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A Guide to Compiling the Linux Kernel All By Yourself
(itsfoss.com)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
Configuring and building the Linux kernel is actually pretty nice and easy. The main thing that’s frustrating in my experience is just if you need to add a kernel module for a new device or something. It’s not really a big deal, just like “oh, I need to enable the drivers for this”.
I often look around the kernel config, maybe I'm there to add support for something or whatever. Then I start reading the help snippet, and I understand next to nothing. Ok... "If in doubt, select 'n'". What? No, I am in doubt, but I want the feature! Don't try to scare me away :-)