[Linux-disciples] Making kernel customization easier

[Stephen R Laniel]

Sarge ships with a 2.4 kernel, apparently, which I just now
wanted to upgrade to 2.6.7 using 'make oldconfig' and the
config file from my /boot directory. But there were so many
changes between those two kernel versions, apparently, that
I got too irritated with the number of questions and just
aborted the process.

So: can someone point me to any packages that help trim the
number of questions that the 'make' scripts ask? E.g., I'd
like a package that would look at my hardware configuration,
see that I have, say, an nVidia Riva128 graphics card,
compile the driver for that card into the kernel, and not
bother with any of the other graphics-card drivers. The
package I have in my head would ask me something like,
"Would you prefer not to install drivers for hardware that
you lack? Bear in mind that if you add new hardware later,
you'll need to compile a new module for that hardware."

This package would see that I have no RAID controllers, so
it wouldn't ask me any questions about anything related to
RAID. And so forth.

Does such a package exist?

-- 
```Catwoman' is a movie about Halle Berry's beauty, sex
  appeal, figure, eyes, lips and costume design. It gets
  those right. Everything else is secondary, except for
  the plot, which is tertiary.''
 -Roger Ebert