Chapter 8 Configuring the FreeBSD Kernel

Table of Contents
8.1 Synopsis
8.2 Why Build a Custom Kernel?
8.3 Building and Installing a Custom Kernel
8.4 The Configuration File
8.5 If Something Goes Wrong
Updated and restructured by Jim Mock. Originally contributed by Jake Hamby.

8.1 Synopsis

The kernel is the core of the FreeBSD operating system. It is responsible for managing memory, enforcing security controls, networking, disk access, and much more. While more and more of FreeBSD becomes dynamically configurable it is still occasionally necessary to reconfigure and recompile your kernel.

After reading this chapter, you will know:

All of the commands listed within this chapter by way of example should be executed as root in order to succeed.

This, and other documents, can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/.

For questions about FreeBSD, read the documentation before contacting <[email protected]>.
For questions about this documentation, e-mail <[email protected]>.