User:Pietinger/Tutorials/Manual kernel configuration

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Tutorial: Manual kernel configuration

This tutorial gathers all links and informations needed for a manual kernel configuration. Only our Gentoo default sources will be used.

What you have to know / What you should read

Basics

Many options in your kernel configuration depends on other options. Many options selects one or more other options. Sometimes a option is not visible whilst others are not enabled. My recommendation for later: Look into every <HELP> of an option you want to enable or disable.

You can search for kernel modules by pressing / Typing a leading "CONFIG_" is not necessary.

Never edit .config

I quote from this thread: [1]

"Horrible things happen if you use a text editor on the kernel .config file. If you are lucky, you will get a kernel that won't build. If not, it may be broken in ways that nobody has ever seen before.

Use menuconfig and its search. Press / If the symbol you want is not found, press the 'z' key to toggle the display of hidden symbols. Search again.

The search will find it but you still can't select it. Read the help on the menu option. Pay attention to the Depends on: That boolean expression must be true before the item can be selected. Select other things so that your symbol can be selected.

Read the Selects: too. Now ask yourself if you would have got that right with your text editor?

The usual advice to someone who has used a text editor on the .config file is to throw it away and start it again."

More informations

If you have never done a manual kernel configuration you really should read all these before starting:

Before you start

1. Choose which kernel version you want and install it. This may help you: User:Pietinger/Tutorials/Selecting_a_convenient_kernel_version

2. Gather some informations: Boot with Handbook:AMD64/Installation/Media#Minimal_installation_CD or any other Live Distribution CD and do (as user root):

root #lspci -k
root #lsmod | more

Notice all "Kernel driver in use: XXXX" and all modules. You will need it later. For an INTEL system ask also:

root #dmesg | grep "Intel(R)"

Notice family,model and stepping.

What you should configure at minimum

Basic Settings (Must have)

1. Start with our Handbook:AMD64/Installation/Kernel. I am missing some important options. Add these for all 5.15.x LTS kernels

KERNEL 
General setup  --->
    [*] Compile the kernel with warnings as errors
    [*] Checkpoint/restore support
    [*] Configure standard kernel features (expert users)
    Choose SLAB allocator (SLUB (Unqueued Allocator))  --->
                 (X) SLUB (Unqueued Allocator)

Processor type and features  --->
    [*] Symmetric multi-processing support
#If you have an AMD or INTEL NOTEBOOK; dont enable for a desktop mainboard (only one of them)
    [?] Intel Low Power Subsystem Support
    [?] AMD ACPI2Platform devices support
#Enable this in every case for a INTEL or AMD system (only one of them)
    [*] Supported processor vendors  --->
        [?]   Support Intel processor
        [?]   Support AMD processors
    [*] Machine Check / overheating reporting
#Enable this in every case for a INTEL or AMD system (only one of them)
    [?]   Intel MCE Features
    [?]   AMD MCE Features
    [*] EFI runtime service support
    [*]   EFI stub support
    [ ]     EFI mixed-mode support
    [ ] Enable the LDT (local descriptor table)

Bus options (PCI etc.)  --->
    [*] Support mmconfig PCI config space access

Power management and ACPI options  --->
    [*] ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support

[*] Enable the block layer --->
    Partition Types --->
        [*] Advanced partition selection
        [*] PC BIOS (MSDOS partition tables) support
        [*] EFI GUID Partition support

Device Drivers --->
    Generic Driver Options --->
        [*] Maintain a devtmpfs filesystem to mount at /dev
        [*]   Automount devtmpfs at /dev, after the kernel mounted the rootfs
    Firmware Drivers  --->
        EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) Support  --->
            [*] EFI Variable Support via sysfs
    SCSI device support  --->
        [*] legacy /proc/scsi/ support
        [*] SCSI disk support
#If you have an INTEL CPU:
    [*] Hardware Monitoring support  --->
        [*]   Intel Core/Core2/Atom temperature sensor
    [*] USB support  --->
        [*]   Support for Host-side USB
        [*]   PCI based USB host interface
        [*]   USB announce new devices
        [*]   Enable USB persist by default
        [*]   USB Monitor
        [*]   xHCI HCD (USB 3.0) support
#If you have an old USB 2.0 or 1.1; look into your list from: "lspci -k"
#If you dont find any module named ehci, ohci or uhci in your list you dont have it !
        [?]   EHCI HCD (USB 2.0) support
        [?]   OHCI HCD (USB 1.1) support
        [?]   UHCI HCD (most Intel and VIA) support
        [*]   USB Mass Storage support
        [*]     USB Attached SCSI
    HID support  --->
        -*- HID bus support
        [*]   Battery level reporting for HID devices
        [*]   /dev/hidraw raw HID device support
        [*]   Generic HID driver
        USB HID support  --->
            [*] USB HID transport layer
            [*] /dev/hiddev raw HID device support
#This is for an INTEL CPU; choose AMD IOMMU support for an AMD CPU:
    [*] IOMMU Hardware Support  --->
              IOMMU default domain type (Translated - Strict)  --->
        [?]   AMD IOMMU support
        [*]   Support for Intel IOMMU using DMA Remapping Devices
        [*]     Support for Shared Virtual Memory with Intel IOMMU
        [*]     Enable Intel DMA Remapping Devices by default
        [*]     Enable Intel IOMMU scalable mode by default
        [*]   Support for Interrupt Remapping

#This should be a minimum when using EXT4:
File systems --->
    [ ] Second extended fs support
    [ ] The Extended 3 (ext3) filesystem
    [*] The Extended 4 (ext4) filesystem
    [*]   Use ext4 for ext2 file systems
    [*]   Ext4 POSIX Access Control Lists
    [*]   Ext4 Security Labels
    [ ] JBD2 (ext4) debugging support
    [ ] Reiserfs support
    [ ] JFS filesystem support
    [ ] XFS filesystem support
    [ ] GFS2 file system support
    [ ] Btrfs filesystem support
    DOS/FAT/NT Filesystems  --->
        [*] MSDOS fs support
        [*] VFAT (Windows-95) fs support
    Pseudo Filesystems --->
        [*] /proc file system support
        [*] Tmpfs virtual memory file system support (former shm fs)
    Native Language support --->
        (utf8) Default NLS Option
        [*]   Codepage 437 (United States, Canada)
        [*]   Codepage 850 (Europe)
        [*]   ASCII (United States)
        [*]   NLS ISO 8859-1  (Latin 1; Western European Languages)
        [*]   NLS ISO 8859-15 (Latin 9; Western European Languages with Euro)
        [*]   NLS UTF-8


In all Links you will get now, you will need only the chapter "Kernel Configuration":

2. Links for configuring your Harddisk or NVMe:


3. This is also a must; you will have a black screen without: Framebuffer


4. It is highly recommended to add your microcode for your CPU:


5. Search with / and your notice from lscpi -k for your ethernet module. Enable it (and disable all others because unneeded).


6. At last we need: Libinput


This configuration should be able to boot your kernel. If you want to use a graphical environment you need:


Graphics adapter

Choose from these links:

Sound and others

This should be done also:

Optional settings


At last you can check all other modules you have in your lists from lspci -k and lsmod by searching with /


Cheat Sheets

These are only valid if you have done a standard installation according to our Handbook:AMD64

  • Updating to a new kernel version:
root #emerge -1uvDp gentoo-sources
root #mount /boot
root ## go into the directory of the new kernel:
root #cd /usr/src/linux-X.Y.Z-gentoo
root #cp /usr/src/linux/.config .
root #make oldconfig
root ## For X use nr. of your CPU cores:
root #make -j X
root #make install
root #make modules_install
root ## Maybe you want to backup your configuration. I do this into:
root #cp .config /etc/MY/config-X-Y-Z
root #grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
root #eselect kernel list
root #eselect kernel set X
root #umount /boot
root #reboot
  • Changing the configuration of your used kernel:
root #mount /boot
root #cd /usr/src/linux
root #make menuconfig
root #make -j X
root #make install
root #make modules_install
root #cp .config /etc/MY/config-X-Y-Z-revA
root #grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
root #umount /boot
root #reboot


Note
You will find all these informations - and more - in german language (for a NO-Multilib installation) also in this thread: [[4]]. Check it out if you have troubles with a Touchpad connected via I2C ... ;-)

Kconfig / KSPP ?

View the content of /usr/src/linux/distro/Kconfig ... and examine if you have really enabled some security options ...

Note
More informations about this you will find (in german language) in this thread: [[5]]

Useful links


Note
This is my second try for creating a wiki article. Maybe some formatting is wrong. Because it is a tutorial and not a reference guide I ignored the standard of not writing in first or second person. Yes, my english is very poor.
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