XPost: comp.os.linux.development.system   
   From: user@example.net   
      
   phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:   
      
   > | There is no automatically detection of your hardware and selection of   
   > | modules/build in drivers, you can either use the default configuration   
   which   
   > | will be like any other kernel you get with a all the binary distributions,   
   a   
   > | kernel that has drivers for things you don't have.   
   >   
   > But the drivers are not all loaded.  That's what a modular kernel is for,   
   > so you don't have to load everything.   
      
   There is no point in loading SATA drivers if you only have a Via MPV4 chipset   
   which hardly do support ATA66. So no point in loading all the stuff you don't   
   need.   
      
      
   > | meta-distributions let users to use the "make config"/"make    
   enuconfig"/... to   
   > | decide what they want in their kernel.   
   >   
   > Which is fine.  But a distribution could be made to give the user a   
   monolithic   
   > kernel.  It might well be argued that a user who isn't up on deciding what to   
   > have in a monolithic kernel should not be choosing to have one at all.  But   
   it   
   > is possible for someone to make a distribution that intends to make   
   monolithic   
   > kernels for some reason.   
      
   You have the draw back with generic monolithic kernels that they will be large   
   in size, as you don't know what the end user will have, will it be an intel   
   based or amd based machine, which graphics card will the user have... and not   
   all drivers are part of the kernel tree, for example nVidia drivers, users   
   with nVidia graphics would be suddenly forced to use vesa and no 3D support.   
      
   The optimal for a distribution is to make a modular kernel, where you have   
   only the most important things built in and modules are in a later stage   
   loaded depending on hardware on the users computer and you get a smaller   
   memory usage too.   
      
   Monolithic is okey when you build it specifically to one machine (your own   
   computer) or one type of machines (computers from Apple, mintel).   
      
      
   --   
      
     //Aho   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)