[LAU] Compiling a kernel

[Jonathan E. Brickman]

>> I have just put up my steps (and many thanks Cal!) for compiling a kernel:
>>
>> http://linuxlive.joshuacorps.org/?p=318
>>      
> Hey Thanks for that!
> I taught computer science for 20 years at university and I never
> compiled a kernel.
> And now as a noob on this list just finished compiling my very own
> gleaming new kernel.
> I will put up some suggestions questions and (small) corrections in
> due course (perhaps on the blog directly?)
>    
Certainly, Rustom; whichever suits!
> But for now one question:  How does one quantitatively measure that
> one kernel is better than another?  eg memory footprint, response time
> etc?
> My current main use case is nted using timidity using whatever is my
> stock laptop hardware.
>    
Welcome to the club :-)  I really must give major thanks to Cal, he 
brought me back to distribution-independent kernel skills I had lost 
years back.

Indeed, quantitative measurement can be interesting, in part because 
needs are different.  I have 4G RAM, so I don't optimize for size; 
memory footprint is not part of my "improvement" quantitivity [*grin*], 
I want the speed.  I'm using a balance of (a) latency with (b) the 
number of simultaneous voices my primary software synth (Yoshimi) can 
produce, hold, and reverb.  It's a balance, because as I set my latency 
requirements lower, the CPU demands on I/O increase, reducing the 
available resources for (b).

J.E.B.