New Linux User » kernel

Linux Kongress 2009

Clair Ching — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:36:13 +0000

Ever heard about the Linux Kongress? It’s a venue for Linux kernel
developers to talk about the things that they research on and work on.
It is an annual event, organized by the German Unix Users Group. This
year it was held in Dresden, Germany from October 27-30. Ted T’so,
Felix von Leitner and Andi Kleen were all in this year’s Linux
Kongress. They highlighted some of the key things in kernel
development. Talks included topics like the GNU Compiler Collection
(GCC) as well as how multi-core systems are powerful.

Not everyone might be able to appreciate these things especially new
Linux users but reading about them at the very least gives us a better
idea of how development happens, who are some of the key people in the
community, what might be happening in the coming days for us.

Not everyone might be developing software in the free and open source
community. But those who do have a great impact on Linux as we get to
use it. The kernel might seem to be a very intimidating thing to most
newbies. But the kernel is an important part of the Linux distros we
use and love. The very performance of these distros on our respective
computers have a relationship with how developers improve the kernel.
We might not understand all the processing being done by the CPUs and
how the kernel interacts with it but these names make it possible for
us to have something that we could use everyday for our work and play.

I suppose those who are more into technical details and hacking would
be able to appreciate the talks and training tracks in Linux Kongress.
Be sure to check out the
Linux Kongress 2009 page for other information.

Linux kernel developers deserve our appreciation for all their hard
work and time. After all, they’re part of the group that make Linux
become better and better each time.

Post from: New Linux User

Why should you care about the kernel?

Clair Ching — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:11:52 +0000

The kernel is the one that makes your computer work. It makes you get things done. Your tasks could be printing out that report due in ten minutes or sending email when your client demands your reply. The kernel would be the key to the efficient use of your computer’s resources.

Sometimes you want to do some things but you can’t. For example, your laptop is having problems with hibernate/sleep. There is a chance that you might have to reconfigure your kernel so that the hardware involved in the process would be able to work well.

There are times that other users might have problems with an operating system because nothing seems to happen upon boot-up. It could be that the kernel doesn’t support the hardware. I’ve encountered such a problem before.

This is part of the reason why it’s not always easy to choose a Linux distribution. For certain hardware, you might have difficulty not just because of the drivers but also the kernel. Your distribution’s kernel might not be the right fit with your hardware. There are ways to go about it. For one, you could opt to use a different kernel (possibly an older version because there are cases wherein the older hardware does need older kernels), you could compile it then use it with your existing desktop environment and applications. That or look for a distro like that. An example is AntiX. If you want to read more about how AntiX is like for older machines, you could check out the Linux.com feature on AntiX.

Post from: New Linux User

Link love: Sources on Compiling a Linux Kernel

Clair Ching — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:12:15 +0000

I previously wrote about when you’re probably going to compile a Linux kernel. I admit that I am not an expert on this topic but I’d like to point out some things that would eventually prove to be useful or at least give you an idea as to how you could do this.

HowToForge.com has a bunch of how to compile a Linux kernel for several distros:

Digital Hermit has a rather long guide but it covers compiling both 2.4 and 2.6 Linux kernels. So whether your Linux distro is using whichever kernel, this guide might be quite useful for you.

Another important thing to note is that configuring the kernel could seem to be a daunting task. But here’s an article from Linux Headquarters with some screenshots that would give you an idea what it looks like to configure a kernel.

I’d try to look for other resources which I’d post another time. But for now, I hope that these links will help you in configuring and compiling a new kernel. I hope you find them readable and easy to follow!

Post from: New Linux User

When do you compile a custom kernel?

Clair Ching — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:31:53 +0000

For someone new to Linux, hearing tales of people compiling apps is scary. “WHOA! Command line. Text-only interface. Ack! Ack! Ack!” There were only two instances thus far that made me compile a custom kernel. One time I had to compile a custom kernel so that sleep will work on my laptop. Another time I had to compile a kernel was when I experienced kernel panic. Was it scary? Yes. I didn’t know what will happen to my laptop. I spent so much time configuring the kernel because there was just too many things to read and mark or unmark.

So for now this list will include the following times to compile a new kernel:

kernel panic
you need to patch something
you need want to optimize your kernel
you need to reconfigure certain modules

I know someone who says that compiling a custom kernel enables you to ‘trim off the fat’ from it. Sounds like a good thing, right? But it’s not an easy thing to do. You have to read up a lot on more technical matters about modules and configuring the kernel. It could be daunting but if you have a more experienced Linux user who is confident (even just a little bit confident will do!) it might not be too problematic. It would help if you have a different machine and you have internet access. Sometimes it is sudden but if you have a Linux geek for friends, you’d have people to guide you through it. Fortunately not everyone has to do it because the kernels that come with the distro seem to be ok — unless you really want something really different.

Tomorrow I’d be adding some links to resources on compiling a Linux kernel.

Post from: New Linux User