[arch-general] Need some tips/help with kernel bisection

[Mauro Santos]

After the update to kernel 3.14 my laptop stopped suspending/hibernating
properly. I have narrowed down the problem somewhat, but before I submit
a bug upstream, I'd like to try and bisect the kernel to find exactly
what broke things for me (and I suppose I might be asked by upstream to
bisect the kernel anyway).

I have never done this before, and I suppose there might be a few
catches I should be aware of before I start what will be a time
consuming process.

My plan is to start with the current PKGBUILD for the kernel (or a
PKGBUILD from AUR) and modify it a little for my needs.

However I don't know if I should start with a kernel configuration file
from the 3.13 series or if I can use the one that is used by the current
kernel.

I was thinking of making use of 'make localmodconfig' to cut down on the
compilation time, but I don't know if there are any catches I should be
aware of.

Should I use 'make config' followed by 'make localmodconfig' or using
only the later is ok?

Can I compile the kernel on the same dir where I'm using 'git bisect' or
is it advisable to clone that to a new dir and build in the new dir?

In case compiling in place is ok, should I use 'make clean' before
compiling a new kernel?

Regarding patches, I suppose I shouldn't need to include any extra
patches or are there any known needed patches required to build kernel 3.13?

-- 
Mauro Santos