Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 09:06:10 -0700 From: "Kevin Oberman" <oberman@es.net> To: Sam Leffler <sam@errno.com> Cc: Yar Tikhiy <yar@comp.chem.msu.su>, current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ifconfig stopped loading driver Message-ID: <20070323160610.C040945047@ptavv.es.net> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 23 Mar 2007 08:52:27 PDT." <4603F7BB.80608@errno.com>
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--==_Exmh_1174665970_91396P Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline > Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 08:52:27 -0700 > From: Sam Leffler <sam@errno.com> > > Yar Tikhiy wrote: > > On Thu, Mar 22, 2007 at 10:31:44AM -0700, Kevin Oberman wrote: > >>> Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 09:15:22 -0700 > >>> From: "Kip Macy" <kip.macy@gmail.com> > >>> > >>> On 3/22/07, Kevin Oberman <oberman@es.net> wrote: > >>>> For a long time under V6 and current (and probably V5), if I issued an > >>>> ifconfig for my Atheros card, the driver (along with the HAL and rate > >>>> modules) would auto-load and my card would be found. > >>>> > >>>> Starting with my March 19 build, this no longer happens. I need to boot > >>>> single-user and manually load the module if I will need it. I don't want > >>>> the card to start by default since I don't want the radio on when I am > >>>> flying. > >>>> > >>>> Was this a deliberate change or did something break? It is a real pain. > >> O.K. It is clearly a deliberate change, although I am not sure the > >> effect is what was intended. > >> > >> The call to ifmaybeload(ifname) was moved inside of the if for a > >> "create" which applies to pseudo-devices, but not "real" interfaces. As > >> a result, the driver never gets loaded. I read the commit message, but I > >> don't think that this is the right way to fix the problem > >> described. (I'm not sure, what a better approach might be, though.) > >> > >> This breaks behavior that goes back over 7 years, having appeared in > >> the first release of V4. I can work around it, but it's going to be a > >> big surprise to many and it is sure a pain in the neck to me. > > > > I readily admit that my change provoked your trouble. When committing > > it, I took into account only cloned interfaces, but not hardware > > ones, perhaps because I had never used modules for hardware interfaces. > > > > Nevertheless, I still think that the practice of loading the module > > on any ifconfig command is poor in spite of its age. It can be > > worked around only by dirty hacks. One of them is an ifconfig > > option not to load the module for devd scripts to use it when > > shutting down the interface. Another one is to load the module > > only on "positive" ifconfig commands, such as "up" and "alias" > > (incl. the first address,) but not on "negative" ones, e.g., "down" > > and "-alias" -- but what to do with "ifconfig -alias up" then? > > > > Perhaps it's time to have "ifconfig foo0 load" along with "ifconfig > > bar0 create" to allow loading the module explicitly. People even > > won't have to specify "load" in their rc.conf files as rc.d can add > > it for them when, and only when, the interface is started. > > > > Comments? > > I'm not a big fan of auto-loading the module either but it does change > existing practice. I've also considered having ifconfig auto-load the > wlan_<crypto> modules when setting a crypto key so perhaps the best > compromise is to leave auto-loading enabled by default and add an option > to suppress it. I have no issue with adding "ifconfig foo0 load". It is, at least, very convenient to have ifconfig load the modules. On my laptop I use this to auto-config for my location. I could just let the loader do it, but I would always need to remember to comment it out before booting when I am flying. Until/unless an "inflight" option is available, this is fairly important. (Actually, I can't load it at boot time due to a bug that disables my mouse if I have the loader load a driver. I hope to have some time to track this down some day.) Now, if I need wireless support, I must "boot -s", "kldload ip_ath", and "exit". (Or I can edit ifconfig.c to move the call.) I can probably hack my rc scripts to get around this, too, but either reverting or adding a "load" command would be cleaner (and less of a POLA issue). -- R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) E-mail: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634 Key fingerprint:059B 2DDF 031C 9BA3 14A4 EADA 927D EBB3 987B 3751 --==_Exmh_1174665970_91396P Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (FreeBSD) Comment: Exmh version 2.5 06/03/2002 iD8DBQFGA/rykn3rs5h7N1ERAtMnAJ97uoMcI2i+Fq6PAa/2huMBTxdZ1ACdEsAv hhxUHl1o9F3vIwW2MQdGyo0= =pdzl -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --==_Exmh_1174665970_91396P--
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