Note that this is not compile kernel ON laptop. I have a 2GHz desktop and a 450MHz laptop. Both run Slackware-current. I have been compiling kernels on/for the desktop for a good while & have a very nice configuration for my hardware. On the laptop i have been using the 2.6 series kernels provided by Slackware. These have worked very well & have allowed me to keep this old laptop going. However, a while ago I tried to compile a kernel on the laptop & it worked, but I slept twice before it finished! I don't want to go through that again! Recently I d/led linux-2.6.16.9 to my desktop, untarred it, copied in the config file from the laptop & ran 'make oldconfig', selecting the default configuration for new kernel options. Then I ran 'make menuconfig', selecting ext3 filesystem in the kernel so I wouldn't need an initrd. I then ran 'make' & 'make modules_install' & finally copied all components to the laptop. The laptop seems to work quite well with this kernel, but I am thinking of slimming it down. I don't need a large number of the modules that went along with that kernel. My question (FINALLY!) is: Am I running any risk, using a kernel on the hardware that it was not compiled on? I don't see any difference in doing this & using one of Pat's compiled kernels, but then there are a lot of things I don't see....
Regards,
Bill

That's pretty much what everyone with a binary distro does. And that is what you are doing really: you are creating a custom binary distro for your laptop. Enjoy.

The main thing I can foresee is having the kernel compiled with a different version of gcc to the one you compile future drivers with. Make sure the gcc on the laptop is the same as the gcc wot compiled the kernel and you should avoid this.