subject:"Re\: Reducing kernel compilation time"

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 4:21 PM, Camaleón noela...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 14:22:33 +, Camaleón wrote:

 Okay, let's get the numbers.

 I followed Sven and Stephen's advice so I:

 - Used make localmodconfig to generate the .config file
 - Appended CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=2 to make-kpkg
 - Added CONFIG_MATOM=y (just in case...)
 - Removed the aforementioned CONFIG_LGUEST_GUEST, CONFIG_LGUEST and
 CONFIG_PARAVIRT_SPINLOCKS options from the .config file

 This compilation round started at 18:56 and when I came back (at 21:05)
 the process was already finished...

 So what time it took? I should have used time to monitor the proccess
 (my bad) but the generated .deb file says it was last changed and
 modified at 20:07.

If I were you, I'd use make menuconfig to set/unset the values that
you set manually. You can find them with /MATOM (for CONFIG_MATOM)
with the menuconfig screen.

If you'd like to find out what's probably the fastest that you can
compile a kernel on your netbook make defconfig will give you a
pretty small (and almost certainly useless for your purposes) kernel
config.


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 5:13 PM, Stan Hoeppner s...@hardwarefreak.com wrote:
On 9/25/2011 11:02 AM, Camaleón wrote:
On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 10:18:53 -0500, Stan Hoeppner wrote:

Simply go through all the hardware and deselect anything that's not
inside that netbook. Of all the network interface cards you'll only
need one (or two depending on whether that netbook has an RJ45 port in
addition to the wireless NIC). You'll only need one of the dozens of
IDE/SATA drivers. You won't need any of the SCSI/RAID or legacy block
drivers, though you will need SCSI disk and SCSI CDROM, as libata needs
those, as Stephen and I recently discussed.

That's easy to say but hard to get and so much for a trial/error test.

It's definitely more difficult for non-hardwarefreaks. But honestly, if one
isn't a hardwarefreak s/he really has no business rolling his/her own
kernel. The entire concept of an operating system kernel is to abstract the
hardware from user applications. This concept is over 40 years old. Some
90+% of the Linux kernel code deals with programming and communicating with
the hardware. So you really need to know a bit about hardware if you're
going to roll your own kernels.

Whilst I agree that being a hardware freak might make choosing the
right kernel config settings, it's not a must. I've been compiling
kernels for a while and I'm definitely not a hardware freak; in fact,
one of the most satisfying aspects of my job for the last eight or
nine years is that I haven't seen a server room (unless I'm
moonlighting in an SME) and don't have to deal with hardware except
when I ask the hardware boys and girls to change a failing disk or ram
module or check the cabling or install/remove a box or ...

Over the years, I've never had the need to compile a kernel and this is
my 4 kernel compilation in one month... but now I'm making these tests
just for fun because all these compilations were aimed to debug the
staging wifi drivers but the latest kernel (3.1-rc7, which I tried
yesterday) neither worked.

One of the biggest problems I see people having with both wired and wireless
ethernet controllers is not getting the firmware loaded. Recall the big row
on this list about the Realtek 8111/8168 etc? Debian didn't included the
firmware in the Debian kernel tree due to Realtek ambiguity on the source
license. Thus I recommend to anyone rolling a kernel to use a
vanilla/pristine tarball which includes all the firmware blobs, and to build
the blobs into your kernel. Also, build fixed hardware drivers into the
kernel, not as modules. Fixed meaning non-removable, as in soldered to the
system board, such as SATA, wireless ethernet, USB, etc in your netbook.

The option to build firmware into the kernel is:

CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL=y
Description: http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL.html

The only downside is that this adds a few kilobytes to your kernel binary.
In my experience this is easier than the recommended way to include
firmware, and it's foolproof as long as the firmware is in the source tree.
Most are.

The catee site above is very useful to find out what various kernel
config settings are. But you can also get that info by choosing help
for an entry in menuconfig.

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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 7:26 PM, Stephen Powell zlinux...@wowway.com wrote:

 I will continue to use and recommend kernel-package. But I'm not going
 to argue with those who wish to use make deb-pkg.

It's all a question of habit. If I need to have a package, I use
make-dpkg on Debian distribs and rpmbuild on Red Hat distribs. If
I don't need a package, I use make. I could start using make
deb-pkg (why not make deb or make dpkg?!) and make rpm - and I
might in the future - but this is working for me and this is what I'm
now used to.


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-26 Thread Camaleón

On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 16:13:58 -0500, Stan Hoeppner wrote:

 On 9/25/2011 11:02 AM, Camaleón wrote:

(...)

 Simply go through all the hardware and deselect anything that's not
 inside that netbook.  Of all the network interface cards you'll only
 need one (or two depending on whether that netbook has an RJ45 port in
 addition to the wireless NIC).  You'll only need one of the dozens of
 IDE/SATA drivers.  You won't need any of the SCSI/RAID or legacy block
 drivers, though you will need SCSI disk and SCSI CDROM, as libata
 needs those, as Stephen and I recently discussed.

 That's easy to say but hard to get and so much for a trial/error test.
 
 It's definitely more difficult for non-hardwarefreaks.  

I'd say it is so for anyone that never has compiled his/her own kernel. 
First time is always hard, regardless the task you have in hands.

 But honestly, if one isn't a hardwarefreak s/he really has no business
 rolling his/her own kernel.  The entire concept of an operating system
 kernel is to abstract the hardware from user applications.  This
 concept is over 40 years old.  Some 90+% of the Linux kernel code deals
 with programming and communicating with the hardware.  So you really
 need to know a bit about hardware if you're going to roll your own
 kernels.

As I said earlier, I never had a deep reason to compile my own kernel 
until now, that my wifi card stopped from working since kernel 2.6.39, 
that is, since 3.0.0 branch and upwards. The involved function that has 
been added to the wifi driver has been detected and I was given a 
workaround but I still need to be able to test another things and that 
involves adding debug trace for the stating drivers, which involves a 
kernel compilation.

 Do an lspci and write down all the hardware you have in there.  The
 strip out all the drivers you don't have.  If you're unsure, ask.

 I'm using Sven's advice (in join with Stephen's one), I find it a very
 good approach.
 
 Pick your poison.  My point is simply that you need to know what
 hardware is in the machine so you can include the drivers you need and
 leave out those you don't.

Yes, I know that, but is not an easy task, even for not-so-newbie people.

 Over the years, I've never had the need to compile a kernel and this is
 my 4 kernel compilation in one month... but now I'm making these tests
 just for fun because all these compilations were aimed to debug the
 staging wifi drivers but the latest kernel (3.1-rc7, which I tried
 yesterday) neither worked.
 
 One of the biggest problems I see people having with both wired and
 wireless ethernet controllers is not getting the firmware loaded. 

(...)

Not related to this problem, I guess. I'm in talks with one of the driver 
devels that kindly is helping me to track this.

 The option to build firmware into the kernel is:
 
 CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL=y
 Description:  http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL.html
 
 The only downside is that this adds a few kilobytes to your kernel
 binary.  In my experience this is easier than the recommended way to
 include firmware, and it's foolproof as long as the firmware is in the
 source tree.  Most are.

Good to know. But that would still leave out the closed source drivers or 
proprietary blob, right?

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 9:41 PM, Cam Hutchison c...@xdna.net wrote:
 David Witbrodt dawit...@sbcglobal.net writes:

(My goal was to
produce a kernel that boots without an initrd; most people will not
share that goal.)

 I would have thought that most people would share that goal, since
 building an initrd is useful for only two reasons I can think of:

 1) You are building a distro kernel that needs to run on many different
 types of machines, since you don't know what modules would need to be
 built in to find the root filesystem.

 2) You have a complex method of getting the root filesystem mounted -
 perhaps encrypted LVM on top of a network block device, etc, etc, etc.

 Since most people who are building their own kernels probably do not
 have either of these requirements, building without an initrd would
 make things a lot simpler.

 I looked into building an initrd with my kernel builds, but it just made
 things more complicated and I could not see the point.

 Is there some other reason to use an initrd when building your own
 customized kernels?

3) AFAIK, a initrd is needed for selinux. AFAIK! It's definitely the
case with upstart and systemd; I've never tried using selinux without
an initrd on RHEL 5 or an older Fedora, so it's maybe not the case
with sysvinit; although I can't see, off-hand, why it would work in
the latter case if it fails in the former two.

4) If you have /usr on its own partition and don't want to have some
non-fatal errors and warning, you have to mount it in the initrd.

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/separate-usr-is-broken

[5) On Ubuntu, if you have /var on its own partition and don't want
ureadahead to fail (or have to turn it off), you have to mount it in
the initrd.]


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-25 Thread Elimar Riesebieter

* Stephen Powell [110924 14:13 -0400]:

 On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:18:47 -0400 (EDT), Camaleón wrote:
  
  What do you mean by kernel-package? Debian's vanilla kernel?
 
 kernel-package is the name of a Debian package, as in
 
aptitude install kernel-package

Isn't [1] the proper way to build Debian kernels?

[1] http://kernel-handbook.alioth.debian.org/ch-common-tasks.html

Elimar
-- 
  Alles was viel bedacht wird ist bedenklich!;-)
 Friedrich Nietzsche


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time


On 9/24/2011 6:55 PM, Stephen Powell wrote:

On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 17:15:51 -0400 (EDT), Stan Hoeppner wrote:


5 hours?  Did you say 5 hours?

I have a 10 year old dual Mendocino 550 machine with only 384MB of PC100
that takes about 30 minutes to compile my custom kernels using make -j2.

I'd guess you're including the kitchen sink.  Don't build the hundreds
of driver modules your machines won't ever use.  That is the key to
reducing build time.


+1

Absolutely, Stan.  Building a lean and mean kernel, one which only
contains what the machine needs, is where the big savings are.  But
configuring the kernel to do that takes time.  And it is easy to make
a mistake.  For example, I've learned from experience that I need
SCSI support in my kernel, even though I have no SCSI adapter in my
machine.  So much stuff emulates SCSI now, or uses SCSI protocols
in communication.


I'd bet that omitting the SCSI layer hamstrung many folks who tried to 
use libata for the first time.  It got me too. :)  It forced me to go 
and read up on how libata works, so it wasn't all bad.


--
Stan


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time


On 9/25/2011 2:42 AM, Elimar Riesebieter wrote:

* Stephen Powell [110924 14:13 -0400]:


On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:18:47 -0400 (EDT), Camaleón wrote:


What do you mean by kernel-package? Debian's vanilla kernel?


kernel-package is the name of a Debian package, as in

aptitude install kernel-package


Isn't [1] the proper way to build Debian kernels?

[1] http://kernel-handbook.alioth.debian.org/ch-common-tasks.html


As has already been discussed, this is the new recommended way to 
build a Debian kernel.  The instructions on that page 'silently' changed 
not terribly that long ago.  The build instructions on that page used to 
tell us to use 'make-kpkg'.  Note that this new method


make KDEB_PKGVERSION=custom.1.0 deb-pkg

did not exist in the days of 2.6.18 to 2.6.21, which is when these 
command line examples were written.  IIRC this deb-pkg method was 
introduced in kernel 2.6.32 or 2.6.34.  It is included in the pristine 
kernel kernel source tarball.  Thus you don't have to install any Debian 
kernel building packages on your system in order to build a custom 
kernel.  This is likely one of the reasons this is the recommended 
method now, since most everything you need is in the vanilla tarball.


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Stan


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-25 Thread Tom H

On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 2:20 PM, Stephen Powell zlinux...@wowway.com wrote:
 On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 13:56:35 -0400 (EDT), Tom H wrote:

 CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)
 although getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN on an atom's probably 1; but
 you never know...

 You can also pass INSTALL_MOD_STRIP=1 to make-kpkg so that the make
 modules_install step strips out debugging information (if this isn't
 done by default).

 Thanks for the tips, Tom!  I believe I'll incorporate one or both of
 those tips during the next revision of my kernel-building web page.

You're very welcome. Should kernel-package ever be EOLd you could look
into the fakeroot debian/rules... way of compiling a kernel that
both the Debian and Ubuntu kernel teams seem to be promoting if you
use their sources. From what little I've read about this method, it
doesn't seem to have the equivalent of make-kpg's kernel_image
target so it might have the same deficiency as make deb-pkg from
your perspective...

I was re-reading the make-kpkg to see whether there were targets with
or without debugging symbols and found kernel_debug:

kernel_debug
  This target produces a Debian package containing the debugging
  symbols for the modules contained in the corresponding image
  package. The basic idea here is to keep the space in /lib/mod-
  ules/kver under control, since this could be on a root parti-
  tion with space restrictions.

So, if you create a linux-image package with debug info stripped out,
you can later create a package with just the unstripped modules rather
than recompile a complete package. The man page doesn't specify where
these modules would be installed.


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 14:13:57 -0400, Stephen Powell wrote:

 On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:18:47 -0400 (EDT), Camaleón wrote:
 
 What do you mean by kernel-package? Debian's vanilla kernel?
 
 kernel-package is the name of a Debian package, as in
 
aptitude install kernel-package
 
 It is not a kernel.  It is a collection of scripts, configuration files,
 etc. that are intended to aid in the process of compiling a kernel and
 building a Debian binary kernel package.  The make-kpkg command is one
 of the scripts in the kernel-package package.

Ah, then yes :-)

In fact, I already have a set of tools installed (along with fakeroot, 
that kernel-package) because I'm following Debian Installation Guide 
instructions:

http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch08s06.html

(there is a little bug there. --revision= string has to start with a 
number or it won't compile...)

 No, sources have to be from upstream.
 
 kernel-package can be used with official Debian kernel source packages
 or with pristine kernel sources acquired directly from upstream. When
 using upstream kernel sources directly, one cannot use the Debian
 package version in the --revision option, since there is no Debian
 package version.  You have to make one up.  Other than that, it works
 just fine for upstream kernel sources.  I've done it before, and for
 similar reasons as you.

Yes, yes... that's what I have been doing. Then I can try your 
suggestion, in addition with the new make localmodconfig that is 
running right now.

 Yes... I've already¹ walked through that link, and it's fantastic for
 Debian starters, very well explained with detailed steps (have you
 considered adding it into Debian's wiki, or at least -if not the full
 article- a link to it?)
 
 ¹I noticed you pointed to it in another thread where someone asked for
 something similar ;-)
 
 The Debian kernel team seems to think that kernel-package should be
 considered deprecated. (Although, as far as I know, the author of
 kernel-package does not share that opinion.)  Therefore, I'm not sure
 that my kernel-building stuff would be welcome in the official wiki. The
 kernel team encourages the use of make deb-pkg.  But I personally
 don't like make deb-pkg because of its one size fits all build
 philosophy.  For example, it always produces a headers package, and I
 often don't need a headers package.  With kernel-package, I only get the
 packages that I ask for.  And since your goal is to reduce kernel
 compilation time, I would think that you would not want extra packages
 produced that you don't need.  That takes additional time.

I also found very easy to compile a new kernel from whatever source by 
using the mentioned package, and in fact, it is suggested in the install  
manual so they better remove the current instructions if want people use 
another method but until then, I will keep using it :-P

 If you decide to try kernel-package, make sure that you apply the patch
 file listed in the web page.  It won't work properly with a version 3
 kernel unless you do.

Hum... you mean the one for EDID? I've compiled 3 kernels just fine and 
had to do nothing special :-?

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-25 Thread Stephen Powell

On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 03:42:24 -0400 (EDT), Elimar Riesebieter wrote:

Isn't [1] the proper way to build Debian kernels?

[1] http://kernel-handbook.alioth.debian.org/ch-common-tasks.html

That depends on your definition of proper. The kernel handbook,
not surprisingly, is maintained by the Debian kernel team. The
Debian kernel team is responsible for producing the official Debian
stock binary kernels as well as making any Debian customization to
the pristine kernel sources that they deem necessary or desirable.
If your definition of proper means the way the kernel team
currently recommends, then yes. However, with apologies to cat
lovers, there's an old American saying: There's more than one way
to skin a cat. The method documented on my web page is the
historic method, and was also the method used by the Debian kernel
team to create official Debian stock kernel images up through and
including Sarge. The kernel team departed from the historic method
of producing stock kernels with Etch, it seems.

As I said in an earlier post, I still prefer the historic method because
I find it more flexible. For example, when using make deb-pkg,
three binary packages are produced: a linux-image-* package, a
linux-headers-* package, and a linux-libc6-dev package. In most
cases, I only need and want the linux-image-* package. With make
deb-pkg, it doesn't appear that there is any way to suppress the
creation of the unneeded packages. With make-kpkg, I only get the
packages that I ask for.

Another benefit of the historic method is that header packages are
rarely needed. If the entire kernel source tree is already installed,
header packages should not be needed, since the kernel headers are
included as part of the kernel source. The historic method of creating
kernel module binary packages takes advantage of this fact and therefore
does not require a separate headers package. The new way of creating
kernel modules requires a headers package, even if the entire kernel
source tree is already installed. This is all explained in my web page,
which, for reference, is

http://users.wowway.com/~zlinuxman/Kernel.htm

But, to each his own. Whatever floats your boat, man.

--
.''`. Stephen Powell
: :' :
`. `'`
`-

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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-25 Thread Tom H

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 7:53 AM, Camaleón noela...@gmail.com wrote:

 In fact, I already have a set of tools installed (along with fakeroot,
 that kernel-package) because I'm following Debian Installation Guide
 instructions:

 http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch08s06.html

There's also the kernel handbook:
http://kernel-handbook.alioth.debian.org/ch-common-tasks.html


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-25 Thread Stephen Powell

On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 07:53:59 -0400 (EDT), Camaleón wrote:
 Stephen Powell wrote:
 If you decide to try kernel-package, make sure that you apply the patch
 file listed in the web page.  It won't work properly with a version 3
 kernel unless you do.
 
 Hum... you mean the one for EDID? I've compiled 3 kernels just fine and 
 had to do nothing special :-?

No, I mean  ...

-

If you are using kernel-package version 12.036+nmu1 with a Linux version 3
kernel source package, there is a patch you will need to apply, especially
if CONFIG_LGUEST is set in the kernel config file or you need to build doc
or headers packages.  The patch is available here.  To apply the patch,
issue the following sequence of commands:

 cd /usr/share/kernel-package
 ... (download the patch file to the current directory)
 patch -p1 linuxv3.diff

This is an unofficial patch: it is not provided by or endorsed by the
upstream author or the Debian package maintainer.

-

Follow the link on the word here in the above text in my web page.

-- 
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 : :'  :
 `. `'`
   `-


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 08:30:36 -0400, Stephen Powell wrote:

 On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 07:53:59 -0400 (EDT), Camaleón wrote:
 Stephen Powell wrote:
 If you decide to try kernel-package, make sure that you apply the
 patch file listed in the web page.  It won't work properly with a
 version 3 kernel unless you do.
 
 Hum... you mean the one for EDID? I've compiled 3 kernels just fine and
 had to do nothing special :-?
 
 No, I mean  ...
 
 -
 
 If you are using kernel-package version 12.036+nmu1 with a Linux version
 3 kernel source package, there is a patch you will need to apply,
 especially if CONFIG_LGUEST is set in the kernel config file or you need
 to build doc or headers packages.  The patch is available here.  To
 apply the patch, issue the following sequence of commands:
 
  cd /usr/share/kernel-package
  ... (download the patch file to the current directory) patch -p1
  linuxv3.diff
 
 This is an unofficial patch: it is not provided by or endorsed by the
 upstream author or the Debian package maintainer.
 
 -
 
 Follow the link on the word here in the above text in my web page.

Ah, that (the missing documentation folder). Yes, that's something I 
noticed too late the first time I run the compilation, it stopped at the 
middle of the task but googling around a bit I could discover the cause. 
In brief:

CONFIG_LGUEST_GUEST=n
CONFIG_LGUEST=n
CONFIG_PARAVIRT_SPINLOCKS=n

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 08:25:19 -0400, Tom H wrote:

 On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 7:53 AM, Camaleón noela...@gmail.com wrote:

 In fact, I already have a set of tools installed (along with
 fakeroot, that kernel-package) because I'm following Debian
 Installation Guide instructions:

 http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch08s06.html
 
 There's also the kernel handbook:
 http://kernel-handbook.alioth.debian.org/ch-common-tasks.html

It seems there is more than one oficial version on how to bake a 
cake (something that's very common in the FLOSS world) so I applied the 
first I found which by the way, it worked fine.

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:15:51 -0500, Stan Hoeppner wrote:

 On 9/24/2011 9:22 AM, Camaleón wrote:

(...)

 I don't need nothing special, just to be able to boot the system, test
 the staging drivers and then remove/compile a new kernel again so
 wasting the less time in the process would be great :-)

 Any trick?
 
 5 hours?  Did you say 5 hours?

Yes Stan, I said five hours.
 
 I have a 10 year old dual Mendocino 550 machine with only 384MB of PC100
 that takes about 30 minutes to compile my custom kernels using make -j2.

Marvellous.

 I'd guess you're including the kitchen sink.  Don't build the hundreds
 of driver modules your machines won't ever use.  That is the key to
 reducing build time.

Fair enough, but I wonder what to include in the recipe. If I put too 
much salt or leave the oven for many hours at the maximun temperature 
I'll get a pastiche nobody will be able to eat...

So I'm afraid I'll wait for your super-customized .config file to use 
it in my netbook, feel free to send it to my inbox when it's ready :-)

Greetings,

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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-25 Thread Brian

On Sun 25 Sep 2011 at 08:21:17 -0400, Stephen Powell wrote:

[Snipped: Some advantages of using kernel-package]

 But, to each his own.  Whatever floats your boat, man.

Indeed, but the deck is stacked against kernel-package when it is
associated with 'deprecated' in the minds of users. It may not suit the
Kernel Team for their use but I've happily and successfully compiled
kernels with it for many years without it giving me any problems.

Kernel-package was promoted as the Debian way when I first came into
contact with it and its creator was active in debian-user with advice.
If there is a proper or official Debian position on compiling a kernel
it could be inferred from this civilised discussion at:

   http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=599208


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-25 Thread David Witbrodt

 From: Camaleón noela...@gmail.com

 Sent: Sun, September 25, 2011 10:30:30 AM
 Subject: Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

  I'd guess you're  including the kitchen sink.  Don't build the hundreds
  of driver  modules your machines won't ever use.  That is the key to
  reducing  build time.

 Fair enough, but I wonder what to include in the recipe. If  I put too 
 much salt or leave the oven for many hours at the maximun  temperature 
 I'll get a pastiche nobody will be able to eat...

 So  I'm afraid I'll wait for your super-customized .config file to use 
 it in  my netbook, feel free to send it to my inbox when it's ready  :-)

He cannot.  Everyone needs a different '.config' if they are trying to
customize for their own personal hardware.

My own experience with this involved spending an entire day in January
2010 tracking down which options I could disable.  I also changed most
'M' options to 'Y' so that drivers would be built directly into the
kernel instead of as a separate loadable module.  (My goal was to
produce a kernel that boots without an initrd; most people will not
share that goal.)  Sven Joachim's suggestion to create a new '.config'
using 'make localmonconfig' should mostly have the desired effect, the
result could then be fine-tuned.  If that option had existed when I
was learning about this, it would have saved me many, many hours!

Good luck!
Dave W.

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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time


On 9/25/2011 9:30 AM, Camaleón wrote:


Fair enough, but I wonder what to include in the recipe. If I put too
much salt or leave the oven for many hours at the maximun temperature
I'll get a pastiche nobody will be able to eat...


Have you used make-menuconfig?  Simply go through all the hardware and 
deselect anything that's not inside that netbook.  Of all the network 
interface cards you'll only need one (or two depending on whether that 
netbook has an RJ45 port in addition to the wireless NIC).  You'll only 
need one of the dozens of IDE/SATA drivers.  You won't need any of the 
SCSI/RAID or legacy block drivers, though you will need SCSI disk and 
SCSI CDROM, as libata needs those, as Stephen and I recently discussed.


Do an lspci and write down all the hardware you have in there.  The 
strip out all the drivers you don't have.  If you're unsure, ask.


And be patient with yourself.  Nearly everyone who embarks on the roll 
your own journey trips a few times along the way, and has a steep 
learning curve in the beginning.



So I'm afraid I'll wait for your super-customized .config file to use
it in my netbook, feel free to send it to my inbox when it's ready:-)


Don't hold your breath. :)

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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time


On 9/25/2011 10:16 AM, David Witbrodt wrote:


If that option had existed when I
was learning about this, it would have saved me many, many hours!


But then you wouldn't have learned as much.  Easier is not always 
better, even though it often seems so.


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 08:16:53 -0700, David Witbrodt wrote:

 From: Camaleón noela...@gmail.com
 
 Sent: Sun, September 25, 2011 10:30:30 AM Subject: Re: Reducing kernel
 compilation time
 
 
  I'd guess you're  including the kitchen sink.  Don't build the
  hundreds of driver  modules your machines won't ever use.  That is
  the key to reducing  build time.
 
 Fair enough, but I wonder what to include in the recipe. If  I put
 too much salt or leave the oven for many hours at the maximun 
 temperature I'll get a pastiche nobody will be able to eat...
 
 So  I'm afraid I'll wait for your super-customized .config file to
 use it in  my netbook, feel free to send it to my inbox when it's ready
  :-)
 
 He cannot.  Everyone needs a different '.config' if they are trying to
 customize for their own personal hardware.

(...)

Ains... I should have said it was a joke but I hoped the devil smily 
:-) was just going to be enough.

Greetings,

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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 10:18:53 -0500, Stan Hoeppner wrote:

 On 9/25/2011 9:30 AM, Camaleón wrote:
 
 Fair enough, but I wonder what to include in the recipe. If I put too
 much salt or leave the oven for many hours at the maximun temperature
 I'll get a pastiche nobody will be able to eat...
 
 Have you used make-menuconfig?  

Nope. I first used the current .config located at /boot, that way I 
could not fail.

 Simply go through all the hardware and deselect anything that's not
 inside that netbook.  Of all the network interface cards you'll only
 need one (or two depending on whether that netbook has an RJ45 port in
 addition to the wireless NIC).  You'll only need one of the dozens of
 IDE/SATA drivers.  You won't need any of the SCSI/RAID or legacy block
 drivers, though you will need SCSI disk and SCSI CDROM, as libata needs
 those, as Stephen and I recently discussed.

That's easy to say but hard to get and so much for a trial/error test.

 Do an lspci and write down all the hardware you have in there.  The
 strip out all the drivers you don't have.  If you're unsure, ask.

I'm using Sven's advice (in join with Stephen's one), I find it a very 
good approach.

 And be patient with yourself.  Nearly everyone who embarks on the roll
 your own journey trips a few times along the way, and has a steep
 learning curve in the beginning.

Over the years, I've never had the need to compile a kernel and this is 
my 4 kernel compilation in one month... but now I'm making these tests 
just for fun because all these compilations were aimed to debug the 
staging wifi drivers but the latest kernel (3.1-rc7, which I tried 
yesterday) neither worked.

 So I'm afraid I'll wait for your super-customized .config file to use
 it in my netbook, feel free to send it to my inbox when it's ready:-)
 
 Don't hold your breath. :)

Ha! I knew it :-)

Greetings,

-- 
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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-25 Thread David Witbrodt

 From: Stan Hoeppner s...@hardwarefreak.com

 Sent: Sun, September 25, 2011 11:27:13 AM
 Subject: Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

  If that option had  existed when I
  was learning about this, it would have saved me many,  many
  hours!

 But then you wouldn't have learned as much.  Easier is  not
 always better, even though it often seems so.

I take your point.

I was actually reading about every single kernel option in
a .config file, though, so the time I was thinking would
have been saved would only have had to do with arriving
more quickly at my custom .config, not on the learning
about the options.  But I fully agree with the truism:
easier is not always better.

DW

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(Results) Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 14:22:33 +, Camaleón wrote:

(...)

 Any trick?

Yes, I got many useful tricks, a big thanks to all.

Okay, let's get the numbers.

I followed Sven and Stephen's advice so I:

- Used make localmodconfig to generate the .config file
- Appended CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=2 to make-kpkg
- Added CONFIG_MATOM=y (just in case...)
- Removed the aforementioned CONFIG_LGUEST_GUEST, CONFIG_LGUEST and 
CONFIG_PARAVIRT_SPINLOCKS options from the .config file

This compilation round started at 18:56 and when I came back (at 21:05) 
the process was already finished...

Wow, I didn't expect that. 

So what time it took? I should have used time to monitor the proccess 
(my bad) but the generated .deb file says it was last changed and 
modified at 20:07.

If that's true (which results in ~1 hour of compilation time) I can 
consider myself very much fortunate :-)

Greetings,

-- 
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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time


On 9/25/2011 11:02 AM, Camaleón wrote:

On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 10:18:53 -0500, Stan Hoeppner wrote:


On 9/25/2011 9:30 AM, Camaleón wrote:


Fair enough, but I wonder what to include in the recipe. If I put too
much salt or leave the oven for many hours at the maximun temperature
I'll get a pastiche nobody will be able to eat...


Have you used make-menuconfig?


Nope. I first used the current .config located at /boot, that way I
could not fail.


Simply go through all the hardware and deselect anything that's not
inside that netbook.  Of all the network interface cards you'll only
need one (or two depending on whether that netbook has an RJ45 port in
addition to the wireless NIC).  You'll only need one of the dozens of
IDE/SATA drivers.  You won't need any of the SCSI/RAID or legacy block
drivers, though you will need SCSI disk and SCSI CDROM, as libata needs
those, as Stephen and I recently discussed.


That's easy to say but hard to get and so much for a trial/error test.


It's definitely more difficult for non-hardwarefreaks.  But honestly, if 
one isn't a hardwarefreak s/he really has no business rolling his/her 
own kernel.  The entire concept of an operating system kernel is to 
abstract the hardware from user applications.  This concept is over 40 
years old.  Some 90+% of the Linux kernel code deals with programming 
and communicating with the hardware.  So you really need to know a bit 
about hardware if you're going to roll your own kernels.



Do an lspci and write down all the hardware you have in there.  The
strip out all the drivers you don't have.  If you're unsure, ask.


I'm using Sven's advice (in join with Stephen's one), I find it a very
good approach.


Pick your poison.  My point is simply that you need to know what 
hardware is in the machine so you can include the drivers you need and 
leave out those you don't.



And be patient with yourself.  Nearly everyone who embarks on the roll
your own journey trips a few times along the way, and has a steep
learning curve in the beginning.


Over the years, I've never had the need to compile a kernel and this is
my 4 kernel compilation in one month... but now I'm making these tests
just for fun because all these compilations were aimed to debug the
staging wifi drivers but the latest kernel (3.1-rc7, which I tried
yesterday) neither worked.


One of the biggest problems I see people having with both wired and 
wireless ethernet controllers is not getting the firmware loaded. 
Recall the big row on this list about the Realtek 8111/8168 etc?  Debian 
didn't included the firmware in the Debian kernel tree due to Realtek 
ambiguity on the source license.  Thus I recommend to anyone rolling a 
kernel to use a vanilla/pristine tarball which includes all the firmware 
blobs, and to build the blobs into your kernel.  Also, build fixed 
hardware drivers into the kernel, not as modules.  Fixed meaning 
non-removable, as in soldered to the system board, such as SATA, 
wireless ethernet, USB, etc in your netbook.


The option to build firmware into the kernel is:

CONFIG_FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL=y
Description:  http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/FIRMWARE_IN_KERNEL.html

The only downside is that this adds a few kilobytes to your kernel 
binary.  In my experience this is easier than the recommended way to 
include firmware, and it's foolproof as long as the firmware is in the 
source tree.  Most are.



So I'm afraid I'll wait for your super-customized .config file to use
it in my netbook, feel free to send it to my inbox when it's ready:-)


Don't hold your breath. :)


Ha! I knew it :-)


Not all of us are humor impaired. :)

--
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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-25 Thread Stephen Powell

On Sun, 25 Sep 2011 10:27:09 -0400 (EDT), Brian a...@cityscape.co.uk wrote:
 
 Indeed, but the deck is stacked against kernel-package when it is
 associated with 'deprecated' in the minds of users. It may not suit the
 Kernel Team for their use but I've happily and successfully compiled
 kernels with it for many years without it giving me any problems.
 
 Kernel-package was promoted as the Debian way when I first came into
 contact with it and its creator was active in debian-user with advice.
 If there is a proper or official Debian position on compiling a kernel
 it could be inferred from this civilised discussion at:
 
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=599208

I read the above bug report.  Did you notice the quote from Manoj Srivastava,
the upstream author and Debian package maintainer of kernel-package?
(I have taken the liberty of editing it to correct typos.)

-

Indeed.  Since the team of developers in question has never been
 involved in the development of kernel-package, why do they get a say
 in deciding that the package is deprecated?

I, and a lot of other people, still use kernel-package every
 day, and the upstream make deb-pkg route does not allow one to make
 kernel-headers, for instance, nor does it allow one to override or
 replace parts of the build system or otherwise influence the packages
 created.

The stripped down build in deb package creator is by far not a
 drop in replacement of kernel package.

manoj

-

Since Manoj wrote this on October 5, 2010, some improvements have been
made to make deb-pkg; but make deb-pkg is still not as full-featured
or as flexible as make-kpkg.  More importantly, Manoj obviously does not
consider kernel-package to be deprecated and still uses it himself on a
regular basis.  As long as Manoj continues to support it, and as long as
it offers me the flexibility that I desire and make deb-pkg doesn't,
I will continue to use and recommend kernel-package.  But I'm not going
to argue with those who wish to use make deb-pkg.  If it meets their
needs, and they want to use it, fine.

-- 
  .''`. Stephen Powell
 : :'  :
 `. `'`
   `-


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-25 Thread Cam Hutchison

David Witbrodt dawit...@sbcglobal.net writes:

(My goal was to
produce a kernel that boots without an initrd; most people will not
share that goal.)

I would have thought that most people would share that goal, since
building an initrd is useful for only two reasons I can think of:

1) You are building a distro kernel that needs to run on many different
types of machines, since you don't know what modules would need to be
built in to find the root filesystem.

2) You have a complex method of getting the root filesystem mounted -
perhaps encrypted LVM on top of a network block device, etc, etc, etc.

Since most people who are building their own kernels probably do not
have either of these requirements, building without an initrd would
make things a lot simpler.

I looked into building an initrd with my kernel builds, but it just made
things more complicated and I could not see the point.

Is there some other reason to use an initrd when building your own
customized kernels?



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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-24 Thread Mathieu Malaterre

I would build only the relevant kernel *module*, I want to play with
(or imported from linux-next):

http://wiki.debian.org/HowToRebuildAnOfficialDebianKernelPackage

HTH

On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 4:22 PM, Camaleón noela...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hello,

 I had to compile the latest upstream kernel sources to make some
 debugging with my wifi drivers (from staging) and discovered that
 compilation took ~5 hours.

 That's much for testing purposes.

 Compilation takes place in a netbook governed by Intel's Atom N455 with 2
 GiB of RAM and I would like to reduce the compilation time.

 I'm using the same .config file I have for the current Debian stock
 kernel (to avoid missing some modules I may need) and just added
 CONFIG_MATOM=y but it takes almost the same time.

 I don't need nothing special, just to be able to boot the system, test
 the staging drivers and then remove/compile a new kernel again so wasting
 the less time in the process would be great :-)

 Any trick?

 Greetings,

 --
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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-24 Thread Camaleón

On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:26:34 +0200, Mathieu Malaterre wrote:

 On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 4:22 PM, Camaleón noela...@gmail.com wrote:

(...)

 I don't need nothing special, just to be able to boot the system, test
 the staging drivers and then remove/compile a new kernel again so
 wasting the less time in the process would be great :-)

 Any trick?

 I would build only the relevant kernel *module*, I want to play with (or
 imported from linux-next):
 
 http://wiki.debian.org/HowToRebuildAnOfficialDebianKernelPackage

I'll give it a whirl, but reducing kernel compilation time is still 
something I would like to have.

Greetings,

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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-24 Thread Sven Joachim

On 2011-09-24 16:22 +0200, Camaleón wrote:

 I had to compile the latest upstream kernel sources to make some 
 debugging with my wifi drivers (from staging) and discovered that 
 compilation took ~5 hours.

 That's much for testing purposes.

 Compilation takes place in a netbook governed by Intel's Atom N455 with 2 
 GiB of RAM and I would like to reduce the compilation time.

 I'm using the same .config file I have for the current Debian stock 
 kernel (to avoid missing some modules I may need) and just added 
 CONFIG_MATOM=y but it takes almost the same time.

 I don't need nothing special, just to be able to boot the system, test 
 the staging drivers and then remove/compile a new kernel again so wasting 
 the less time in the process would be great :-)

 Any trick?

Plug in any hardware that you intend to use with your netbook and then
run make localmodconfig.  This works from Linux 2.6.32 onwards¹.

Sven


¹ 
http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_32#head-11f54cdac41ad6150ef817fd68597554d9d05a5f


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:22:33 -0400 (EDT), Camaleón wrote:

I had to compile the latest upstream kernel sources to make some
debugging with my wifi drivers (from staging) and discovered that
compilation took ~5 hours.

That's much for testing purposes.

Compilation takes place in a netbook governed by Intel's Atom N455 with 2
GiB of RAM and I would like to reduce the compilation time.

I'm using the same .config file I have for the current Debian stock
kernel (to avoid missing some modules I may need) and just added
CONFIG_MATOM=y but it takes almost the same time.

I don't need nothing special, just to be able to boot the system, test
the staging drivers and then remove/compile a new kernel again so wasting
the less time in the process would be great :-)

Any trick?

Hello, Camaleón.

I'm not familiar with the capabilities of your hardware, but if you have
multiple CPUs (cores) available, and you're using kernel-package, you
can make use of the environment variable CONCURRENCY_LEVEL to set the
number of simultaneous compile tasks. For example,

CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=2 make-kpkg ...

if you have a dual-core processor. You seem to have enough RAM to support
that. Note that there is a patch you will need for kernel-package if
you're using a version 3 kernel. See my kernel-building web page for
details.

http://users.wowway.com/~zlinuxman/Kernel.htm

If you have a quad-core machine, you can set CONCURRENCY_LEVEL to 4.

--
.''`. Stephen Powell
: :' :
`. `'`
`-

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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-24 Thread Camaleón

On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 17:18:08 +0200, Sven Joachim wrote:

 On 2011-09-24 16:22 +0200, Camaleón wrote:

(...)

 I don't need nothing special, just to be able to boot the system, test
 the staging drivers and then remove/compile a new kernel again so
 wasting the less time in the process would be great :-)

 Any trick?
 
 Plug in any hardware that you intend to use with your netbook and then
 run make localmodconfig.  This works from Linux 2.6.32 onwards¹.
 
 
 
 ¹ 
 http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_32#head-11f54cdac41ad6150ef817fd68597554d9d05a5f

I'll test that, it sounds very good :-)

(I guess that CONFIG_MATOM=y still needs to be manually added, right?)

I hope that by cherry picking kernel modules compilation time is 
reduced significantly. I'll report back how it went, thanks.

Greetings,

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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-24 Thread Camaleón

On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:01:07 -0400, Stephen Powell wrote:

 On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:22:33 -0400 (EDT), Camaleón wrote:

(...)

 I don't need nothing special, just to be able to boot the system, test
 the staging drivers and then remove/compile a new kernel again so
 wasting the less time in the process would be great :-)
 
 Any trick?
 
 Hello, Camaleón.
 
 I'm not familiar with the capabilities of your hardware, but if you have
 multiple CPUs (cores) available, and you're using kernel-package, you
 can make use of the environment variable CONCURRENCY_LEVEL to set the
 number of simultaneous compile tasks.  

What do you mean by kernel-package? Debian's vanilla kernel? No, 
sources have to be from upstream. I already have compiled and installed a 
vanilla kernel from Debian sources but wifi driver fails at the same 
point than Debian's stock kernel. I need to try the greatest and latest 
kernel source (3.1-rc7).

 For example,
 
CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=2 make-kpkg ...
 
 if you have a dual-core processor.  You seem to have enough RAM to
 support that.  Note that there is a patch you will need for
 kernel-package if you're using a version 3 kernel.  See my
 kernel-building web page for details.
 
http://users.wowway.com/~zlinuxman/Kernel.htm
 
 If you have a quad-core machine, you can set CONCURRENCY_LEVEL to 4.

Yes... I've already¹ walked through that link, and it's fantastic for 
Debian starters, very well explained with detailed steps (have you 
considered adding it into Debian's wiki, or at least -if not the full 
article- a link to it?)

¹I noticed you pointed to it in another thread where someone asked for 
something similar ;-)

Greetings,

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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-24 Thread Sven Joachim

On 2011-09-24 18:04 +0200, Camaleón wrote:

 On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 17:18:08 +0200, Sven Joachim wrote:

 Plug in any hardware that you intend to use with your netbook and then
 run make localmodconfig.  This works from Linux 2.6.32 onwards¹.

 I'll test that, it sounds very good :-)

 (I guess that CONFIG_MATOM=y still needs to be manually added, right?)

If the currently running kernel does not have it (i.e. you still run a
Debian kernel), then yes.

Sven


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-24 Thread Tom H

On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 12:01 PM, Stephen Powell zlinux...@wowway.com wrote:
On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:22:33 -0400 (EDT), Camaleón wrote:

I had to compile the latest upstream kernel sources to make some
debugging with my wifi drivers (from staging) and discovered that
compilation took ~5 hours.

That's much for testing purposes.

Compilation takes place in a netbook governed by Intel's Atom N455 with 2
GiB of RAM and I would like to reduce the compilation time.

I'm using the same .config file I have for the current Debian stock
kernel (to avoid missing some modules I may need) and just added
CONFIG_MATOM=y but it takes almost the same time.

I don't need nothing special, just to be able to boot the system, test
the staging drivers and then remove/compile a new kernel again so wasting
the less time in the process would be great :-)

CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=2 make-kpkg ...

CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)
although getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN on an atom's probably 1; but
you never know...

You can also pass INSTALL_MOD_STRIP=1 to make-kpkg so that the make
modules_install step strips out debugging information (if this isn't
done by default).

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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:18:47 -0400 (EDT), Camaleón wrote:
 
 What do you mean by kernel-package? Debian's vanilla kernel?

kernel-package is the name of a Debian package, as in

   aptitude install kernel-package

It is not a kernel.  It is a collection of scripts, configuration
files, etc. that are intended to aid in the process of compiling
a kernel and building a Debian binary kernel package.  The make-kpkg
command is one of the scripts in the kernel-package package.
 
 No, sources have to be from upstream.

kernel-package can be used with official Debian kernel source packages
or with pristine kernel sources acquired directly from upstream.
When using upstream kernel sources directly, one cannot use the
Debian package version in the --revision option, since there is
no Debian package version.  You have to make one up.  Other than
that, it works just fine for upstream kernel sources.  I've done it
before, and for similar reasons as you.
 
 Yes... I've already¹ walked through that link, and it's fantastic for 
 Debian starters, very well explained with detailed steps (have you 
 considered adding it into Debian's wiki, or at least -if not the full 
 article- a link to it?)
 
 ¹I noticed you pointed to it in another thread where someone asked for 
 something similar ;-)

The Debian kernel team seems to think that kernel-package should be
considered deprecated.  (Although, as far as I know, the author of
kernel-package does not share that opinion.)  Therefore, I'm not sure
that my kernel-building stuff would be welcome in the official wiki.
The kernel team encourages the use of make deb-pkg.  But I personally
don't like make deb-pkg because of its one size fits all build
philosophy.  For example, it always produces a headers package, and I
often don't need a headers package.  With kernel-package, I only get
the packages that I ask for.  And since your goal is to reduce kernel
compilation time, I would think that you would not want extra packages
produced that you don't need.  That takes additional time.

If you decide to try kernel-package, make sure that you apply the
patch file listed in the web page.  It won't work properly with a
version 3 kernel unless you do.

-- 
  .''`. Stephen Powell
 : :'  :
 `. `'`
   `-


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 13:56:35 -0400 (EDT), Tom H wrote:
 
 CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)
 although getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN on an atom's probably 1; but
 you never know...
 
 You can also pass INSTALL_MOD_STRIP=1 to make-kpkg so that the make
 modules_install step strips out debugging information (if this isn't
 done by default).

Thanks for the tips, Tom!  I believe I'll incorporate one or both of
those tips during the next revision of my kernel-building web page.

-- 
  .''`. Stephen Powell
 : :'  :
 `. `'`
   `-


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-24 Thread Ralf Mardorf

On Sat, 2011-09-24 at 20:20 +,
debian-user-digest-requ...@lists.debian.org wrote:
 CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=2

I didn't read the thread, just one mail.

For my 2.1 GHz dual-core Athlon CONCURRENCY_LEVEL does minimal reduce
compiling time. I suspect that consequently reducing unneeded stuff
would be much more time reducing, unfortunately it takes a lot of time
to edit such a basic config. I never did and still suffer when compiling
a kernel and regarding to my audio needs I need to build kernels very
often.

Fortunately I'm able to use my computer, while building a kernel,
unfortunately it might take an hour, before I know, that something fishy
does stop building the kernel and this could happen 3 or 4 times again,
before a kernel will be build.

Yep, it's a PITA, OTOH, for other OSs there's no possibility to build a
kernel that fits to personal needs.

Live is a PITA ;)


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-24 Thread Stan Hoeppner


On 9/24/2011 9:22 AM, Camaleón wrote:

Hello,

I had to compile the latest upstream kernel sources to make some
debugging with my wifi drivers (from staging) and discovered that
compilation took ~5 hours.

That's much for testing purposes.

Compilation takes place in a netbook governed by Intel's Atom N455 with 2
GiB of RAM and I would like to reduce the compilation time.

I'm using the same .config file I have for the current Debian stock
kernel (to avoid missing some modules I may need) and just added
CONFIG_MATOM=y but it takes almost the same time.

I don't need nothing special, just to be able to boot the system, test
the staging drivers and then remove/compile a new kernel again so wasting
the less time in the process would be great :-)

Any trick?


5 hours?  Did you say 5 hours?

I have a 10 year old dual Mendocino 550 machine with only 384MB of PC100 
that takes about 30 minutes to compile my custom kernels using make -j2.


I'd guess you're including the kitchen sink.  Don't build the hundreds 
of driver modules your machines won't ever use.  That is the key to 
reducing build time.


--
Stan


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-24 Thread Ralf Mardorf

On Sat, 2011-09-24 at 22:44 +0200, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
 On Sat, 2011-09-24 at 20:20 +,
 debian-user-digest-requ...@lists.debian.org wrote:
  CONCURRENCY_LEVEL=2
 
 I didn't read the thread, just one mail.
 
 For my 2.1 GHz dual-core Athlon CONCURRENCY_LEVEL does minimal reduce
 compiling time. I suspect that consequently reducing unneeded stuff
 would be much more time reducing, unfortunately it takes a lot of time
 to edit such a basic config. I never did and still suffer when compiling
 a kernel and regarding to my audio needs I need to build kernels very
 often.
 
 Fortunately I'm able to use my computer, while building a kernel,
 unfortunately it might take an hour, before I know, that something fishy
 does stop building the kernel and this could happen 3 or 4 times again,
 before a kernel will be build.
 
 Yep, it's a PITA, OTOH, for other OSs there's no possibility to build a
 kernel that fits to personal needs.
 
 Live is a PITA ;)

An example

spinymouse@debian:/boot$ cat config-2.6.39.1 | grep TABLET
CONFIG_INPUT_TABLET=y
CONFIG_TABLET_USB_ACECAD=m
CONFIG_TABLET_USB_AIPTEK=m
CONFIG_TABLET_USB_GTCO=m
# CONFIG_TABLET_USB_HANWANG is not set
CONFIG_TABLET_USB_KBTAB=m
CONFIG_TABLET_USB_WACOM=m

I would like to have a tablet, but I don't have got a tablet. When
building this kernel, one time something unneeded was build as part of
the kernel and 5 times an unneeded module was build. Just one unneded
thingy wasn't build.

You can grep anything else and you will see, that you build tons of
unneeded stuff.



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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time

2011-09-24 Thread Stan Hoeppner


On 9/24/2011 11:01 AM, Stephen Powell wrote:

On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:22:33 -0400 (EDT), Camaleón wrote:


 Intel's Atom N455



I'm not familiar with the capabilities of your hardware, but if you have
multiple CPUs (cores)


The Atom 455 is a single core 64/32 bit CPU with HyperThreading, 
1.66GHz, 512KB L2 cache, single channel DDR2/3 interface.


http://ark.intel.com/products/49491

I would guess that 64 bit gcc would probably run a bit faster than 32 
bit gcc on this chip, with twice as many GPRs available.  Give that a 
shot if you're not doing so already.


--
Stan


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Re: Reducing kernel compilation time