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From: gab10@cd.amdahl.com (Gary A Browning)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development
Subject: Re: Some ideas on the driver interface (was: Re: Release of drivers etc.)
Message-ID: <5biM02F.3aGG01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com>
Date: 12 Mar 93 07:47:38 GMT
References: <C3MCIF.Iv@sugar.neosoft.com> <1nj0ej$j6s@walt.ee.pdx.edu> <0bcN02Do3ab301@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> <C3qMGD.Ez7@unx.sas.com>
Sender: netnews@ccc.amdahl.com
Organization: Amdahl Corporation
Lines: 42
In article <C3qMGD.Ez7@unx.sas.com>, sastdr@torpid.unx.sas.com (Thomas
David Rivers) writes:
[ deleted ]
> Then, when the new kernel is booted, /etc/rc notices the marker and
> runs /dev/MAKEDEV, then deletes the marker... POOF - you're new
> kernel
> is up and running. [There are probably problems with changing the
> boot
> device ...]
That marker could be /dev/MAKEDEV itself. The script is no longer needed
and just clutters up /dev anyway.
> I didn't think of this idea, it's how ISC UNIX rebuilds and installs new
> kernels (the idbuild and install commands.)
I was using ISC before 386BSD replaced it. They also had an interesting
idea of how to manage additions into /etc/rc. If I remember correctly,
new O/S features could make a subdirectory in /etc and put its addition
to the rc file in this subdirectory. The /etc/rc script would recognize
all of the subdirectories through file name completion (something like
"/etc/rc.*/rc") and execute (actually source, I think) each file in turn.
This made it look like one large /etc/rc file but the structure was
more flexible for installing and removing packages.
You probably know more about how this really works, but the reason I
brought it up is that I wonder if this concept could be useful for
gracefully solving some or the driver installation/interface issues.
[I came late to this thread, so I'm not sure what all of the issues are]
Maybe when config is run it runs an installation script that would come with
each driver and this script would ask questions and install/remove itself
from the config file and maybe even the MAKEDEV file. Maybe even the
Major/Minor numbers could be assigned at this point by altering the
config and device driver sources (or a -DMAJOR in the Makefile for the
driver). Any other configurable options could also be handled at this
point. It certainly could be made more friendly than the current
method of directly changing the config file.
--
Gary Browning | Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a
gab10@cd.amdahl.com | great idea hits you, and just before you realize
| what is wrong with it.