through the entire configuration from scratch. Instead, you can use the
directive make oldconfig; it uses the same text interface that make
config uses, and it is noninteractive. It just prompts for changes for any
new code.
Using xconfig to Configure the Kernel
For simplicity’s sake, during this brisk walkthrough, this discussion assumes
that you are using make xconfig and that prior to this point, you have
completed the first five steps in the kernel compilation list shown previously.
As you learned in the preceding section, you configure the kernel using make
xconfig by making choices in several configuration subsection windows.
Each subsection window contains specific kernel options. With hundreds of
choices, configuring the kernel is daunting. We cannot really offer you
detailed descriptions of which options to choose because our configuration
will not match your own system and setup.
Table 22.1 provides brief descriptions of many of the subsections and options
so that you can get an idea of what you might encounter. We recommend that
you copy your kernel’s .config file to /usr/src/linux-4.15 and run
make xconfig from there. Explore all the options. As long as you do not
save the file, absolutely nothing is changed on your system.
Table 22.1 Some Kernel Subsections for Configuration
Subsection DescriptionCode maturity level
optionsEnables development code to be compiled into the
kernel even if it has been marked as obsolete or as
testing code only. This option should be used only by
kernel developers or testers because of the possible
unusable state of the code during development.General setup This section contains several different options covering
how the kernel talks to the BIOS, whether it should
support PCI or PCMCIA, whether it should use APM or
ACPI, and what kind of Linux binary formats will be
supported. Contains several options for supporting
kernel structures necessary to run binaries compiled for
other systems directly, without recompiling the
program.