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From: Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org>
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Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:01:24 -0600
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To: John Baldwin <jhb@freebsd.org>
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Cc: acpi@freebsd.org, arch@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Removing acpi.ko support
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On Oct 28, 2010, at 10:54 AM, John Baldwin wrote:
> [ cc'ing acpi@ to be safe, but I think the topic warrants the wider =
audience=20
> of arch@ ]
>=20
> I think we should drop support for having acpi load as a module for =
i386.  It=20
> adds extra complication and hacks to the i386 APIC and interrupt code =
that are=20
> gratuitously different from amd64 as a result.  Originally it was made =
a=20
> module so that GENERIC on i386 did not include ACPI by default but =
would only=20
> use up memory to hold ACPI-related code if the machine supported ACPI. =
 Now=20
> that acpi is part of GENERIC on i386 in 8.0 and later this argument is =
no=20
> longer relevant.  I'd like to remove support for ACPI as a module to =
remove=20
> the various hacks on i386 and reduce differences with amd64.
>=20

Just to be clear, it'll still be an optional kernel device, it just =
won't be a KLD anymore, right?  If you do that, what will happen with =
the evil bootloader code that gropes around for the AML tables and =
auto-loads the module?  Is there any reason to keep that around for =
compatibility?  If it goes away, don't forget to also update the =
bootforth code that knows how to manipulate it.

Scott