From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 15 Jan 2002 18:38:37 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 15 Jan 2002 18:38:28 -0500 Received: from 12-224-37-81.client.attbi.com ([12.224.37.81]:48911 "HELO kroah.com") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id ; Tue, 15 Jan 2002 18:38:06 -0500 Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 15:34:37 -0800 From: Greg KH To: David Garfield Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Query about initramfs and modules Message-ID: <20020115233437.GC29020@kroah.com> In-Reply-To: <15428.47094.435181.278715@irving.iisd.sra.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <15428.47094.435181.278715@irving.iisd.sra.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.25i X-Operating-System: Linux 2.2.20 (i586) Reply-By: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 20:22:18 -0800 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Tue, Jan 15, 2002 at 06:15:02PM -0500, David Garfield wrote: > > Can/will the initramfs mechanism be made to implicitly load into the > kernel the modules (or some of the modules) in the image? Most of the mechanism for loading modules for physical devices will be the /sbin/hotplug interface: - when the pci core code scans the pci bus, and finds a new device, it calls out to /sbin/hotplug the pci device information. - /sbin/hotplug looks up the pci device info and tries to match it up with a driver that will work for this device (see the linux-hotplug.sf.net site for more info on how this works.) - if it finds a module for the device, it calls modprobe on the module, and now that pci device has a module loaded. Repeat this process for the USB, IEEE1394, and other busses that support MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE in the kernel tree. > Doing so would allow the initramfs image to be composed solely of the > modules to be loaded, which would reduce the need for the "klibc". It > would also eliminate the need for any sort of control script to be in > the image. klibc (or some libc) is needed to build /sbin/hotplug, and modprobe in this scenario. greg k-h