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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!gatech!smash.gatech.edu!news From: Richard Coleman <coleman@math.gatech.edu> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Rebuilding kernels Date: 02 Jun 1997 01:55:13 -0400 Organization: School of Mathematics, Georgia Tech Lines: 22 Sender: coleman@cauchy.skiles.gatech.edu Message-ID: <rc910tpn0e.fsf_-_@cauchy.skiles.gatech.edu> References: <5mk5rp$788@nnrp4.farm.idt.net> <5mp5no$59p$2@nntp2.ba.best.com> <3390866A.41C67EA6@FreeBSD.org> <5mqs7d$20e$1@enyo.uwa.edu.au> <01bc6e88$857e8440$f3e94dc2@hugo09.ticsoft.de> <5mtiho$m74$1@enyo.uwa.edu.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: cauchy.skiles.gatech.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:42017 > My point is that most people do not or cannot and should not have to build > a custom kernel to run an ordinary desktop machine. Think about it. Forcing > most users to have to learn to build kernels just to use an ordinary desktop > machine is silly. Why make things more complex than than they need to be? > And what about fault isolation? When an installation goes wrong the fact > that the kernel was custom-built adds more complexity to the problem. > And what about testing? If a kernel is custom-built it needs be tested > before it can be trusted for production use. I know that Linux has the ability to load and unload device drivers at runtime. Has anyone worked on such support for FreeBSD? Is there any architectural problems that would make this more difficult in FreeBSD than Linux? I've heard people talk about working on devfs. Is this related to this problem? I'm hoping that it will (eventually) become unnecessary for an average user to rebuild a kernel. Richard Coleman coleman@math.gatech.edu