newbie kernel comiling questions

[Hayabusa]

I've reently been muching around with the new 2.6 test kernels with sucess for the most part, but there are some questions I do have pertaining to compiling and installing new kernels.

#1 If my video card is listed in the Framebuffer mode, do I as well need to include support for generic VGA?

#2 modules vs. direct kernel support. this is the biggie for me. I notice when I did the knoppix HD install it loads most of my hardware via modules. When I recompile the 2.6 kernels I try to stay away from modules and just check things I know my machine has. Is this a good or a bad practice? What are the advantages/disadvantages of modules vs hardcoded support? The only snafu I have run into with compiling built in support has been with my old school Micrsoft Intellimouse. The default knoppix install loads it as a module and the wheel button works fine, however when compiling it directly into the kernel the mouse works fine except for the wheel button (even after tinkering with Xfree86 config). I'm guessing that the module may be more configurable but as I've said I haven't had much experience with modules.

And on the subject of modules and compiling them.... does make-kpkg take into account modules configured for the kernel, or does one as well have to do a make modules for debian installs as well?

I used this site as a guide for helping me install and compile the kernel

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=2949&page=1

but it says little about modules.

any help would be appreciated

[Tiger]

I've always heard that good practice is to compile as many things as you can as modules unless your sure you need to build it into the kernel. Realize that everything built into the kernel increases it's size and memory use. If there's some piece of hardware you very rarely use why not support it with a module rather than build it in the kernel?

[Hayabusa]

with building modules then, I know how to add module support into the kernel whel configuring it, that's the easy part (a dot as opposed to a check mark).

My question now is after selecting all these modules will a make kpkg for the kernel include and "install" these modules, or is there some sort of make modules procedure I need to follow?

[Stephen]

with building modules then, I know how to add module support into the kernel whel configuring it, that's the easy part (a dot as opposed to a check mark).

My question now is after selecting all these modules will a make kpkg for the kernel include and "install" these modules, or is there some sort of make modules procedure I need to follow?

Any of the modules that you are selecting in the make [menuconfig xconfig] screens will be made when you compile the kernel with make-kpkg you would only have to add the modules_image to the compile line when you have unpacked additional source code for something like alsa or lm-sensors to the /usr/src/modules directory tree. Then it would make the additional .deb(s) for you to install along with the kernel_image and if you build (and you should) kernel_headers .deb files.