Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: "Poison BL." <poisonbl@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user <gentoo-user@l.g.o>
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Fwd:How about the gentoo server or cluster in production environment?
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2014 14:05:56
Message-Id: CAOTuDKpAJY8c=JLCD2-XGL3Q65tD-CN8RXV1koH41ViOkA7NRA@mail.gmail.com
In Reply to: [gentoo-user] Re: Fwd:How about the gentoo server or cluster in production environment? by Nicolas Sebrecht
1 On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 5:55 AM, Nicolas Sebrecht <nsebrecht@×××××.fr> wrote:
2 > The 21/02/14, hasufell wrote:
3 >
4 >> So you are saying compiling a minimal kernel to minimize exposure to
5 >> subsystem bugs is only obscurity? (I really wonder what Greg would say
6 >> to this)
7 >
8 > Developers made the kernel to rely on modules. Distributions relies on
9 > them. Since they are almost always loaded on demand, Gentoo does not
10 > make things better in this area, either.
11 >
12 > --
13 > Nicolas Sebrecht
14 >
15
16 Actually, they're loaded on demand when they:
17 a) Are enabled (the kernel doesn't rely on modules, it offers them for
18 versatility, though some user space code does rely on them, i.e.
19 virtualbox, a few drivers for X, etc)
20 b) Are built for that particular kernel
21 c) That kernel has all the dependencies in place to support them
22 d) The tools to load them exist in user space
23 e) They're not specifically blacklisted in user space (assuming a
24 loading mechanism that honors that)
25
26 Unless it's changed when I wasn't looking, it's entirely possible to
27 build a kernel with module loading disabled entirely and restrict the
28 set of code to be run in kernel space to an explicitly defined series
29 of kernel options. I say "when I wasn't looking" because I use modules
30 to trim down how much of iptables is constantly loaded on my router
31 for rules there I don't use and the only other places I have Gentoo
32 are my multitude of laptops, where the versatility of building and
33 loading a module to test out yet another toy someone has on hand
34 around me, without a reboot in many cases, is incredibly handy.
35
36 --
37 Poison [BLX]
38 Joshua M. Murphy