Re: grub-install

["Yoshinori K. Okuji" <okuji@enbug.org>]

On Monday 25 July 2005 04:04, Hollis Blanchard wrote:
> Is there a reason not to add all modules all the time?

I should have written more info in English. This is documented well, but only 
in Japanese.

There are several reasons. In the context of i386-pc:

- The size problem. We must keep the core image at least 31KB, so that we can 
embed it into the space right after the MBR. This is the most important 
reason. Very specific to i386-pc. I have no idea if other architectures have 
similar restrictions, but probably they do.

- The loading time. Potentially, the number of modules is infinite in GRUB 2.

- Conflicts. For now, we do not have multiple modules which provide the same 
functionality, but it is one of the goals of modules to make this possible.

- Runtime slowness. For example, if I load amiga partition map support, this 
makes apparently it slower to access partitions in QEMU.

- Hardware probing. In particular, probing ISA ethernet devices which are not 
present in a system frequently causes a system crash or a too long timeout.

Actually, many reasons are the same as "why we don't make initrd with all 
modules of linux" or "why we don't build all features into linux".

Okuji