Kernel Configuration - Part XIV

You get a break today. Today’s installment in the kernel configuration series
couldn’t be easier - one step and you move on.

Recent Linux kernel versions have provided full support for telephony. That is,
Linux provides the ability to use your modem as a phone, an answering machine or

a fax machine. Since we’re dealing with the kernel configuration, I won’t go
into the software required to make these features work. Instead, we’ll talk only

about preparing your kernel to communicate with these software programs.

From your configuration window (config, menu config or xconfig), select the
Telephony Support option. Do you intend to use your machine in one of the above
ways? Select Linux Telephony support in the configuration. As always, you have
the option of choosing telephony support as a built-in element of the kernel or
as a loadable module. If you’re certain you’re going to use these features, I’d
always build it right in to the kernel. If you’re not going to use these
features immediately, but would like to keep your options open going forward,
select the telephony module option. In either case, you’ll need to know a bit,
once again, about the hardware. This is actually easier than it sounds. If
you’re not using the QuickNet protocol, you needn’t select anything more in the
telephony options.

That was almost too easy. Tomorrow, we’ll look at ATA/IDE/MFM/RLL support in
your custom kernel.