Configure the Kernel

Installing Gentoo - Configure the Kernel

Configuring the Linux kernel is the most difficult part of performing a Gentoo installation.

The components of the Linux kernel can either be built-in or compiled as modules which can be loaded or unloaded. Most Linux distributions will provide you with a generic kernel image with most of the hardware drivers and other components available as modules. The advantage of this method is that another piece of software can probe the system, determine the hardware components, and load the appropriate modules at startup, much in the same way that your Gentoo installation CD did. The disadvantage is that certain parts of the kernel and most of the modules will never be used. Our goal is to create the smallest, fastest, most efficient kernel possible for your target environment.

Thankfully, most of the hard part has already been done for you. Some time ago, an advocate by the name of Pappy McFae blessed us with "kernel seeds" for a number of different architectures which are freely available at his website, kernel-seeds.org.