Compiling kernel in openSUSE – easy way
The first question you may ask is why to compile kernel in the first place? Well, since all companies/groups that makes Linux distributions wants their product to work on as many machines possible, kernel is compiled in the most generic way possible. That means that it is compiled for low-end processor and it includes all possible modules that kernel has to offer. It is obvious that it is made to work with everything and not to work fast. For example, you will see in many Linux packages, kernel included, filenames have some suffix like i386, i486, i586, i686… It means for which processor they are compiled. i386 and i486 will work on i386 and i486 old processors respectively, and higher, while i586 will work on Pentium 1, and i686 on Pentium pro. So, if you have, for example, Intel Core2, and you use i586 generic file, this means that all of the new and fast instructions that your processor have will be unused. So, if we compile kernel for our processor, it will run much faster.
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