I will hopefully be installing Funtoo linux soon (based on Gentoo, but using git as a portage tree, making forking incredibly easy), but I'm a little lost when it comes to configuring the kernel, and default modules to be loaded. Since I built my own machine, I can easily post my motherboard model, video card, etc. (I'm hoping Glider is still around ) Any tips?
Have you thought of initially just installing Gentoo and following the handbook? As a first 'go' at a source distro it will teach you alot. You can then use what you learn there to build your Funtoo system.
"lspci" is your friend indeed, combined with lsusb. Use the -v or -vv switch if required, but most of the time you'll have plenty of info with just lspci. That and a quick google of the items listed will tell you what you need to enable. Be sure to compile in all boot critical stuff (so not as a module). This includes chipset, filesystem support,...
I've got a funtoo VM set up based on the gentoo handbook already, the main question is just figuring out how to determine what boot critical stuff I should compile into the kernel. looks like lspci will help me find that stuff though, so I'll give that a go and come back later with more questions. (Although, I hate to say it, I'm back on Ubuntu as my primary OS, and will be booting another Funtoo drive later.)
Well, for starters, compile everything in (no, or as few as possible modules). After that you can start replacing inbuilt with modules, while having a failback kernel. But TBH, I compiled most stuff right in, because I couldn't care about unloading modules when I wasn't using hardware.
