Kernel Config Time

[Jonathan Hutchins]

Duane mentions some kernel options that Leo might enable by recompiling.  The 
whole "first you recompile the kernel" philosophy has turned many people off 
from Linux.  Fortunately in these days of modular kernels, it's seldom 
necessary.

Nevertheless, it still seems to be a "good thing" to do to optimize your 
system, and many feel it's the mark of a "real man" in Linux.

Many of us who hesitate to take this bold step make the excuse of puny 
systems, no disk space for the source code, and even if we did it would 
probably take days and we need the PC, right?

In these days of 1.2G systems, though, compile time starts to look like 
something we could handle.

Then there's the issue of actually configuring the kernel.  How many pages did 
the config script run last time I printed it?  Wasn't it close to 
half-an-inch thick?

So for those of you intrepid programmers out there who don't hesitate to 
plunge right into this stuff: How long does it take to run through a basic, 
first time kernel configuration script?  Since the human in this equation is 
most likely the determining slow factor, it shouldn't really matter what 
hardware you're configuring on, it should be a matter of how long does it 
take to consider those questions that need an answer, answer them, determine 
that the others can be left at the default, and get all the way through the 
script?

How long does it take to configure the kernel for a new compile?