Re: Custom kernels, config(1), and modules

[Andrew Doran <ad%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Sun, Jun 01, 2008 at 05:22:47PM +0200, Quentin Garnier wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 01, 2008 at 05:01:37PM +0200, Joerg Sonnenberger wrote:
> > On Sun, Jun 01, 2008 at 01:43:42AM +0200, Quentin Garnier wrote:
> > > Why not go all the way directly?  Everything that can be built as a
> > > module will be built as such, and only included in the static kernel if
> > > the user wants it.  Isn't it what FreeBSD does?
> > 
> > No, I think the GENERIC kernel on FreeBSD still includes most of the
> > drivers etc.
> 
> That's a different thing.  I'd expect ours to still keep as much as
> possible (or the boot loader would have to load all the modules which
> is essentially the same).

The boot loader only needs to pull in enough to read the root file system
(which includes the kernel :-). Once the root file system is readable, the
kernel or user can load whatever else is desired.

> The point is to build the .kobj no matter what (granted, there should be a
> way to tell "don't build those modules") and include it in the static
> kernel if there if a config line for it.

That's what I'd like to do. So we could gradually replace. 'psuedo-device
foo' would become 'module foo' and so on.

Andrew