[Sussex] Kernels and installs

[Steve Dobson]

> From: Matthew Macdonald-Wallace
> 
> I'm perplexed by something...

Happens to us all. :-)

> I fdisked and formatted the HD of my laptop - surely removing 
> all trace of files etc?

It is possible to find up what was there.  GCHQ can read data that
has been overwritten 3 times I believe - they look at the pitting of
the platter surface under a microscope.

But for us normal people, yes it's gone forever.

> I installed the core linux distro and in the install instructions,
> it says you need to compile in the kernel before it will work. 
> (Rolling your own is fun!)
> 
> This all makes sense, however, I didn't compile in the kernel 
> last night, I've powered it up this morning, and it's sitting
> there beaming at me quite happily!
> 
> How can this happen if I haven't installed the kernel?

The distro installs a generic kernel.  It's not tuned to your system
and, from what you report, probably doesn't have configured in
options not needed for installation (like sound support).

Steve