> Debian stable is stable, but you may feel the obsolescence mounting before the next release. That sounds *very* appealing. I can live without the *current thing*. > You can improve that a bit with back ports. I think I accidentally enabled back-ports for Ubuntu causing my problem, so that leaves a bit of sour taste in the mouth currently. > I think most of the Bluetooth etc. would be modules which don't load for lack of hardware. Now there is still stub code in the kernel to attach to the module but I suspect the cost of this is rather low. You might be right. I need to double-check that. I thought some of the things I mentioned was baked into the kernel (y instead of m) on some distros but I can be totally wrong about that. --- Update: Examined Debian "server". These are baked into the kernel: ``` ~# cat /boot/config-$(uname -r) | grep -E "(SND|AUDIO|SOUND|ALSA|BLUETOOTH|BT_|WIRELESS|WIFI|DRM|FRAMEBUFFER|HID_|MOUSE|JOYSTICK|NTFS|VFAT).*=y" CONFIG_BLK_WBT_MQ=y CONFIG_BT_BREDR=y CONFIG_BT_RFCOMM_TTY=y CONFIG_BT_BNEP_MC_FILTER=y CONFIG_BT_BNEP_PROTO_FILTER=y CONFIG_BT_HS=y CONFIG_BT_LE=y CONFIG_BT_LEDS=y CONFIG_BT_DEBUGFS=y CONFIG_BT_HCIBTUSB_AUTOSUSPEND=y CONFIG_BT_HCIBTUSB_BCM=y CONFIG_BT_HCIBTUSB_MTK=y CONFIG_BT_HCIBTUSB_RTL=y CONFIG_BT_HCIUART_SERDEV=y CONFIG_BT_HCIUART_H4=y CONFIG_BT_HCIUART_BCSP=y CONFIG_BT_HCIUART_ATH3K=y CONFIG_BT_HCIUART_LL=y CONFIG_BT_HCIUART_3WIRE=y CONFIG_BT_HCIUART_INTEL=y CONFIG_BT_HCIUART_BCM=y CONFIG_BT_HCIUART_RTL=y CONFIG_BT_HCIUART_QCA=y CONFIG_BT_HCIUART_AG6XX=y CONFIG_BT_HCIUART_MRVL=y CONFIG_WIRELESS=y CONFIG_WIRELESS_EXT=y CONFIG_GOOGLE_FRAMEBUFFER_COREBOOT=y CONFIG_MAC_EMUMOUSEBTN=y CONFIG_IWLWIFI_LEDS=y CONFIG_IWLWIFI_OPMODE_MODULAR=y CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV=y CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_PSAUX=y CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSE=y CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_ALPS=y CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_BYD=y CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_LOGIPS2PP=y CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_SYNAPTICS=y CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_SYNAPTICS_SMBUS=y CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_CYPRESS=y CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_LIFEBOOK=y CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_TRACKPOINT=y CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_ELANTECH=y CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_ELANTECH_SMBUS=y CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_SENTELIC=y CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_FOCALTECH=y CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_VMMOUSE=y CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_SMBUS=y CONFIG_MOUSE_ELAN_I2C_I2C=y CONFIG_MOUSE_ELAN_I2C_SMBUS=y CONFIG_INPUT_JOYSTICK=y CONFIG_JOYSTICK_XPAD_FF=y CONFIG_JOYSTICK_XPAD_LEDS=y CONFIG_DRM_MIPI_DSI=y CONFIG_DRM_FBDEV_EMULATION=y CONFIG_DRM_LOAD_EDID_FIRMWARE=y CONFIG_DRM_DISPLAY_DP_HELPER=y CONFIG_DRM_DISPLAY_HDCP_HELPER=y CONFIG_DRM_DISPLAY_HDMI_HELPER=y CONFIG_DRM_DP_AUX_CHARDEV=y CONFIG_DRM_DP_CEC=y CONFIG_DRM_AMDGPU_SI=y CONFIG_DRM_AMDGPU_CIK=y CONFIG_DRM_AMDGPU_USERPTR=y CONFIG_DRM_AMD_ACP=y CONFIG_DRM_AMD_DC=y CONFIG_DRM_AMD_DC_DCN=y CONFIG_DRM_AMD_DC_HDCP=y CONFIG_DRM_AMD_DC_SI=y CONFIG_DRM_NOUVEAU_BACKLIGHT=y CONFIG_DRM_I915_CAPTURE_ERROR=y CONFIG_DRM_I915_COMPRESS_ERROR=y CONFIG_DRM_I915_USERPTR=y CONFIG_DRM_I915_GVT=y CONFIG_DRM_PANEL=y CONFIG_DRM_BRIDGE=y CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_BRIDGE=y CONFIG_DRM_XEN=y CONFIG_DRM_PANEL_ORIENTATION_QUIRKS=y CONFIG_DRM_NOMODESET=y CONFIG_DRM_PRIVACY_SCREEN=y CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=y CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DETECT_PRIMARY=y CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_ROTATION=y CONFIG_SOUND_OSS_CORE=y CONFIG_SND_PCM_ELD=y CONFIG_SND_JACK=y CONFIG_SND_JACK_INPUT_DEV=y CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS_PLUGINS=y CONFIG_SND_PCM_TIMER=y CONFIG_SND_DYNAMIC_MINORS=y CONFIG_SND_SUPPORT_OLD_API=y CONFIG_SND_PROC_FS=y CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PROCFS=y CONFIG_SND_CTL_FAST_LOOKUP=y CONFIG_SND_VMASTER=y CONFIG_SND_DMA_SGBUF=y CONFIG_SND_SEQ_HRTIMER_DEFAULT=y CONFIG_SND_DRIVERS=y CONFIG_SND_AC97_POWER_SAVE=y CONFIG_SND_PCI=y CONFIG_SND_CS46XX_NEW_DSP=y CONFIG_SND_ES1968_INPUT=y CONFIG_SND_ES1968_RADIO=y CONFIG_SND_FM801_TEA575X_BOOL=y CONFIG_SND_MAESTRO3_INPUT=y CONFIG_SND_HDA_GENERIC_LEDS=y CONFIG_SND_HDA_HWDEP=y CONFIG_SND_HDA_RECONFIG=y CONFIG_SND_HDA_INPUT_BEEP=y CONFIG_SND_HDA_PATCH_LOADER=y CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CA0132_DSP=y CONFIG_SND_HDA_DSP_LOADER=y CONFIG_SND_HDA_COMPONENT=y CONFIG_SND_HDA_I915=y CONFIG_SND_INTEL_NHLT=y CONFIG_SND_SPI=y CONFIG_SND_USB=y CONFIG_SND_USB_AUDIO_USE_MEDIA_CONTROLLER=y CONFIG_SND_USB_CAIAQ_INPUT=y CONFIG_SND_FIREWIRE=y CONFIG_SND_PCMCIA=y CONFIG_SND_SOC_COMPRESS=y CONFIG_SND_SOC_TOPOLOGY=y CONFIG_SND_SOC_INTEL_SST_TOPLEVEL=y CONFIG_SND_SOC_INTEL_SKYLAKE_HDAUDIO_CODEC=y CONFIG_SND_SOC_INTEL_MACH=y CONFIG_SND_SOC_INTEL_USER_FRIENDLY_LONG_NAMES=y CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_TOPLEVEL=y CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_PROBE_WORK_QUEUE=y CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_IPC3=y CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_IPC4=y CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_INTEL_TOPLEVEL=y CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_HDA_LINK=y CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_HDA_AUDIO_CODEC=y CONFIG_SND_X86=y CONFIG_HID_BATTERY_STRENGTH=y CONFIG_HID_ACRUX_FF=y CONFIG_HID_PICOLCD_FB=y CONFIG_HID_PICOLCD_BACKLIGHT=y CONFIG_HID_PICOLCD_LEDS=y CONFIG_HID_PICOLCD_CIR=y CONFIG_HID_PID=y CONFIG_THINKPAD_ACPI_ALSA_SUPPORT=y ``` And 555 modules (I won't enter them all here number suffices I think): ``` ~# cat /boot/config-$(uname -r) | grep -E "(SND|AUDIO|SOUND|ALSA|BLUETOOTH|BT_|WIRELESS|WIFI|DRM|FRAMEBUFFER|HID_|MOUSE|JOYSTICK|NTFS|VFAT).*=m" | wc -l 555 ``` Now, I am not a Linux *pro* but that looks pretty bloated for a server and it's even worse with Ubuntu but I get the impression that many stock Linux distro kernels are similarly bloated "nowadays".