[CLUE-Tech] What tweaks are done to kernels by distributors

[Jeremiah Stanley]

> In general, what tweaks do Linux distributors do to the kernel before
> releasing it in their versions of Linux? I understand that Red Hat
> does some, but do the other distributors do also? If they do tweak
> them, what kind of tweaks are done --- I couldn't find anything about
> this at the RH site.

Yes, RH is very vague about what they throw into their kernels. RH does
make a very complete kernel when they package one though. Mostly if it is
a compile time tweak and not a patch you can find out what they are doing
by looking in a directory like /usr/src/linux-2.2.17/configs/ and look at
the file that pertains more closely to your hardware (ie. if you have SMP
v. the whole 586/686 difference).

> I was thinking of using the version available from kernel.org, but am
> wondering what kind of problems that this might cause since it is not
> RH "tweaked".

I haven't ever had too much trouble with the kernels from kernel.org
(actually I've had better luck than with the source rpm's from redhat if
it make any difference to you). I just did the 2.2.17 and the 2.4.1
without any problems at all (other than needing to add 'CC=kgcc' to get
the Athlon optimizations into my kernel out of make).

Hope that helps.

JStanley
-- 
A witty saying proves nothing.
		-- Voltaire