> Last question. Do i have to compile the kernel for 586 or 686 then? I assume
> 686, isn't it? ;-)
If I recall correctly, Mandrake supplies a patched kernel of the plain
vanilla 2.2.17 kernel. It is optimised for i586 architectures, which
means that any CPU ranging from a P60 to a P233MMX will benifit from it.
The K6-family from AMD will also get a small speed increase. But, since
CPU's are backward compatible, i686 CPU's, like the PII(I), CeleronI(I)
and Athlon will work on it.
You could recompile your kernel, but you won't feel much of a speed
increase. To get real optimisations for your system, you would have to
recompile EVERY program again from the source files for i686. Mandrake
already does this for i586 systems, that's why their distro's won't work
on 486's or anything lower.
So you better leave your kernel as it is right now, and wait for a more
mature version of the 2.4 kernel (although 2.4.0-test11 is sufficient
for home use). Optimising your kernel for i686 will have limited effect
on the speed of your system.
