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. His goal was to provide starting kernel configurations, geared towards everyday use, but with the unnecessary components removed. Using of of Pappy's kernel seeds, all you need do is add in the drivers for your specific hardware and any other components you may require. Personally, I noticed a performance of around 20% using one of Pappy's kernel seeds as compared to the default kernel configuration provided by the Gentoo devs.

Our first step will be to determine the version of the kernel we are currently using. We already emerged the kernel

We'll start by selecting the correct architecture: