genkernel works by configuring a kernel nearly identical...

[cjohnsoia]

Can anyone out there tell me?

I am interested in building a gentoo installation on an external USB mass storage device. The Handbook says that using genkernel the kernel is build such that the created kernel created is "nearly" identical to the "LiveCD" and will "generally" detect all your hardware.

I want to ensure that every possible option - as if manually building the kernel with "make menuconfig," sellecting all possible modules, compiling as modules and having support for automatic module loading enabled such that I can take the drive to any system out there, plug in the drive and reboot and have the kernel recognize virtually all possible hardware and configurations.

The reason is that I do not want to have to, for example, compile a file system to access devices that may be present on the host system I would rather have support already available.

The question then: Should I used genkernel or should I manually configure selecting all possible modules and compile as modules - and if the latter - which modules should be built compiled directly into the kernel.

Thanks to all.

[jyaan]

for this scenario you absolutely must use genkernel. there are some options in the kernel that simply cannot be used on all systems (one option is need on one sys, but breaks anothers functionality), and youll need the dynamic loading. since you want it for any system, manual kernel is NOT an option.

[cjohnsoia]

Thanks jyaan,

The answer I was looking for!

[jyaan]

no problem, and good luck with your install drive; never hurts to spread linux around