this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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It's not really a big deal, but I am currently writing this using a linux kernel I compiled from source, which certainly feels like an accomplishment. The Arch Wiki has made the process fairly easy to follow. I just took the stock Arch Linux configuration without changes for now.

The most important part of this is of course that I have the option to do that, to take the source code of this incredible project and build my own kernel binary.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How long did it take to compile?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I didn't really keep track, but I would estimate around 10-15 minutes on a Ryzen 5800X.

[–] shadesdk 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I compiled my first Linux kernel back in the mid 90s, mostly on 386 and Dec Alpha hardware, interesting enough both were not that much slower than what you mentioned, I think the alpha (a measly 21066) took about 40 minutes. If you had asked me back then, I’d probably have imagined a minute or two, 30 years later. Guess it says something about how much larger the Linux kernel has become.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

That just brings me back to starting the compile, getting something to eat, doing chores, and whatever else. Then when it was finally done, booting it up only for it to not boot because I forgot some checkbox. Repeat a couple of times. Nights getting the thing working. And then on the next kernel release, trying to make sure I remembered all the checks because it didn't let you export the current config back then.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Last time I compiled a kernel it was on a bus-overclocked K6-3/500 (higher bus, lower multiplier).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

not OP but on my i7 7700K a fully-featured kernel takes about 2 hours or so to compile. if i minimize the kernel to only the modules i need i can get it down to 20-30 minutes (clean). incremental compiles barely hit 5-10 mins

overall not a big deal, especially compared to something like firefox (or god forbid chromium). or gcc with pgo (which is technically cheating because it compiles itself 3 times if you enable pgo)