Thanks for your reply. Perhaps you are right. I really don't have one good answer, but am confused and interested in learning. Many of the driver modules for things like SCSI and Sound cards I remember go way back to ISA bus cards. I doubt you could find many of these cards if you tried. Hundreds of them that don't seem to belong in the same kernel source as high performance systems. In my downloaded pre-compiled kernel the ancient driver modules are included and litter up both the configuration file and library directory. An ancient hardware platform deserves the ancient kernel. I realize the PC desktop platform is obsolete to many users. And all the laptop features, etc., etc., are new to me. But I'm surprised by all the support for embedded, GPIO, and many things I've barely heard of. One of the pre-compiled driver modules (GPS) for serial port even used the carrier detect as a pulse clock. I guess what I'm trying to do is a standard master/slave control system over a standard RS232 link, exploiting standard ATX power supplies on both ends. I have an 84 year old farmer friend who likes Ubuntu on his laptops, mails pictures of his very old car rebuilding projects. He likes old cars because they're fixable. I would like to think I can still do things with a PC. Clug wrote: > Aren't al kernels nowadays pretty much 100% module-based? Which means > you can't really get them to be simpler, as such? > > > On Mon, 25 Apr 2016, Rick Engebretson wrote: > >> I'm trying to compile a linux kernel that is simpler than the >> distribution version (using old opensuse 12.2 on an intel p4 mobo). >> I'm able to use the tools and documentation, and have compiled and >> installed some variant of the default opensuse download. However, I >> didn't get it to run the simple standard PC. It seems the grub2 >> bootloader is another learning process. >> >> I did this years ago on simpler pentium machines with lilo >> bootloader. But going through all the new configuration options and >> actual compilation literally takes days. From what I can understand, >> the "vanilla" linux kernel now supports technology I didn't know >> existed. >> >> I'm not sure I know how to get back to basic computing anymore. Just >> wondering if others have tried and succeeded slimming the kernel >> down, and any tips?? >> _______________________________________________ >> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >> tclug-list at mn-linux.org >> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >> > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >