Re: question on non-kernel patch

[Michal Marek <mmarek@suse.cz>]

Dne 20.4.2012 16:41, Fry, Donald H napsal(a):
> The base/core/common functionality is still called iwlwifi which
> interacts with the hardware.  On modprobe, the driver tries to find a
> microcode file to run based on the device/vendor id/sub-id.  While
> parsing the microcode file, it will indicate which software API it
> supports, which will indicate which specific module to use, module A
> (old) or module B (new).  This way the user still uses modprobe
> iwlwifi to install, and iwlwifi will request the appropriate specific
> module to make the hardware function.
> 
> However, since module A (for example) requires iwlwifi, an attempt to
> modprobe iwlwifi -r results in a message that iwlwifi is still in
> use.  Module A must be removed first followed by iwlwifi, etc.  While
> this may be obvious from looking at lsmod for a kernel developer, it
> is not obvious for most users.

Do users need to remove modules at all? I doubt it. And if they do, they
will use rmmod, because it is faster to type :). If your concern is
debugging bugreports from users, then simply instruct them to run
'modprobe -r iwlwifi_mod1; modprobe -r iwlwifi_mod2; modprobe -r
iwlwifi' instead of just 'modprobe -r iwlwifi'. Removing a module that
is not loaded will do nothing, it won't even print an error message.

Michal