Comment 5 for bug 90283

Umm this is not, IMHO, a bug. From the Kernel/Compile page from Ubuntu (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Kernel/Compile):

[quote]
If you re-used the existing configuration, note that Ubuntu kernels build with debugging information on, which makes the resulting kernel modules (*.ko files) much larger than they would otherwise be. To turn this off, go into "Kernel hacking"; then, under "Kernel debugging", turn OFF "Compile the kernel with debug info".
[/quote]

The linux-image packages in the Ubuntu repositories seem to be compiled with the "Compile the kernel with debug info" option OFF (the package size is ~18Mb), but it installs a config-`uname -r` in /boot that have that option ON. Therefore, if you reuse the old/existing configuration, debugging will be enabled (gcc -g...) and make-kpkg will produce a huge kernel. I've compiled a custom hardy kernel 2.6.24-rc5 today, using the config from linux-image-2.6.24-2-server, and I had to disable the debugging option to get a decent 20Mb package, else with debug ON it was about 215Mb.

From here there are two choices :
1- Leave the default/existing config-`uname -r` in /boot as is, and let people disable debugging like it's done now. After all, that feature is documented and people should read howtos. Maybe it's not enough documented though...
2- Change the default debug option in the config file, which would help people compile custom kernels. I don't know why debug is ON by default, but the kernel-team probably has a good reason.

Nonetheless, I personally think the debug option should be set OFF by default, as people with problems will know what to enable to debug their kernel using gdb or another tool. There are less many kernel debuggers than people that just want a working custom kernel.

If you guys choose option 2, then change the importance to "wishlist". Else, please close it.