public inbox for linux-ia64@vger.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: dann frazier <dannf@hp.com>
To: linux-ia64@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Debian kernel and /proc/pal
Date: Tue, 09 Aug 2005 17:59:11 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <1123610477.16997.50.camel@krebs.dannf> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <1123241814.30015.5.camel@uluru.grenoble.hp.com>

On Tue, 2005-08-09 at 10:43 -0700, Stephane Eranian wrote:
> Dann,
> 
> On Tue, Aug 09, 2005 at 10:40:16AM -0600, dann frazier wrote:
> > On Mon, 2005-08-08 at 10:17 +1000, Ian Wienand wrote:
> > > On Fri, Aug 05, 2005 at 01:36:54PM +0200, Stephane Eranian wrote:
> > > > I recently used an Itanium machine booted with a 2.6 Linux kernel.
> > > > The exact package is:
> > > >         kernel-image-2.6.11-1-mckinley-smp_2.6.11-6_ia64.deb
> > > > 
> > > > It does appear that this kernel is compiled without CONFIG_PALINFO
> > > > which means there is no /proc/pal/cpu* entries.
> > > 
> > > I filed this under
> > > 
> > > http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug21885
> > > 
> > > for the latest 2.6.12 packages which have the same thing.
> > > 
> > 
> > Note that CONFIG_PALINFO was set to m - most things in Debian kernels
> > are set to build as a module, if possible.
> > 
> 
> What's the value of having PALINFO as module?

(cc'ing debian-ia64, since this is really a debian issue not a kernel
one)

We don't examine all the bits of code that can be built as modules and
make a decision based on potential performance impact, security risks,
etc - its easier/more consistent to just build as a module if possible.

I don't know of any significant reason to leave palinfo as a module,
which is why I changed it :)  However, users who build their own kernels
may still build it as a module.  If they do, it'd be good if userspace
utilities either attempted to load it or complained that it wasn't
available.  (I've no idea if pfmon already does this or not)

> The firmware interface does not evolve very often.
> 
> If module is preferred then, some rc scripts should load it automatically
> somehow. 

If a user has a made a conscious choice to build it as a module, then it
probably means that they don't want the code loaded all the time.  In
such a situation, its probably better to load on demand or tell the user
to run modprobe themselves instead of auto-loading at boot.



      parent reply	other threads:[~2005-08-09 17:59 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 5+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2005-08-05 11:36 Debian kernel and /proc/pal Stephane Eranian
2005-08-08  0:17 ` Ian Wienand
2005-08-09 16:40 ` dann frazier
2005-08-09 17:43 ` Stephane Eranian
2005-08-09 17:59 ` dann frazier [this message]

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=1123610477.16997.50.camel@krebs.dannf \
    --to=dannf@hp.com \
    --cc=linux-ia64@vger.kernel.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox