Building a monolithic kernel? How does it work?

Question

System administration

I wanted to ask a question about monolithic and modular kernels in Linux, I need to build a rather specific thin and main monolithic kernel, as I understand it, to make it monolithic, you need to uncheck (or even all items) in the "Enable loadable module support" menu, is that so?
But I still have questions, if this kernel is monolithic, then why does it still allow some things in the menu to be set as [M]?
Who can guide and give some advice?
PS Is it true that the lightning kernel cannot include new devices whose drivers were not predefined when the kernel was built ???

Answer 1

Monolithic kernels have not been used recently. About half a year ago, I tried to build a kernel without using modules just for the sake of experiment and came to the conclusion that this is a rather useless exercise. I did not get any increase in download speed or size, but I got a bunch of hemorrhoids in the selection of the necessary parameters.

Answer 2

I need to assemble a rather specific thin and main monolithic kernel

It would be nice if you could explain why.
To make it monolithic, it is enough to compile all the necessary options into the kernel.
As long as "Enable loadable module support"=y you can put an M in the clauses that support modularity.
A kernel without support for modules cannot.