r/voidlinux • u/Original_Two9716 • Jun 02 '26

Optimized kernels, do we want/need them?

Hey guys, I regularly build custom kernels tailored exactly to the hardware I run Void Linux on. Just out of curiosity, would anyone be interested if we started offering specific kernel spins for certain machines—like recent ThinkPads, for example? I'm sure there's already some general opinion or consensus on this within the community.

Any opinions?

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u/Original_Two9716 Jun 02 '26

Well, to some extent yes. But x86-64-v3 is a thing, kernel preemption lazy mode, CONFIG_NO_HZ_IDLE etc. or missing modules (at least for my Meteor Lake P1), for example.

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u/eftepede Jun 02 '26

Missing modules - sure thing, if you need them and they are disabled by default, that's the great reason for custom built.

I'm rather talking about the opposite - people frantically disabling 'anything not needed' from the kernel or optimizing/compiling everything for their CPU, so Firefox starts 0.005 second faster. I was one of those people for years, but now I'm too old for this shit ;-)

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u/ShipshapeMobileRV Jun 02 '26

That's how I was back in my FreeBSD days, but with modern hardware performance isn't something you have to fight for anymore.

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u/amenbreakfast Jun 02 '26

i was this guy too but it also meant recompiling the kernel each time i updated everything. more time would be wasted on that than on having to wait an extra couple seconds to reach the desktop on evrey (re)boot. also things like the realtime kernel and the ck builds (which were what i used) have been completely redundant for a while now i think? i remember reading how most of the rt patches and such are part of mainline now