[TriLUG] Kernel Compiles

[Kevin Hunter]

At 10:16pm -0400 Sat, 10 Apr 2010, Maxwell Spangler wrote:
> When was the last time you compiled your own kernel?
> 
> And why did you feel the need to do it?
> 
> I'm really looking for answers from non-kernel developers, and
> non-hardware developers.  End users who can't just install upgraded
> kernels, modules or recompile modules but for some reason need to 
> do the whole kernel tree.

I last compiled an "entire" kernel tree a month ago to benchmark some
parts of my system.  From a completely anecdotal point of view, I've
found that compilation is a good overall benchmark test of a system.
It's a good combination of reading and writing to the disk, passing
information between the CPUs and main memory, and the output of the
cores themselves that, to first-order, mimics the multitude of workloads
I use in my day-to-day life.  Shellscripts, make and the -j flag, and
various well-iterated program sources are just another tool in my arsenal.

Next weekend, I'll be doing it to upgrade a kernel and associated
modules on an install USB key for a system with hardware that isn't yet
supported by my distro of choice.

Kevin