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could please anybody recommend some kind of kconfig generator that would trim modules and built-in stuff that is not needed according to current hardware ?

The best I have found is this : http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/9/16/290

I don't care about compilation time and the amount of modules that are not built-in. I'm concerned about performance. I don't know how much memory and runtime is wasted on huge kernels with almost everything possible.

I'm a java developer and I don't know what most of the modules and drivers are for. So there is not much I can disable and be sure that I don't screw it up.

Thanks in advance

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  • In a professionally built kernel, most everything that isn't strictly necessary to boot the system will be in a module anyway, so it won't "waste" memory at all, just disk space. This is typically completely unnecessary (unless you have a very low disk space system, like an embedded system).
    – Michael Hampton
    Jul 31, 2014 at 20:10

4 Answers 4

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You could look into genkernel from gentoo linux, it seems to deal with issues you are concerned about.

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Just use the default kernel for your (server) distribution. It won't matter for dev purposes and for tuning a production system you need an expert anyway (who will look at the kernel compilation options last).

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  • Do I look like I can afford an expert :-) ? That's why I am searching for a tool, that would trim desktop related drivers and I would handle the rest...There are tons of desktop related stuff built in...I really don't want to use such kernel
    – lisak
    Dec 27, 2010 at 19:20
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Is this for a specific embedded system? In general, changing compile options isn't going to make a big difference. Where performance matters, the modern kernel generally either automatically selects the best option, or else offers run-time tunables. You'd be better off working with those, or tuning your Java environment and your code.

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  • It is a kernel compilation for a server, default configs are meant for desktops with tons of built in drivers..I don't care about modules, that are not loaded due to autodetection, but I don't want to have hundreds of drivers compiled in my kernel..
    – lisak
    Dec 26, 2010 at 0:18
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    They're really not hurting anything, and there's a cost to deviating from a standard config. Especially since you're not an expert in this area. If you have a problem in the future, you'll know your underlying OS is normal and can ask for help rather thank being an obscure special case.
    – mattdm
    Dec 26, 2010 at 0:56
  • Also, if you are using a desktop distribution for your server, there are several run-time choices which are probably set to the wrong defaults for a server -- io scheduler and memory policy. These can make a significant difference. But again, only worth bothering if you've a) perfected the optimization of your application code and b) have a specific performance problem.
    – mattdm
    Dec 26, 2010 at 14:15
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kernel compilation has option "localmodconfig" which take default kernel trim all the unnecessary modules look at these page,http://lwn.net/Articles/352241/

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