Brian Buhrow <buhrow%nfbcal.org@localhost> writes:
> hello Brad. I thought the idea behind modules was that you didn't need to rebuild a
> kernel to add devices to the ioconf table? And, in fact, under the old module framework, that
> is, NetBSD-5 and earlier, you could add devices and major numbers to the table without having
> to rebuild the kernel. If, in fact, I need to rebuild the kernel to add device drivers to the
> kernel, then I submit our module framework is fatally broken. So, I'll hope that isn't the
> case and proceed. If I figure out how to do it, I'll post here so others won't have to climb
> that learning curve using the same path.
> -thanks
> -Brian
OT:
dh@ and I had a discussion (on-list here and in #netbsd-code iirc) surrounding these sorts of issues some time (~2 years?) ago and I believe he got excited/disappointed enough that he suggested he might write-up some thoughts on modules and NetBSD, incl (if this helps dh@ find the paper, or otherwise chime in) why block vs character distinction is unnecessary, and a mistake.
Dave?
-bch
My general experience seems to be that a recompile of the kernel is
needed, at least when used in the manor I used it (adding a new module
that used a static major number in one of the major files). I was
bundling a module that would be added to src anyway, so the recompile
wasn't a notable problem. The devsw_attach(9) man page implies that the
major and minor number can be selected with that call, but I have never
used it that way.
--
Brad Spencer - brad%anduin.eldar.org@localhost - KC8VKS - http://anduin.eldar.org