From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Mar 18 16:08:22 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id QAA13390 for questions-outgoing; Tue, 18 Mar 1997 16:08:22 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost.zilker.net (ivydp12.zilker.net [206.225.46.12]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id QAA13375 for ; Tue, 18 Mar 1997 16:08:11 -0800 (PST) Received: (from marquard@localhost) by localhost.zilker.net (8.8.3/8.8.3) id SAA26706; Tue, 18 Mar 1997 18:07:04 -0600 (CST) To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 2.2 Upgrading for idiots? References: From: Dave Marquardt Date: 18 Mar 1997 18:07:03 -0600 In-Reply-To: Philip Crewdson's message of Tue, 18 Mar 1997 22:17:53 +0000 Message-ID: <85209c68yg.fsf@localhost.zilker.net> Lines: 19 X-Mailer: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Philip Crewdson writes: > >FreeBSD Upgrade Checklist for 2.2: > > --- invaluable advice snipped --- > > >5) Reboot, recompile & reinstall your kernel, reboot again, and enjoy. > > Is this actually necessary? I've been running the GENERIC 2.1.5 kernel very > happily just as it installed itself. What will recompiling actually do for > me? I believe this is in the handbook, but I'll say it anyway. The GENERIC kernel contains support for all sorts of devices that you probably don't have on your machine. The code to support these devices is all part of the kernel text that is loaded and pinned into kernel memory. All this code for devices you don't have wastes RAM, which you could put to use for user programs, file cache, etc. -Dave