From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 15 00:41:06 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6C910106566C for ; Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:41:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from brian.scott4@det.nsw.edu.au) Received: from up-mx3.det.nsw.edu.au (up-mx3.det.nsw.edu.au [153.107.41.21]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F2BA48FC19 for ; Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:41:05 +0000 (UTC) Received: from itfsmtp7.central.det.win (extmail.det.nsw.edu.au [153.107.9.204]) by up-mx3.det.nsw.edu.au (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id q1ENqRJ6028648 for ; Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:52:27 +1100 Received: from itfexhub4.central.det.win (Not Verified[153.107.9.31]) by itfsmtp7.central.det.win with MailMarshal (v6, 7, 2, 0) id ; Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:52:27 +1100 Received: from ALF2.riverina.det.win ([172.18.8.18]) by itfexhub4.central.det.win with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.4675); Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:52:26 +1100 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5 Content-class: urn:content-classes:message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:52:25 +1100 Message-ID: <208875941252614284029FECC54B9ED8D76374@ALF2.riverina.det.win> X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: Reducing the need to compile a custom kernel Thread-Index: AczrBA959KMPlCEIROiTDk/IeLhhkwAax8yA References: <20120210145604.Horde.ewjpSpjmRSRPNSH0YRHxgAk@webmail.leidinger.net><20120210144449.GA2358@psconsult.nl> <20120214113120.Horde.7fNzdpjmRSRPOjf4S1XjmXA@webmail.leidinger.net> From: "Scott, Brian" To: X-OriginalArrivalTime: 14 Feb 2012 23:52:26.0152 (UTC) FILETIME=[B40E8A80:01CCEB73] Subject: RE: Reducing the need to compile a custom kernel X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:41:06 -0000 >> - CPU_SOEKRIS, CPU_GEODE, CPU_ELAN, NO_SWAPPING for embedded devices > >Embedded devices are out of the scope of this, normally you do a lot of other modifictions to such systems anyway, so a custom kernel should be not a >big problem. Just as a quick data point here, I have just installed FreeBSD onto an ALIX system and was hoping to keep everything very standard. Turns out that I needed to rebuild the kernel to add CPU_GEODE to get a few simple features added. Everything else is standard GENERIC because I'm too lazy to fine tune. The geode code is very small and I would expect completely harmless if left enabled in GENERIC. The overhead of including it for other systems would be a few extra compares during startup and a k or so extra size in the kernel. I would suggest that avoiding custom kernels to make trivial changes is exactly what you should be looking at. Make features like this removable for the people who want to fine tune their kernels but include for people who are happy to have a little overhead as a trade of for ease of management. The only other thing that regularly has me running custom kernels is IPFIREWALL_FORWARD. As others have said, I'd be very happy if that was the default but removable. Brian Scott ********************************************************************** This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain privileged information or confidential information or both. If you are not the intended recipient please delete it and notify the sender. **********************************************************************