Roman Zippel's new kernel configuration system [story] has seen several significant improvements since we looked at version 0.4. Currently at version 0.6, the user interface is noticeably improved, and the installation and usage of the entire configuration system has become much simpler.

The QT user interface now includes a three-paned view that I personally find much easier to use. Additionally, it is now possible to easily configure the kernel using just the mouse. Several screenshots of the 0.6 GUI follow.

---

code maturity configuration (QT three-pane)



preempt configuration (QT three-pane)



reiserfs configuration (QT two-pane)



"make menuconfig" (curses)

---

From: Roman Zippel
To: linux-kernel, kbuild-devel
Subject: linux kernel conf 0.5
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 01:16:47 +0200

Hi,

At http://www.xs4all.nl/~zippel/lc/lkc-0.5.tar.gz you can find the
latest version of the new config system. Besides various small bug
fixes, it includes the following changes:
- Improved mouse interface of qconf
- qconf isn't build if QT isn't available
- "if" ... "endif" block added
- update to 2.5.35

With the exception of the X interface I'm not planning any big visible
changes anymore, so slowly I'd like to know any reason, why this config
system shouldn't go into 2.5.x. The old arguments against cml2 don't
really work anymore, so you have to come up with something new. :-)
The only argument I know of is that various people on kbuild mailing
list are afraid, that Linus wouldn't accept such a big change. I think
hardly anyone cares how the config backend is implemented, so the only
really visible change is the new config format, but here only the format
is new, the information is still the same (if anyone cares about the
subtle differences, I can explain them separately). Making a clear cut
now is really the easiest solution. Changing parsers and syntax
separately would be more painful, as we risks constants subtle behaviour
changes and bugs during this period, by doing a single switch we can
quickly get over it.
Otherwise the little feedback I got was mostly positive, so if anything
thinks the old config system is in any way better, I'd really like to
know about it now (and if anyone wants to keep the old system, (s)he
just volunteered to fix all the subtle differences between the three
different parsers). So unless I hear objections rather soon, it's up to
Linus.

bye, Roman

From: Jeff Garzik
Subject: Re: linux kernel conf 0.5
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2002 19:44:52 -0400

How about posting a kernel patch (or link to one) that you feel is
suitable for 2.5.x integration? That makes it a bit easier to review in
context, and may help to resolve any final integration issues.

For the record I like what I've seen so far...

Jeff

From: Roman Zippel
Subject: Re: linux kernel conf 0.5
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 02:20:25 +0200 (CEST)

Hi

On Tue, 10 Sep 2002, Jeff Garzik wrote:

> How about posting a kernel patch (or link to one) that you feel is
> suitable for 2.5.x integration? That makes it a bit easier to review in
> context, and may help to resolve any final integration issues.

That depends on what you want to see. The package itself is installed
under scripts/lkc ("make install" just makes a symlink) and is pretty much
the same you find in the archive (minus the converter). A problem here is
that the current kbuild can't deal with C++ files and builds too much
even if you just want a single target, so it's currently not using the
kbuild infrastructure.
The other big part are the converted config files, they are currently
generated as Config.new, so they can be easily removed again. A "final"
patch would be hardly readable. Installing (and uninstalling) the package
into a kernel tree is quite simple, so I prefer to do it this way to save
bandwidth.

> For the record I like what I've seen so far...

Thanks. :)

bye, Roman

---

From: Roman Zippel
To: linux-kernel mailing list
Subject: linux kernel conf 0.6
Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 01:16:55 +0200

Hi,

At http://www.xs4all.nl/~zippel/lc/lkc-0.6.tar.gz you can find the
latest version of the new config system. Changes this time:
- update to 2.5.35
- I included my convert script and prepare/fixup patch to convert all
archs
- qconf got a split screen mode
- the save bug is fixed
- the converter mostly ignores "define_bool CONFIG_FOO n" now, they are
only used for type definitions. They were only needed to keep the old
config system working, but shouldn't be needed anymore, this allows to
generate slightly better dependencies in the generated configs.

bye, Roman

---

Related Links:

• Google archive of above threads: [0.5] [0.6]
• lc home