Inclusion of this options will allow you to use kernel code that is still in developmental stages. This may include drivers, network options, and file systems. For instance, writeble ntfs support is still under development. If you need support for an option that is still under development, then enable this feature, otherwise select no. Selecting "no" will show that developmental options further down the menu will be greyed out or inaccessable until you select "yes" here.
This is where you can optimize the kernel for your processor family. Options include 386, 486, pentium, amd-k6, pentium pro, and later kernels support athalons and p4's. You can up the maximum mount of physical memory (1 gb is default), turn off math emulation (really only needed for 386 and 486 processors without a math co-processor, although leaving this will only make the kernel larger since this support will not be used on machines with math co-processors), and smp support.
Here you can enable support for loadable modules. As per the kernel documentation: "Modules are small pieces of
code which can be inserted or removed from the kernel at run time. You want to enable this feature, unless you a good
reason for not doing so.
The kernel module loader option will allow the kernel to load in modules as they are needed. This option replaces the
need to use kerneld. For more information see Documentation/kmod.txt in the source directory.
The General Setup section deals mostly with hardware, particularly your motherboard and pci support.
You will probably want to enable Network Support, PCI (unless you do not have a PCI compatible machine), and yes to sysctl (which
allows the "means of dynamically changing certain kernel parameters and variables on the fly without requiring a
recompile of the kernel or a reboot of the system (kernel documentation)." There are three options in here for
binary support: a.out, elf, and misc. Unless you have a good reason for doing so, you should say "yes" to these options.
Advanced Power Management BIOS support is located in this section. This does not work on multi-processor machines, it does
not spin down the hard drives, and will not turn off VESA-complaint "green" monitors. Before enabling this feature, make sure you
read the documentation.
finally, be aware that there is an option for Toshiba Laptop support.
Obviously, the section enables plug and play support in the kernel. This allows the kernel to configure PNP devices. You generally want to enable this option.
By default, most people will not be using this option. Enabling this feature allows for the use of the computer to manage telephone calls and other tele-comunications tasks.
Like the name states, this is where you further tune SCSI support in the kernel. In this section you can enable
SCSI disk, tape, and cdrom drive support along with generic support for scanners, cd-r's, and other devices.
Use caution when enabling the Probe all LUNs on each SCSI Device feature as this will make for very
verbose reporting and may cause problems with scsi emulation of ide cd-burners. This feature is enable when
you have a "SCSI device that supports more than one LUN (Logical Unit Number), and only one LUN is
detected." Saying yes here will force the SCSI driver to probe for multiple LUNs.
Other options you can enable here include SCSI logging and support for low-level drivers. Under the low-level drivers section is
where you can enable support for parallel port zip drives.
Good Question
If you are into HAM radio and want to connect your Linux box to and Amateur Radio, then enable these options.
This section allows you to enable support for infrared devices.
Have ISDN, enable the support under this section.
If you have an older system with a proprietary cdrom controller that is not SCSI or IDE, then check for support under this section. Read the documentation carefully. Otherwise, you should be okay to disable this feature.
Character devices, unlike Block devices, transmit data in a stream; or serial fashion with one byte
trailing the other. Character devices include Mice, keyboards, serial ports, joysticks, and USB.
This section will configure all these devices. Although USB was not added in stable kernels until 2.2.18,
but is standard in 2.4 (note: USB support has its own section in the 2.4 kernel and is not under Character Devices).
Video for Linux is under this section in the 2.2.17 kernel. In 2.4, Video For Linux has been moved
under the Multimedia Option. Before attempting to use Video For Linux, read the documentation carefully.
Ftap support is included under character devices. If your tape drive is connect to your floppy disk cable,
read the documentation on enabling this feature.
This section allows you to enable Quota support (controlling the amount of disk spaces users can user) and
Kernel automounter support. Kernel automounter support allows a device to be accessed when requested, and
dismounted after a period of inactivity. For both of these options, please reading their corresponding
documentation and HowTo's.
There are a number of file systems you can enable support for in this section both as a module or compilied
directly into the kernel. You will probably want to enable /proc and /dev/pts filesystems. Other options
include DOS, Apple Macintosh, ISO 9660 (cd-rom), MS Joliet, Minix, and NTFS.
You can enable Network File System support in this section which includes NFS, SMB (mounting Windows
Shares) and NCP (mounting NetWare volumes).
Different partition type support can be included into the kernel that will allow BSD disklabel support,
Macintosh partition map support, and Solaris (x86) partition table support. Before enabling and using
these features read the documentation.
The VGA Text Console option allows you to "use Linux in text mode through a display that
complies with the generic VGA standard." Make sure you say yes to this option.
Video Mode Selection Support will enable support for different text mode settings. That is, you can
set text mode resolution from the standard (?????) to 480x600 or above resolution. These features
are enable by passing the "vga=" option to the kernel before booting. See the
Boot Prompt HowTo for more information and read the kernel documentation.
Frame Buffer support will allow certain software applications to access the graphics hardware
directly through the graphic device interface. Before attempting to enable this feature, read the
documentation carefully and be sure you know your video device.
The Sound section allows you to include sound and sound card support into the kernel. If you have a sound card, you will probably want to compile Sound Card Support into the kernel or as a module. If you know the chipset and manufacturer of your soundcard, you can enable the driver here as a module or directly compiled into the kernel. In some cases you may need to know some further information like irq and dma values.
This option should only be enable if you are debugging your kernel. See Documentation/sysrq.txt for more information. Generally, you should not enable this feature unless you know what you are doing and you really must. Sources recommend for mission critical or production level systems that you do not enable this feature.