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Huge kernel going away??

Posted: 12. Apr 2018, 11:23
by laprjns
Our friend, Didier Spaier, recently said the following in the Slackware forum topic "Does anyone use the original config "generic" / "generic-smp"?" on the LinuxQuestion.org
If not in Slackware 15.0, at least in the next version there won't be a huge kernel anymore anyway, so better be prepared.
If Slackware does indeed drop the huge kernel how will this affect Salix? I've alway used the huge kernel. Will I now need to used the gerenic kerenl and create an initrd?

Re: Huge kernel going away??

Posted: 12. Apr 2018, 12:06
by DidierSpaier
I assume that an initrd will be created auto-magically by the Slackware and that installer Salix and Slint could follow suit. Time will tell...

There is already a script whose aim is to write a command that can be used to build an initrd adapted to the system: http://slackware.uk/slackware/slackware ... nerator.sh

Re: Huge kernel going away??

Posted: 12. Apr 2018, 16:08
by gapan
Didier, where did you get that info?

Re: Huge kernel going away??

Posted: 12. Apr 2018, 19:26
by DidierSpaier
George, strictly speaking that's rather an assumption than an information but I have some hints:
From Robby Workman: https://www.linuxquestions.org/question ... ost5840470
From Patrick Volkerding (last sentence): https://www.linuxquestions.org/question ... ost5821300

Re: Huge kernel going away??

Posted: 12. Apr 2018, 20:32
by gapan
I see. In any case, I don't think it would be a big deal to add automatic initrd generation if needed.

Re: Huge kernel going away??

Posted: 13. Apr 2018, 20:34
by ChuangTzu
More complete quote from PV:

"If you take a look in modules.dep, you'll see that mmc_block.ko requires mmc_core.ko. In total, there are 38 modules that have a dependency on mmc_core.ko. Because we use the same set of modules with both the generic and the huge kernels, we're not able to set CONFIG_MMC_BLOCK=y for the huge kernel without also building in mmc_core, which will in turn prevent several dozen modules from loading properly in the huge kernel.

There are two proper solutions to this. One would be to add CONFIG_LOCALVERSION="-huge" to the huge config, and package an additional set of modules dedicated to the huge kernel. Might as well list that idea first, since I'm not going to do it.

The other solution is to get rid of the huge kernel and move entirely to using generic+initrd, something I've been wanting to do for years."
https://www.linuxquestions.org/question ... ost5821854

Re: Huge kernel going away??

Posted: 21. Apr 2018, 09:05
by mimosa
One downside I can see to this is it will make it trickier - and therefore even scarier - for inexperienced users to upgrade their kernel, simple enough though the whole thing ought to be.

As an example, consider the user who recently took about five pages of help in the forum to achieve it.

Of course Patrick does not care about such users.