Subject: Re: LKMs (was Re: IPSEC in GENERIC)
To: Garrett D'Amore <garrett_damore@tadpole.com>
From: Steven M. Bellovin <smb@cs.columbia.edu>
List: tech-kern
Date: 02/20/2006 10:33:44
In message <43F9D537.8000305@tadpole.com>, "Garrett D'Amore" writes:
>Highly technical users might have fun compiling the kernel, but as *one*
>such user, I can tell you that having worked with Solaris' LKM interface
>it is *very* nice. It even has a binary DDI, so I can ship *one* binary
>module that works across a Solaris versions going back 5 years or more.
>And I do just that *EVEN FOR MY OPEN SOURCE DRIVERS*. Why? Because my
>users want to pull down a binary and install it, they don't (usually)
>want to recompile the source, even though they can do that from the same
>location as the binaries.
>
I'm with you. I've been hacking kernels (or the equivalent) since 1967.
I'd much rather have LKMs. If I were king, I'd decree that *all*
device drivers must be loadable, and *all* device drivers should be
dynamically loaded except for those that are necessary to boot the
system and read in new device drivers.
--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb