Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 14:15:41 +0100 From: Cliff Sarginson <csfbsd@raggedclown.net> To: FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Kernel loader Message-ID: <20020221131541.GA6721@raggedclown.net>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Well, I tried this out in -hackers, and got a couple of mono-syllabic replies, but no-one answered my question. So I will try it here. The kernel loader code has mechanisms to implant dependencies in the module code, e.g. if module A requires module B, then you can build this knowledge into module A. Now I do not believe that if you load module A, then module B is automagically loaded as well. Looking at the program kldload it is just a few lines that just invokes a system call to load the module requested. I think the system call code should be in my source tree somewhere but I am damned if I can find it. What I was getting at is that in Linux they have this 'depmod' setup that creates a dependency list, so that loading a module should load all other required modules. I am looking for the same functionality in FreeBSD. I do not believe it exists. Can anyone confirm this, or refute it. My second question was this. It seems to me that the kernel module loading may have some sensitivity over the point at which it is loaded. I have reported a bug in drm-kmod and my tests seem to show that it makes a difference when a particular module (in this case "agp") is loaded early on in the boot process via loader.conf, or later on by a shell command in /usr/local/etc/rc.d. Is this likely to be expected ? I got zero answers to this question. If it does make a difference then I would be so bold as to say that on-demand kernel loadable modules are not on-demand kernel loadable modules if they cannot be loaded after the main boot process is complete...and therefore you may as well build them into the kernel in the first place. Does anyone have any insight into this ? Thanks. -- Regards Cliff Sarginson -- <csfbsd@raggedclown.net> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20020221131541.GA6721>