Zack's Kernel News

Zack's Kernel News

Article from Issue 159/2014
Author(s):

Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the latest news, views, dilemmas, and developments within the Linux kernel community.

Status of "make menuconfig"

Aldo Iljazi suggested that since make nconfig was added to the kernel in 2.6.35, make menuconfig has become redundant and should be removed. Both build targets are used to configure the kernel before compiling, but make nconfig is a fork of make menuconfig that tries to have a sleeker, more modern-looking appearance.

The suggestion met a lot of resistance. Alexander Holler said that nconfig seemed to rely on the Fn keys to control the configuration process, which would cause problems on keyboards that had no Fn keys. He pointed out that not only some physical keyboards, but also software keyboards on "smart" phones, had no Fn keys. This would make it difficult to ssh into a workstation from a phone to compile the kernel with nconfig.

Randy Dunlap eliminated that objection when he pointed out that nconfig could use either the Fn keys or the equivalent number keys, which did exist in software keyboards. But, Randy said he still saw no need to get rid of menuconfig.

[...]

Use Express-Checkout link below to read the full article (PDF).

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • Kernel News

    Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the latest news, views, dilemmas, and developments within the Linux kernel community.

  • ZACK'S KERNEL NEWS
  • Kernel News

    Zack Brown reports on communicating with Linux during bootup, pruning SuperH, and bug hunting for Stea.

  • Kernel News

    Zack discusses when to break the ABI and the status of vboxsf.

  • Kernel News

    Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the latest news, views, dilemmas, and developments within the Linux kernel community.

comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News