Feature suggestion: strip only physical drivers, but leave the rest of existing .config intact

[mailinglists35]

I would like to preserve the vendor config (redhat, ubuntu, etc) BUT to speed up compiling, throw away all physical device drivers that are not visible in the machine - which are the ones that consume most compiling time.

For example, in my Ubuntu kergen -g also modifies stuff like CONFIG_KEXEC_JUMP (which is Y on ubuntu while kergent unsets it) which I don't want to (and this is just one example, but there are too many).

what I'd IDEALLY wish for is to split the kernel compilation in two:

1. first, compile just drivers present in system + all other vendor options, so I can boot fast to the new kernel
2. then after reboot, re-enable all the vendor modules and continue compilation 😊😎