2.6.28: How come some kernel options cannot be disabled for non-existent hardware?

2.6.28: How come some kernel options cannot be disabled for non-existent hardware?

[Justin Piszcz]

Example:

-> ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support
-> -*-   Dock

>From dmesg:
[    0.247210] ACPI: EC: Look up EC in DSDT
[    0.249987] ACPI: Interpreter enabled
[    0.249990] ACPI: (supports S0 S5)
[    0.250005] ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing
[    0.254621] ACPI: No dock devices found.
[    0.254631] ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)

I have no Docking bay on my desktop machine, even when I change:
CONFIG_ACPI_DOCK=y
to
CONFIG_ACPI_DOCK=n

It still shows up as enabled and it is in dmesg shown above.  How come 
some kernel options are enabled and cannot (easily?) be disabled for 
hardware that does not exist in my machine?

http://home.comcast.net/~jpiszcz/20081230/config-2.6.28.txt

Justin.

Re: 2.6.28: How come some kernel options cannot be disabled for non-existent hardware?

[Matthew Garrett]

On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 07:25:42AM -0500, Justin Piszcz wrote:

> It still shows up as enabled and it is in dmesg shown above.  How come 
> some kernel options are enabled and cannot (easily?) be disabled for 
> hardware that does not exist in my machine?

It's enabled by the ATA_ACPI support so libata can handle ACPI-based 
drive hotswaps. You can check these by looking at the help for an option 
in make menuconfig. That'll tell you what's selecting an option.

-- 
Matthew Garrett | mjg59@srcf.ucam.org

Re: 2.6.28: How come some kernel options cannot be disabled for non-existent hardware?

[Nick Warne]

> On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 07:25:42AM -0500, Justin Piszcz wrote:
> 
> > It still shows up as enabled and it is in dmesg shown above.  How come 
> > some kernel options are enabled and cannot (easily?) be disabled for 
> > hardware that does not exist in my machine?
> 
> It's enabled by the ATA_ACPI support so libata can handle ACPI-based 
> drive hotswaps. You can check these by looking at the help for an option 
> in make menuconfig. That'll tell you what's selecting an option.

I have been battling this sort of thing lately.  In fact, the dock
option seems to get set with '& experimental'.  I got rid of it, but
that then buggered up the selection of k8temp which needs experimental.

Nick
-- 
Free Software Foundation Associate Member 5508
http://linicks.net/