[KLUG Members] Re: This is why I use RedHat kernels ...

[Bryan J. Smith]

Adam Bultman wrote:
> Okay, I need a little explanation:
> When you say you use redhat kernels, does this mean you
> download the source for Red Hat Approved kernels, and make
> them, or just do an up2date for the newest kernel, and use
> the kernel they give you?  The first thing I do when I do
> an install of linux is upgrade the the most recent, known
> stable kernel.  I haven't run a stock kernel in a long
> time, and it bugs me to no end that we are running old, old
> kernels on the boxes here at work.

I _avoid_ recompiling if I need to.  There is really no reason to
_ever_ do it.  Using "initrd," I can load drivers at boot.  But on
occassion, I do "rebuild" RedHat kernel releases from .src.rpm.  I
used to do this for Athlon optimization, but now they are releasing
.athlon.rpm files as standard.

I also like to recompile with GCC 2.91.66 (aka egcs 1.1.2), instead
of 2.96 (RedHat, for Itanium and other support), or even 2.95.3
(SuSE, others) for that matter.  AFAIK, 2.91.66 is the only
"supported" (by Linus) release for kernel 2.4/x86 building.  I'm
amazed that some Mandrake kernels were compiled with 2.95.4, which
some people consider to be worse for the kernel than 2.96.  SGI also
shares my and Linus' views on 2.91.66 usage.

> With that said, what is the latest, most stable kernel?

Depends.  I'm still waiting on one that "cleans up" the SiS900 NIC
mess in later 2.4.x kernels.  I'm also very disappointed how
source-level compatibility seems to be non-uniform across the 2.4.x
kernel.  E.g., so many structures and variables have changed, I
can't simply recompile the older sis900.c driver from early 2.4.x
(that works with my K7S5A mainboard) on newer 2.4.x kernels.

I usually stick with RedHat's official releases.  I also run SGI XFS
on a number of systems, which are based on the same releases.

> I use 2.4.16 and 2.4.17 on my linux boxes at home, but I
> dont' think I'd run themon servers yet...

Years of running Linux NFS servers tells me that it's best to wait
for RedHat's kernels.  I've been playing with some of the Rawhide
releases though.  Many binaries on Rawhide are now build with GCC
3.0x, but they compile fine under 2.91.66 (from .src.rpm).

-- Bryan

-- 
Bryan J. Smith, Engineer        mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org   
AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc.     http://www.linux-wlan.org
SmithConcepts, Inc.          http://www.SmithConcepts.com