On Thu, 25 Jul 1996 16:32:13 +0200 
 Guenther Grau <s_grau@ira.uka.de> wrote:

 > Jason answered:
 > 
 > > Actually, while this might be a good idea, it's a semantic inconsistency 
 > > as far as config(8) is concerned... config(8), as a rule, doesn't allow 
 > > any use of a device that isn't configured...
 > 
 > Hmm, I don't quite get this. I think that config(8) should very well be able
 > to configure a kernel with SCSI interface on a machine that does not have one.
 > In fact, I am almost sure, it is. You only have to put the SCSI interface
 > into the config file, as well!

Actually, it's clear that:

	a) the question wasn't worded very well, and

	b) my answer was skewed as a result.

In my mind, the question the original author was asking was:

	Why won't config(8) let me configure swap on sd0 when I don't
	have any SCSI devices in the kernel config?

Of course, you can put entries like

eisa0 at mainbus0
ahb0 at eisa? slot ?
scsibus0 at ahb0
sd0 at scsibus0 target 0 lun 0

in a kernel configuration file if you don't have a 1742 SCSI adapter.  
However, config(8) requires that a device exist in the configuration 
before you can attach something to it.  So, if you didn't have the "eisa0 
at mainbus0" line above, config(8) would error out on the "ahb0 at eisa? 
slot ?".

Hope that clarifies my answer a bit :-)

 -- save the ancient forests - http://www.bayarea.net/~thorpej/forest/ -- 
Jason R. Thorpe                                      thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center                              Home: 408.866.1912
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