From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jan 7 16:04:35 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A384016A41F for ; Sat, 7 Jan 2006 16:04:35 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from millueradfa@yahoo.com) Received: from web36912.mail.mud.yahoo.com (web36912.mail.mud.yahoo.com [209.191.85.80]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 7CBAF43D45 for ; Sat, 7 Jan 2006 16:04:32 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from millueradfa@yahoo.com) Received: (qmail 92138 invoked by uid 60001); 7 Jan 2006 16:04:32 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com; h=Message-ID:Received:Date:From:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding; b=0oI7CABkj1x6SX91JZ9kpGNE8adTqtItSRKG5ipfZ457C0qEp4SwN/CZfnBJiu4kOe4Z7eZJv8UJoKCJj9aF7EL5W/34mhDHwzhAO/IwbAXjKf6S90d0VIWC3jVKBb2M1FiDtFArh9lAZou1weZeQLlnui66tYHofwtWt8VtziE= ; Message-ID: <20060107160432.92136.qmail@web36912.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Received: from [80.188.120.29] by web36912.mail.mud.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sat, 07 Jan 2006 08:04:32 PST Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2006 08:04:32 -0800 (PST) From: Alistar Erlas To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Subject: Enabling atapi-cam and other kernel features X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2006 16:04:35 -0000 Recently, I read in the FreeBSD handbook, that in order to use the atapi-cam support, it has to be compiled into the kernel. Why not include the atapi-cam support in a module that can simply be loaded by the user without rebooting the machine? It seems like it would be much eisier and less of a hassle that way. It seems like recompiling the kernel (I have done it before) is an awful lot of work just to be able to use some features of the DVD drive which most new computers have these days. The user should be able to add new hardware support to the kernel and reconfigure as much of it as possible without recompiling it, or even rebooting it. This is especially true in troubleshooting where quick changes may be needed and where recompiling each time a setting is changed becomes quite awkward. Allowing more run time configuration would both make FreeBSD more configurable and expert friendly as well as easier to use for everyone. I think in order to make software easy to use, it needs to be highly configurable, and not require a recompile just to add hardware support. Thank you. __________________________________________ Yahoo! DSL – Something to write home about. Just $16.99/mo. or less. dsl.yahoo.com