The android-*.config files in this directory are meant to be used as a base for an Android kernel config. All devices should have the options in android-base.config enabled. While not mandatory, the options in android-recommended.config enable advanced Android features. Assuming you already have a minimalist defconfig for your device, a possible way to enable these options would be: ARCH= scripts/kconfig/merge_config.sh /_defconfig kernel/configs/android-base.config kernel/configs/android-recommended.config This will generate a .config that can then be used to save a new defconfig or compile a new kernel with Android features enabled. Because there is no tool to consistently generate these config fragments, lets keep them alphabetically sorted instead of random.