important rites of passage nearly every BSD user must endure." From: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ kernelconfig-custom-kernel.html Also I have m0n0wall running on a Soekris box, and someday I may want to customize that, so this is a good learning experience. It's really -j -- Jeffrey Goldberg http://www.goldmark.org/jeff/