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On Thursday 31 January 2008, Mateusz Mierzwinski wrote: |
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> Talking about modularize kernel i think this is an gentoo mailing |
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> list so every user know's his hardware - if not there is always |
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> GOOGLE, Gentoo HowTo and Hardware Manual. Most drivers in kernel are |
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> universal for one vendor family what makes more suitable to different |
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> types of chipsets (revisions A, B etc...). There is also true that |
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> maybee kernel modules are good for people with binary distro's but |
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> Gentoo is source based distribution - thank god - and every user |
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> should compile kernel for his hardware - modules not needed. |
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Rubbish. Let's say tomorrow I plug in a USB sound card, joystick and |
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HSDPA modem. Today I do not have this hardware. |
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Should I rebuild my kernel just to use a hotplug device that I borrowed |
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for a few hours? No, thanks, I'm going to use modrobe. |
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To get my sound card to work, I need a parameter "dell=m42". How should |
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I easily pass this argument without modules? Should I have a webcam |
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driver permanently loaded in kernel space just for the odd case where I |
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decide to use it? |
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|
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1995 called, they say they want their hardware back. |
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|
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> Cheap |
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> code modules are also bad rule of cheap programmers, which don't know |
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> system and kernel structures. Afterwords thats how making usage of |
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> NDISWRAPPER is fundamental on Windows drivers hardware. |
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|
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<sigh> |
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If a crap programmer writes a module, it will be crap and do $BAD_STUFF. |
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How does this change if the crap programmer is forced to not write |
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modules? Does he suddenly get enlightened and know what K&R have been |
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telling him for years? |
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|
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CRAP PROGRAMMERS WRITE CRAP CODE. MODULES ARE COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT TO |
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THIS. |
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> If we speak about realtime preemption model i think that You are |
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> mistaken saying that PC and realtime kernels (software) is not good |
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> choice. My licentiate work on University of Silesia (Poland, |
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> Katowice) is about usage of realtime services in computer LAN/WAN |
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> networks. I digging some materials about RTOS and realtime preemption |
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> model, realtime schedule algorithm and realtime applications critical |
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> points programming. I don't know if PC + Realtime preemption model is |
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> something wrong. When You need critical services for network such as |
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> multiplexed SDH traffic control and violation prevention You must |
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> have great power computer with RTOS, that can monitor min. 166MB/s |
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> traffic full duplex. Now-days computers have enough power to stand |
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> with RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) machines - thats why |
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> Sun Solaris has arrived on PC's. Another big step is RTLinux with |
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> dual core - realtime core and Linux kernel working together. |
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That type of usage is not my area of expertise, but I can tell that it's |
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a niche market. If monolithicality is the correct design paradigm |
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there, then the designer has the option of building a monolithic |
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kernel. If you can coerce it to work on Intel cpus, well that's fine |
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and dandy and attests to the power and adaptibility of Linux. |
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But how does this support your assertion that modules are a bad idea? |
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You have the choice to do it a better way in those circumstances. |
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Meanwhile, the vast majority of server nd desktop deployments out there |
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that truly do need kernel modules (including Gentoo) cna and should |
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continue to use them. |
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-- |
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Alan McKinnon |
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alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com |
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-- |
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