*BSD News Article 37736


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From: wollman@ginger.lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc
Subject: Re: FreeBSD 2.0 - a status report.
Date: 2 Nov 1994 21:07:27 GMT
Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
Lines: 48
Message-ID: <398v2f$4o@GRAPEVINE.LCS.MIT.EDU>
References: <38j31l$6nf@agate.berkeley.edu> <3937bd$l19@masala.cc.uh.edu> <395qr4$msb@pdq.coe.montana.edu> <396peg$f41@orion.cc.andrews.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: ginger.lcs.mit.edu

In article <396peg$f41@orion.cc.andrews.edu>,
Andrew Gillham <gillham@andrews.edu> wrote:

>Some questions:
>1.  Which drivers are "LKMed"

We do not currently support loadable device drivers.  We support
loadable filesystems (all of our filesystems except the UFS family),
loadable execution classes (COFF for iBCS2 support), and
``miscellaneous'' modules (currently the IP multicast forwarder).  Our
sources are structured so that loadable filesystems, at any rate, are
source-identical with their kernel versions.

>2.  Can "boot device" drivers be LKMs with some sort of
>    "pre-linking" or "binding" of the LKM to the kernel file?

Even when we support loadable device drivers (probably in 2.1), a
number of us have had sufficiently painful experiences with AIX to be
vehemently opposed to allowing critical drivers to be loaded.

>3.  Is #2 a stupid idea?  Seems like it would be slick for
>    creating a "kernel link kit" similar to how the XFree86
>    server link kit works.  For a binary install, you wouldn't
>    even need the kernel source, just the "core", the LKMs and
>    the "binder" utility.

We have considered putting a true kernel link-kit (similar to the way
other BSD-based OSes are distributed) at a number of points, but
nobody seems to be able to work up sufficient interest to actually
implement it.

>4.  What does the "LKM.conf" file look like?  

There is none.

>Can IRQ/PORT/etc
>be specified there and/or on the modload commandline?

My intent is that the forthcoming separate utility `chdev' will be
used for this purpose.

-GAWollman

-- 
Garrett A. Wollman   | Shashish is simple, it's discreet, it's brief. ... 
wollman@lcs.mit.edu  | Shashish is the bonding of hearts in spite of distance.
Opinions not those of| It is a bond more powerful than absence.  We like people
MIT, LCS, ANA, or NSA| who like Shashish.  - Claude McKenzie + Florent Vollant