Summary of request for help: Are there hardcore kernel builders in the house who can steer me to a faster way of figuring out what the installed modules do... for sure.
Details: I'm at a point where any pared down kernel config I've built and tried has some terrible thing wrong with it. Usually involving udev and openrc someway or other... things not getting started or mounted etc etc. A full on genkernel build seems to be the quickest way to get a working kernel. That done, I'm now plodding along with build after build trying to discover what it is the genkernel has that my pared down versions do not. Trying to discover what all the 80 or so installed modules do seems like a really slow process. Take the module name and try to find something like it in .config I've even written a perl script to allow me to input the module names, or parts thereof and grep out the section name and lines that match inside .config. This is at least a weak start at knowing what the module is about. I'd think there would be some kind of cross reference somewhere that would connect module names to what they do, and what .config options are associated. Another path is to find the *.ko names in /lib/modules and use the absolute name to track them down in the kernel sources where there is usually a README of some sort in the tree leading to the *.ko. But my god what a slow and painful way to find out what these modules do. Just rmmod is another way but again a very slow and painful way. Maybe a module is used only occasionally and rmmodding may not show what it was for right away. What ever fails may not happen immediately.
