Yes, lspci is very useful in knowing what hardware you have, and therefore what drivers you need. Try using the -v verbose option. Then on your running system, do lsmod and note what drivers you have loaded, and match them with your pci devices. Some may not be modules, because all of these drivers can be either loadable modules or statically compiled into the kernel. I actually think going through the config process, even frequently is a good idea, because it teaches you about all of the various drivers. When you first start building kernels it's inevitable that some mistakes will be made, but those are valuable experiences. I recall selecting a processor option that I thought was right and the system wouldn't boot, won't be making that mistake again. I have at times missed selecting drivers I needed, or included stuff I will never use, but over time you get to know what they all are. I can go through the kernel config very fast now and know what I need, which in the large collection of stuff is not much! Also look at your existing .config file. There you see all of the drivers listed, which are statically built into kernel, which are modules, and which are not included. The "standard" kernels that come with distros usually have way more than you need. That's not really a problem these days with tons of RAM available and fast processors, but you can reduce your build time a lot by removing a bunch of stuff you don't need. I have become more disciplined with this because I also work on embedded systems where you definitely only want what you need, it's unthinkable to compile drivers for hardware that you don't have. The only way to really get to know the kernel drivers is to build kernels. It does take a long time, but I recommend not sitting around waiting for them, start a build and go to sleep, go for a walk, go to work, whatever. The "default" kernel will have all of the various ethernet drivers included, when I only need one, and only one will work with my hardware. Same is true of other things like audio, but you need to get to know that there are core drivers and hardware specific. For example, with usb there is a usb core driver, everyone needs that, but your system will have either an ohci, uhci, or ehci controller, and the devices you actually use on usb are probably just a few compared to the huge list that gets compiled if you choose them all. Audio is similar, you have core drivers for alsa and then hardware specific ones. There is usually huge sections of the kernel that you don't need on a PC, for example, I have an IDE controller so I don't need SCSI, I only need SCSI emulation to support CD burning, so I exlude most of SCSI. I don't need a game controller joystick port. I don't need any of the printer drivers. I don't need all of those flash devices listed as mtd, memory technology devices, etc. After you have gone through the config several times you get to know what you need and don't. The kernel is huge, getting to be kinda scary huge. Usually including extra stuff doesn't really "cost" you anything more than some disk space and compile time, because your system will only load drivers it actually needs, unless you statically compile in stuff you don't have hardware for. So it's safe to include all of the networking hardware driver, for example, but getting to know what all these drivers are takes the mystery out of the kernel, and also teaches you what hardware is supported, when you go to buy new cards or peripherals. Another thing to consider, there is a huge amount of networking code, much of which you don't need if you are just using the web and email etc. Excluding stuff you don't need increases security. If I will never do any point to point tunneling, then I'd rather not let anyone, in case someone does manage to compromise the machine. The networking in particular takes some time to understand, but there are tons of good FAQs on the net about most of it. Do I need sendmail? Not me, I just use a provider pop3 server for mail. Do I need multicast networking? Nope. I only need DHCP client support, not server. There are so many things I don't need altogether. Getting to know what you do need speeds up builds and increases your chances of successful builds. I have found that sometimes my kernel build will terminate in error trying to build some module I will never use. Actually that has happened quite a lot over the years. Better to just compile what I need. -- Doug Scott wrote: What is the best way to go through the config? Do you just do like a lspci <snip>
