Compiling ALL Modules

[TheGentooCow]

Hi,
I'm repeatedly asked questions such as "what should I do if my scanner doesn't work" or "what if my usb stick isn't seen" or "my network card." It's usually kind of difficult to tell these people which modules exactly to compile in. So I was wondering if there was some way to compile ALL modules in the kernel. I know that this will affect speed and performance, but these two aren't crucial for home users just wanting to get their devices working. However, I've also heard that it isn't very easy compiling in all the modules and usually results in errors during compilation. Any tips / hints? Thanks for your time...

[Roguelazer]

Just use make menuconfig and put in every single option. I'd instead reccommend compiling everything as a module, however, then letting the autoload system put in what you need, when you need it. Except the core drivers (namely, ext2 and whatever your root fs is), that is.
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[TheGentooCow]

Thanks Roguelazer. Just out of curiousity, is there any way that I can compile everything as modules (except for things such as filesystems) without manually going in and setting each item to be a module? Thanks for your time...

[widan]

You can run "make allmodconfig". That will turn on all options, either as module if they can be compiled that way or built-in if they can't be modules. But you will need to remove some of them (most importantly SELinux if you don't use it - as it can render a system unbootable if the system is not configured for it, but possibly others too), and you will also need to enable some things statically (root filesystem, IDE and/or SATA drivers, ...).

But note that the "make allmodconfig" was probably never intended to be used that way (it's designed to track down kernel compile errors with everything enabled, so the devs don't have to enable everything by hand - there is also an allyesconfig and an allnoconfig, and even a randconfig make option).

Also, before you do this, backup your .config somewhere safe !

[Meinrad]

Hi there

I'm not very used to Gentoo, I installed it only a few months ago. But as far as I know, there is a program called genkernel, which helps configuring the kernel. Why don't you try that?

I think, the genkernel is mentioned in the install-docs.

[Roguelazer]

genkernel is generally designed for new users that don't want to deal with the complexities of configuring a kernel. genkernel autodetects and creates a "safe" kernel configuration. For more advanced configuration, it's better to do it by hand.
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