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When's the last time you compiled a kernel?
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When's the last time you compiled a kernel?

raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

In the Jon Biloh AMA thread, @rajprakash observed:

rajprakash said: When is the last time anyone configured and compiled their own system specific kernels?)

I was thinking about this and I think it may be 10 years for Linux at his point...back when I was fooling around with Gentoo. The old "make menuconfig".

A little more recently on OpenBSD...but now there's a simple kernel reconfig tool that meets my needs (mostly turning on/off device drivers).

I seem to recall doing a SunOS kernel circa 1996 or 1997...didn't have the full sources but you could patch parts of it in response to bugs, etc.

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Comments

  • DPDP Administrator, The Domain Guy

    LOL, can't remember.

    Probably back when grsec was released.

  • NeoonNeoon Community Contributor, Veteran

    A few years back when I needed gameserver kernels.
    But then I discovered this repo: http://mirror.ip-projects.de/kernel/

    10/10

    Thanked by 1vimalware
  • A couple of years ago, for the Toshiba Click Mini. :)

  • OujiOuji Member

    I actually did today for Debian. Then I found out it wasn't necessary. It was a learning experience at least.

  • dfroedfroe Member, Host Rep

    These memories.. "make menuconfig", asking myself at nearly every single entry: Do I need this or not? :)

    Well, for one project I am still compiling a patched FreeBSD kernel on every system update; patched in a way that in makes all synchronous nfs call asynchronous. :no_mouth:
    BTW: I know what I am doing; sometimes I want to live dangerously. :lol:

    I love open source software and systems compiled from source (in certain situations). If you want something different in your code, simply patch it, create a diff and your package management will automatically apply it to every future release. No matter whether it is user or kernel space. Pretty neat. :)

  • defaultdefault Veteran

    During university, when I took some special courses on Linux administration.

  • stefemanstefeman Member
    edited June 2020

    1 month ago. spent an evening with a friend setting up gentoo from scratch just for lols.

    Into proxmox..

    Thanked by 1raindog308
  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    This is a fun little hobby:

    http://linuxfromscratch.org/

  • What is a kernel? ;)

  • 8 years ago for an ALFA Wi-Fi adapter and 3 years ago on a VPS (can't remember why).

  • rm_rm_ IPv6 Advocate, Veteran

    I compile every new release of the series I'm on (e.g. 5.4.45 now). A few years ago I set up a script to do that, and now just execute "build-latest-mainline.sh" and soon enough it's done. As for why, to add WireGuard, add some bugfix patches "right now", not waiting until they go all the way via the stable backport process, and to add a few patches which haven't been accepted yet (or at all).

    Thanked by 1default
  • rcy026rcy026 Member

    I have a few highly tweaked FreeBSD machines that run custom kernels, so they build a new kernel after every release update. Its more of a slim down, tweak and harden thing, not adding any features.
    Other than that, its probably been 10-15 years since I had to run a custom kernel.

  • vedranvedran Veteran

    Sometime around year 2000, I think it was Slackware. Fun times

  • noamannoaman Member

    @farsighter said:
    8 years ago for an ALFA Wi-Fi adapter and 3 years ago on a VPS (can't remember why).

    For me it's still pain to setup these wifi adapters.

  • jlayjlay Member
    edited June 2020

    Two days ago, I think. 5.6.16

    I maintain a kernel with ACS patches applied, they allow users to move devices more freely among IOMMU groups. This is useful for virtual machines that want to pass through PCI-e devices on motherboards with iffy support

    Thanked by 2rm_ vimalware
  • Few years back in 2015 to run slackware on AWS. That's it. But after answering this will look into Linux From Scratch seems like a fun project.

    Thanked by 1vimalware
  • edited June 2020

    For me it was probably around 1997 on Slack 96. Once I moved to Debian Hamm around early 1998, that was it!

    Edit: thinking about it some more, I may have run RedHat 4.2 (an actual CD that was mailed to me by cheapbytes.com) somewhere in that timeframe too. Ultimately I settled on Debian and have been in love ever since :smile:

  • vfusevfuse Member, Host Rep

    In 2004 when I had to change the kernel tickrate to 1000hz for a game server (counter strike 1.6).

  • The valid question is, has anyone done it for a reason that isn’t “messing around”?

  • jlayjlay Member
    edited June 2020

    @Synatiq said:
    The valid question is, has anyone done it for a reason that isn’t “messing around”?

    :smiley: See below

    Used commonly for Windows guests and GPUs for games (okay, technically 'messing around'..), or those that don't have SR-IOV and want to do something like 40gigabit networking in VMs with infiniband cards passed through

    @jlay said:
    Two days ago, I think. 5.6.16

    I maintain a kernel with ACS patches applied, they allow users to move devices more freely among IOMMU groups. This is useful for virtual machines that want to pass through PCI-e devices on motherboards with iffy support

  • PHDanPHDan Member

    3 years or so, Gentoo in Tin Foil Paranoid mode and building the whole system from source.

  • Last year, for embedded device project.

  • lonealonea Member, Host Rep

    Compiling linux kernel isn't fun... installing drivers for linux isn't fun.

    Thanked by 1webcraft
  • kmmmkmmm Member

    About Once per month. I am working in a research group and we are interested in eBPF with some tweaking. Such a pain compiling on 4 core workstation

  • jsgjsg Member, Resident Benchmarker

    @Synatiq said:
    The valid question is, has anyone done it for a reason that isn’t “messing around”?

    Every couple of months. With a clear cut ToDo list and well defined goals.

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    @jsg said:

    @Synatiq said:
    The valid question is, has anyone done it for a reason that isn’t “messing around”?

    Every couple of months. With a clear cut ToDo list and well defined goals.

    Linux or something else?

  • jsgjsg Member, Resident Benchmarker

    @raindog308 said:
    Linux or something else?

    No, BSDs, Illumos and suchlike plus some exotic OSs. If it were Linux I'd have become insane by now.

  • @kmmm said:
    About Once per month. I am working in a research group and we are interested in eBPF with some tweaking. Such a pain compiling on 4 core workstation

    4-core system is a beast! It's all relative. I used to start the compile one day, and it'd run to the evening the next day. :)

  • netomxnetomx Moderator, Veteran

    If you can say compiling OpenWRT is the same, 2 months ago.

  • 3y ago to patch an issue with nginx and OpenSSL

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