I hate to ask this question but how do I build a fast kernel? I'm not talking about compiling a kernel in a short amount of time, I mean how do I get my custom kernels to process data fast. I'm having a hard time with this, I know that a smaller kernel is supposed to be faster than a larger kernel, but I find this information misleading I've compiled plenty of kernels that were smaller than the default installed kernel but that performed noticeably slower in comparison. I know about the "preemtible kernel" option under processor types and features and I found the preempt-kernel-rml-2.4.20-3.patch which has helped a lot when performing several tasks at once. So far I've got a kernel to perform a little faster than the default slack kernel which is a major step forward but still performs a little slower than WinXP gaming wise. And my goal is to have it perform at least as fast as WinXP on games if thats possible. I'm under the impression that that is possible, so any tips, info or links would be appreciated.

Which options did you use so far ?

Well it comes down to determining your hardware specifics and optimization. Modular kernel is the way to go for hardware support, but don't take it as the module is better, sometimes built-in items are much better and system resources less hungry. There are different ways to determine which do you want as a module or a built-in item, so if you read through linux kernel documetation it might help you. The slackware stock kernel comes with most things compiled in, and most of them just don't needed - I mean they either are convinient complied as modules or they aren't needed at all for your setup. As for processing power there is linux preemptive kernel patch by Robert Love, but the systems that utilize it in a great extent are SMP systems, where you want to destribute load as evenly as desired among processors for quicker response times. So if you really into comparing Windows XP speed and linux kernel speed you better off with linux kernel documentation and linux kernel mailing list all available at http://www.kernel.org

So far I'm using the options "Pentium 4", "Preemtible Kernel" and preempt-kernel-rml-2.4.20-3.patch and have removed a lot of unneccessary features.

I appreciate your trying to help neo but I just can't find any links to any kernel docs and I've been searching this site for over an hour. If I post this I'll sound like a complete idiot but is it too much to ask to give a direct link to any kernel documentation?

The Linux Kernel HOWTO

The Linux Documentation Project is your friend.

A google search also turned up the SlackFAQ - Compiling the Kernel.

I didn't think it was possible, but it finally happened my linux kernel now outperforms my windows installation. Even games are running faster on linux than they are on windows.