make kernel prompting for config options even when .config is present

Question

I did

make ARCH=x86_64 x86_64_defconfig
make ARCH=x86_64 -j16

This builds fine for me. Then I need to enable the MMC/SD card support, so I did make menuconfig and selected the options needed. This is the diff of my previous and current config after SD support.

3056,3084c3056
< CONFIG_MMC=y
< # CONFIG_MMC_DEBUG is not set
< 
< #
< # MMC/SD/SDIO Card Drivers
< #
< CONFIG_MMC_BLOCK=y
< CONFIG_MMC_BLOCK_MINORS=8
< CONFIG_MMC_BLOCK_BOUNCE=y
< # CONFIG_SDIO_UART is not set
< # CONFIG_MMC_TEST is not set
< 
< #
< # MMC/SD/SDIO Host Controller Drivers
< #
< CONFIG_MMC_SDHCI=y
< # CONFIG_MMC_SDHCI_PCI is not set
< # CONFIG_MMC_SDHCI_ACPI is not set
< # CONFIG_MMC_SDHCI_PLTFM is not set
< # CONFIG_MMC_WBSD is not set
< # CONFIG_MMC_TIFM_SD is not set
< # CONFIG_MMC_SDRICOH_CS is not set
< # CONFIG_MMC_CB710 is not set
< # CONFIG_MMC_VIA_SDMMC is not set
< # CONFIG_MMC_VUB300 is not set
< # CONFIG_MMC_USHC is not set
< # CONFIG_MMC_USDHI6ROL0 is not set
< # CONFIG_MMC_TOSHIBA_PCI is not set
< # CONFIG_MMC_MTK is not set
---
> # CONFIG_MMC is not set

Now when I do make ARCH=x86_64 -j16 , it starts prompting me for config settings (y/n/M) :

scripts/kconfig/conf  --silentoldconfig Kconfig
*
* Restart config...
*
*
* Timers subsystem
*
Timer tick handling
  1. Periodic timer ticks (constant rate, no dynticks) (HZ_PERIODIC)
> 2. Idle dynticks system (tickless idle) (NO_HZ_IDLE)
  3. Full dynticks system (tickless) (NO_HZ_FULL) (NEW)
choice[1-3]: 
Old Idle dynticks config (NO_HZ) [Y/n/?] y
High Resolution Timer Support (HIGH_RES_TIMERS) [Y/n/?] y
*
* CPU/Task time and stats accounting
*
Cputime accounting
> 1. Simple tick based cputime accounting (TICK_CPU_ACCOUNTING)
  2. Full dynticks CPU time accounting (VIRT_CPU_ACCOUNTING_GEN) (NEW)
choice[1-2]: 
.
. 
.

I initially thought that my newly enabled options have dependencies on these being asked options, but that was not the case. Now I am not able to figure out why now I have started to get these prompts?

Answer 1

If used, ARCH parameter to make is needed not only when building the kernel, but also when configuring it:

make ARCH=x86_64 menuconfig

---

BTW, you have already used the parameter for other configuration step:

make ARCH=x86_64 x86_64_defconfig