# Gentoo-sources vs Vanilla-sources [SOLVED]

## HeXiLeD

I while ago  i read someone saying that vanilla kernel was ' slower' than gentoo-sources.

Now i am curious about their differences. besides the patches; i would like to know from the more 

knowledgebale people; the advantages and disadvantages for both as well as their major differences.

Thank you.

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## Ctrl+Alt+Del

afaik gentoo still has a minimum patch policy, only critical fixes and stuff required for the live-cd.

See: http://dev.gentoo.org/~dsd/genpatches/

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## adsmith

gentoo only applies a few patches to make their kernel.  Most of them have to do with making other architechtures a bit more stable for installation.  If you're using x86, there's almost no difference at all.  Any claims of speed are almost certainly placebo.  [There *are* all sorts of wacky optimization in the nitro sources, but that can get pretty risky and wild.]

The one patch in gentoo-source which I find most useful is "squashfs", since it's fun to play with squashed filesystems, and this driver isn't in the vanilla kernel yet.  However, this is also an easy patch to apply by hand.  

However, unless I *need* that patch on a specific machine, I just stick with vanilla.  It has the biggest userbase, moves slowly enough to not have to recompile every week, and it extremely trustworthy.

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## HeXiLeD

 *Quote:*   

>  I just stick with vanilla. It has the biggest userbase, moves slowly enough to not have to recompile every week, and it extremely trustworthy.

 

I agree. and by the way i am with amd64 install on intel  EMT64

And why is it that the kernel sources size are so different ?

ie : 

```
sys-kernel/gentoo-sources

      Latest version available: 2.6.15-r5

      Size of downloaded files: 117,326 kB

      Homepage:    http://dev.gentoo.org/~dsd/genpatches

      Description: Full sources including the gentoo patchset for the 2.6 kernel tree

*  sys-kernel/vanilla-sources

      Latest version available: 2.6.15.1

      Size of downloaded files: 38,905 kB

      Homepage:    http://www.kernel.org

      Description: Full sources for the Linux kernel

```

117,326 kB vs 38,905 kB ??

why that much difference?

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## adsmith

It's an error somehow in the comma, I think:

linux-2.6.15.tar.bz2 is 38MB.  genpatches alone (after the kernel) is 117KB.

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## HeXiLeD

i just read this : https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=24634, about which sources to choose.

Very interesting.

but :

 *Quote:*   

> Vanilla-sources: This kernel is the basic, default kernel that the primary linux kernel developers release at www.kernel.org. It lacks in performance enhancing features such as Preempt, and only includes features that have been put under heavy testing to ensure stability. If you are having kernel related instability this kernel is a good alternative. Also, if you are looking to "roll your own" kernel by adding custom patches that you get from other parties, this kernel is the base that you will want to work from. 

 

"It lacks in performance enhancing features"

adsmith said:

 *Quote:*   

> "Any claims of speed are almost certainly placebo"

 

Im curious to know how much difference we will see on those enhancing features

How many are they ? is there a 'changelog' around showing that?

How can i 'list' all those enhancing features in gentoo-sources ?

I am very interested in these 'facts'

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## adsmith

Those statements were true around 2.6.9, but 2.6.15 certainly has pre-emption, timer adjustment, advanced IO schedulers, and other goodies that used to be only in nitro and other kernels.  If a feature is stable and well-written, it gets into the mainline vanilla kernel fairly quickly.    This has been especially true since Linus and Andrew Morton decided to hang on to 2.6.X for a while and not start a 2.7 until the distant future.

In any case, following the gentoo sources link above will lead you to the page with the exact gentoo patches.

To really get a good idea of what's happening in the kernel, start reading kerneltrap.org.

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## HeXiLeD

I'm sticking with vanilla-sources for the following hardware:

Board is an asus p5 ad2 e-premium

```
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 925X/XE Memory Controller Hub (rev 0e)

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 925X/XE PCI Express Root Port (rev 0e)

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 04)

00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 04)

00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 04)

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 04)

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 04)

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 04)

00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 04)

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 04)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d4)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 04)

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 04)

00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801FR/FRW (ICH6R/ICH6RW) SATA Controller (rev 04)

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 04)

01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88W8310 and 88W8000G [Libertas] 802.11g client chipset (rev 07)

01:03.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB82AA2 IEEE-1394b Link Layer Controller (rev 01)

01:04.0 Mass storage controller: <pci_lookup_name: buffer too small> (rev 13)

01:05.0 Mass storage controller: Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3114 [SATALink/SATARaid] Serial ATA Controller (rev 02)

01:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

01:0b.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy (rev 03)

01:0b.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy MIDI/Game port (rev 03)

01:0b.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Creative Labs SB Audigy FireWire Port

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)

05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600] (rev a2)

```

The only thing i cant make to work so far is the wireless (router) built in AP. As wireless client ndiswrapper works.

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