I was wondering if hosts use the stock kernel that comes with a standard RedHat Linux instalation or if they compile their own?

If you compile your own how much of a performance increase do you get?

I ask the above as my host tells me there is no need to compile my own just use the stock one. I though a newer one would be more efficient and secure, as long as it is stable.
The one presently running is 2.2.16-22(RedHat 7.0)

I compiled a 2.4.1 kernel for my home system and it seems to multitask under heavy load much better :-) Also it boots faster as I have removed parts that I don't use.

I compile my own. The benefits of compiling your own versus using the stock is you can add or substract features that you want or dont need thus changing the size of the kernel. For instance on my Desktop systems I compile them without APACHE and other un-needed services where as a server install would not include any X-windows or any other desktop features as they would not be used and will allow the Kernel to much smaller and increase performance. If you are comfortable compiling a kernel and have had success with it already I would recommend doing it. If it is a server I would highly recommend 2.4.1 as it takes advantage of some new and upgraded features that increase performance.

X-treme

Um... I don't mean to be too picky here, but neither Apache nor X are part of the kernel. Those are completely separate packages.

That said, compiling a custom kernel for your hardware can help performance, but I doubt you'd notice dramatic differences. Going to 2.4 is a different story, though, as it has much better memory handling and a faster TCP/IP stack (especially under load.)

Well I had a go,

I tried a 2.4.1 kernel but it lasted about 1 hour before locking up the server.

I think but am not sure that I picked the wrong network card driver, it couldn't have been too wrong as it worked for a while. It worked for hours on my system ok, and the only differences were
1)I compiled for Athlon on my system and re-compiled for PIII for the server.
2)I have a realtek card and the server has an intel Ether Express 10/100 PCI (I think).

Second part of the question is how do I figure out what exactly the network card is in the server (so I can pick the right driver). I have read /proc/pci and dmesg but it isn't precise.

The RedHat 7.0 kernel uses driver e100 and 2.4.1 uses eepro100.c and reports a lock up bug and a work around. Not sure if the workaround works.

Should I be updateing something else as well? I added the kernel and modules then altered lilo.conf and ran /sbin/lilo. I didn't think I needed to as it wokred on my systems fine.

Back to the RedHat 7.0 stock one for now.


Have lots of hosts reading this updated to the the 2.4.1 kernel then?