Re: CVS commit: src/sys/arch/i386/conf

[Jean-Yves Migeon <jeanyves.migeon%free.fr@localhost>]

On 13.02.2011 14:42, David Laight wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 04:37:21AM +0000, Jean-Yves Migeon wrote:
>> Module Name: src Committed By:       jym Date:               Sun Feb 13 
>> 04:37:21 UTC 
>> 2011
>> 
>> Modified Files: src/sys/arch/i386/conf: GENERIC
>> 
>> Log Message: Compile FFS and NFS statically (e.g. not modular) for 
>> GENERIC. These file-systems can be critical for mountroot; as 
>> kernel cannot have access to module(7)s without having / mounted 
>> first... yes, you see the point.
> 
> Does this cause grief with existing installations where the 
> bootloader also loads these as modules?

No; if it does, it should not: the bootloader is free to load whatever
modules it wants to, and this happens also when the user specifies it to
load certain modules manually. It could print errors messages (although,
in my tests, it did not), but should not hamper boot in any way.

IMHO, for x86, the kernel cannot assume that the bootloader loaded
certain modules, nor can the bootloader expect that kernel XYZ is in a
specific configuration. They should be agnostic from one another.
Besides, that would be problematic if it were not the case: given that
boot(8) can auto-load ffs or nfs kmods, the bootloader would be bound
with modular kernels.

For order of preference, see module(7):

    The loader will look first for a built-in module with the specified
    name that has not been disabled (see module_unload() below). If a
    built-in module with that name is not found, the list of modules
    prepared by the boot loader is searched.  If the named module is
    still not found, an attempt is made to locate the module within the
    file system.

-- 
Jean-Yves Migeon
jeanyves.migeon%free.fr@localhost