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Date:      Wed, 07 Jun 2000 10:26:05 -0700
From:      Jack Rusher <jar@integratus.com>
To:        hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: kerneld for FreeBSD
Message-ID:  <393E85AD.F487B2C1@integratus.com>
References:  <20000607013058.A32270@firedrake.org> <Pine.BSF.4.21.0006070059290.2618-100000@jehovah.technokratis.com> <20000607014353.A10364@cokane.yi.org>

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Coleman Kane wrote:
> 
> I really don't think that stupidity is the issue, there are plenty of
> devices which you use very discretely which may only need support every 
> once in awhile.
> It might be nice to start running on modules regularly. It would also be
> useful to be able to update your device driver while running freebsd,
> without needing to reboot.

  Another note on the loadable/unloadable driver tip: SCSI, USB, and
Firewire are all adaptable bus architectures that allow you to add and
remove devices from your system at will.  There are dozens of situations
in which you might wish to hot swap devices.

  If I, for sake of argument, wanted to remove one of my
SlowAssDrive2000 disks from my server and replace it with a
NiftyFastDrive2001, why should I have to reboot?  Why shouldn't the
server automatically unload the driver if the bus protocol gives me
registration/deregistration information?  I guess I don't see the harm
in a ref count system for device drivers on hot swappable bus
architectures.

  Does anyone want to see a tiny FreeBSD kernel that pulls in drivers
via an /etc/system style configuration file?

  Let's stop attacking these ideas as foreign evil and start looking for
any interesting notions that we can use.

Thanks,

-- 
Jack Rusher, Senior Engineer | mailto:jar@integratus.com
Integratus, Inc.             | http://www.integratus.com


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