Linux Kernel 2.6.17.1
I downloaded kernel 2.6.17.1 and tried a few things like makeallmodule and that simply is a BAD idea. It did not add support for ext2 or ext3 (I am using ext3) filesystems. Kernel Panic!
I can say that the makesilentconfig option is fairly outdated when upgrading from 2.6.13 to 2.6.17.1 .
I decided to cat modules in /proc and see what all was being loaded by kernel. A pretty extensive list actually:
sis, drm, snd_pcm_oss, snd_mixer_oss, ppdev, lp, parport, ipv6, uhci, ehci, sis_agp, i2c_sis630, i2c_core, usb_storage, usblp, sis900, mii, ohci_hcd, snd_trident, gameport, snd_ac97_codec, snd_pcm, snd_timer, snd_page_alloc, snd_util_men, snd_mpu401_uart, snd_rawmidi, snd_seq_device, snd, soundcore, shpchp, pcmcia, firmware_class, yenta_socket, rsrc_nonstatic, pcmcia_core, nls_utf8, ntfs, evdev, sisfb, agpart, psmouse
To successfully get sound working with a recompile one must have all the alsa sources and copy the alsa-kernel folder over to linux/sound/. On compile you basically choose trident drivers, and the one that gives ac97 support for sis and a few other chipsets too, and make sure you set things like sequencer, and other options on too.
For sisfb you need the sis support, and sis300 support, and console framebuffer on, but one must not select any other framebuffers.
Once everything is compiled and installed, compile the alsa stuff too, and run alsaconf to select soundcard, and then do an alsamixer and alsactl store.
I think it takes less than 8 minutes to compile the kernel with support for my particular hardware. I really need to upload this config to my website incase I need to rebuild a kernel, or use silentoldconfig later on with a newer kernel.
