Cargo Cult sysadmining

[jdow]

On 2012/08/07 04:29, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
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> On 08/06/2012 11:29 PM, jdow wrote:
>> On 2012/08/06 19:17, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
>>>
>>> Disabling it because the system you are compiling the kernel for
>>> will not support the hardware. No need for SATA, PCI, or cardbus
>>> stuff on a system that only has PCMCIA slots for expansion. You do
>>> not need the USB drivers because it does not have, USB hardware, and
>>> you can not find PCMCIA USB cards. (I have a cardbus USB card, but
>>> that does not help.) But this is not something most people run into.
>>>
>>> Compiling a kernel for a laptop will let you eliminate a lot of
>>> drivers because you only have limited hardware changes...
>>>
>>> A server that is not going to get hardware changes.
>>>
>>> ...
>>>
>>> Mikkel
>>
>> Mikkel, I have done this once or twice in antediluvian days gone by.
>> Then I discovered a property of Windows. If your motherboard goes
>> bad and you can't replace it with an exact replacement the system and
>> all other software installed on that disk are suddenly useless. (Yes,
>> you can at least recover the files. But you cannot recover the
> installs.)
>>
>> It is far better to keep the OS flexible so that on boot it adapts to
>> the system you are running. The better the OS as installed on the disk
>> does this the easier the effort to get up and running becomes.
>>
>> I may recompile the kernel these days; but, the intent of the
> recompile
>> is to ADD features compiled out rather than the other way around.
>>
>> {^_^}
>
> The only problem with that argument is that if the hardware has
> changed enough that you can not boot with your custom kernel, then
> you will need a new initrd to boot with a generic kernel. So you
> have to boot from some type of recovery media in any case.
>
> It can actually be easier to fix with a custom kernel - boot from
> recovery media, do a chroot, and install the latest generic kernel
> RPM. Let the post install script build the new initrd.
>
> Mikkel

That is why adding things is better than subtracting them. Adding, for
example, a seldom used filesystem can survive a transplant to a whole
new computer and still work, modulo connecting a disk that uses that
filesystem. Um, dongles that take PATA and convert it to USB are REALLY
nice to keep around for this reason.

Removing PATA "because I'll never use it" leads to you discovering
"never" is often not that far away. (PATA seems to still persist on
certain classes of motherboard, I note. IMAO this is a good thing
to keep old media readable. I also don't throw away old disks that
still spin up and contain data. Well, OK, I'm a packrat. I don't
throw ANY disks away. I have been known to convert their platters
to ersatz wind chimes, though.)

{^_-}