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[brag + followup] configured and compiled a kernel for the first time ever πŸ› οΈ (piefed.blahaj.zone)
submitted 3 days ago by to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Following the Arch wiki, I built a custom kernel for the first time ever. It was easier that I thought it'd be, probably because the Arch wiki is so thorough and because I didn't make that many changes... I just enabled a few FireWire related options as per this guide in order to work on this project (or this).

Results/takeaways

  • The OS ran fine with the new kernel πŸ’ƒ
  • I learned how to manually create GRUB entries πŸ”§
  • I learned that I don't even have to create new GRUB entries, since I can simply point to the new kernel image and initramfs from the bootloader menu πŸͺ›
  • I learned that my 5800X3D runs well (compiles the new kernel blazingly fast) with all cores set to negative 30 in the UEFI
  • FireWire is dead πŸ’€

Tiny followup on that project
That old GPU did something to the UEFI (possibly CMOS?), because even after removing all potentially incompatible hardware and reinstalling my modern GPU, I still got that same error message, saying that the system was forces to boot in CSM mode. Only by resetting the UEFI settings was I able to restore the system to a working state. I admit, I panicked.

all 18 comments

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[–] 8 points 3 days ago (8 children)

Congrats!... now do the whole system. 😁

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 days ago (5 children)

    Sorry for the late response!

    Oh NO 🀣 I did successully install Gentoo once and I see the benefits. I really do. BUT. My brain works in such a way, that I need to understand every single USE flag, otherwise I "can't" install packages 😭 I simply can't allow myself to do a... "as is" installation with Gentoo... And I don't have to motivation right now to learn EVERYTHING I'd have to learn xD

    Sorry, short answer: yes, later xD

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago* (3 children)

    You could also recompile your arch packages.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Cool! I never thought of that! How would you do it? Go to the Arch packages website, download the source tarballs and use make ?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    gentoo taught me how to recompile and it feels like arch takes that thunder sometimes. lol

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago

    In times of pre-optimized repos (like CachyOS) it seems rather redundant from a performance perspective. Other reasons remain valid though (learning or specialized optimizations or requirements).

    Alternatively, it can also be considered wasteful (electricity/compute) when everyone compiles their whole system instead of doing it once in a central server.

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    • [–] 6 points 3 days ago

    Congrats!

    Compiling your own kernel is very intimidating at the beginning and one learns a lot after plunging down that rabbit hole

    After some time it gets pretty straightforward. Just don't forget to enable the modules for your drive and filesystem (it has been a while, maybe that's not needed anymore) and the rest you can always fix with another compilation

    That part where you got stuck even after switching hardware: yikes. I wouldn't expect that

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    [–] 2 points 3 days ago (7 children)

    I'm playing with the idea of maybe compiling a custom kernel at some point, but it would mainly be to trim out stuff i don't need to speed up compile time (i'm using gnu guix, and a few months ago the nonguix substitute servers were down for multiple weeks, causing me to have to compile the kernel myself everytime it got updated). I have a 5800X3D as well and it doesn't take too long, about half an hour i think, but i still think it's annoying if you have to do it regularly. On my laptop it takes like 1.5 hours lol. I'm not sure if it's worth bothering with though, cause i'm also in the process of creating a guix config for my server and then setting up the server so that i can offload builds to it for my other systems (it uses a 3900x).

    Btw for how long have you had your 5800X3D? I think i've had it since 2021 or something like that, but i think the silicon is starting to degrade a little, cause this whole time i've also been running it with negative 30 offset, but i've been experiencing hard reboots these past months with errors in the logs indicating cpu-related errors. I've put the offset back on auto and it seems to be working fine so far, so i think it just might need a little more power to be stable.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    I compiled my own kernel for a few years when I first started using Linux in the late 90s. "So much faster by removing things I don't need," I claimed. I cringe at that now.

    I've been using stock kernels for years now. Any speed improvements from a custom kernel are more than offset by the time it takes to configure and compile it. Making one mistake could wipe out years of theoretical speed improvements as you recover, reconfigure, and recompile. Plus, if you have a problem with a piece of hardware down the road, how do you know the issue isn't your custom kernel?

    I'd say, do it once or twice for the experience, or if there's some specific reason you need it (bleeding edge hardware, for example).

    Some years back, I realized I'd rather be using my computers instead of administering them.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago

    β€œSo much faster by removing things I don’t need,” I claimed

    I never really got to use FreeBSD but I thought that I would, late β€˜90s. Found out how to modify and build the kernel. And like you, optimised it by removing stuff i didn’t need, like parallel port drivers. And then let the system compile for hours. So green back then and so used to Windows.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago

    Hmm, yeah in my case the goal would be to actually speed up compile time of the kernel itself rather than speed improvements at runtime, but it does seem like a pain in the ass and your description makes it sound even worse lol. Nonguix substitution servers are working fine now though, and with my server being set up soon enough, if i the substitution servers are ever down again i can just let it compile everything once and then my other devices can just request it from my own server, so it doesn't feel worth it to mess around with it anymore. But if i do ever feel like learning more about the kernel i might try it just for the hell of it.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    Oh shiet... well, I pray my 5800X3D survives a little longer. I'd hate to upgrade in this economy D: ...

    I've had it since it came out, I think. I did have some random reboots, but that was with one of its newer (?) relatives, an AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with Radeon Graphics. And I believe it was because it had ran out of RAM and SWAP or the like...

    ALSO LOOK: https://www.wanture.com/tech/amd-ryzen-7-5800x3d-am4-relaunch-q2/

    I just happened to come across this now. How many years later and the re-release it?! xD Hilarious...

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  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago

    Haha, yeah i hope mine still works for years to come too, cause even before the price hikes i was already planning on riding out am4 as long as possible. It'll probably be fine though, only downside is that less negative offset means it gets hotter, which kinda messes with my current fan curve and fans ramp up all the time now. I think i heard about that relaunch. To me it didn't sound like a bad idea initially, but i think they also jacked up the price which makes me feel like it's just not worth it.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    We're opposites. I prefer the libre kernel and it's not in the repo for the OS I'm using. Takes like 12 hours to compile on my 2012 laptop. I just let it run overnight when there's an update. Been itching to throw guix on this and check it out.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago

    Oof, yeah that sucks. Now that i think about it i feel like a lot of distros that aren't libre focused don't bother with the libre kernel. If i could use the libre kernel i definitely would, but i really need firmware for my gpu and i think that's the main issue. Wifi is also an issue but if that was the only thing stopping me it would probably be easier to find a solution for that with a dongle or something, but i can't see myself getting rid of the gpu issue.

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