XPost: comp.os.linux.development.system   
   From: nate@vulcan.lan   
      
   phil-news-nospam@ipal.net writes:   
      
   > In comp.os.linux.development.system Nate Eldredge  wrote:   
   > | phil-news-nospam@ipal.net writes:   
   > |   
   > |> In comp.os.linux.development.system J.O. Aho  wrote:   
   > |> | phil-news-nospam@ipal.net wrote:   
   > |> |   
   > |> |> | There is no automatically detection of your hardware and selection of   
   > |> |> | modules/build in drivers, you can either use the default   
   configuration which   
   > |> |> | will be like any other kernel you get with a all the binary   
   distributions, a   
   > |> |> | kernel that has drivers for things you don't have.   
   > |> |>   
   > |> |> But the drivers are not all loaded.  That's what a modular kernel is   
   for,   
   > |> |> so you don't have to load everything.   
   > |> |   
   > |> | There is no point in loading SATA drivers if you only have a Via MPV4   
   chipset   
   > |> | which hardly do support ATA66. So no point in loading all the stuff you   
   don't   
   > |> | need.   
   > |>   
   > |> Right.  If you don't have device FOO you don't need driver FOO.   
   > |   
   > | What if device FOO is some sort of removable hardware that happens not   
   > | to be installed right now, but which you intend to use regularly?  Most   
   > | USB devices would fall in this category.  You can't even insist that   
   > | someone install those devices before doing your autoconfiguration;   
   > | perhaps I have a USB flash disk, scanner, cell phone, and printer, but   
   > | only one USB port and no hub.   
   >   
   > Good point.  So maybe the BSDs is where I need to look to see what the do (in   
   > general, since it won't be directly usable on Linux).  I wonder what they do   
   > for USB devices.   
      
   I can tell you what FreeBSD does.  The kernel config file specifies   
   various options and lists the drivers that are to be compiled in to the   
   kernel.  Every driver not listed is compiled as a module (provided it's   
   appropriate for the architecture, e.g. the Sparc firmware drivers are   
   not built on i386).  So no matter what, all reasonable drivers are   
   compiled and can be used, whether built in or as modules.   
      
   Changing the set of devices that's to be compiled into the kernel   
   requires manually editing the config file; it isn't done automatically.   
      
   I honestly can't understand why you think it is practical or desirable   
   to automatically create a kernel with the "right" set of drivers   
   compiled in.  The whole point of the module system is that this is hard   
   to do at compile time, and is better left to run time.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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