From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Wed, 15 Aug 2001 00:52:11 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Wed, 15 Aug 2001 00:52:00 -0400 Received: from gold.MUSKOKA.COM ([216.123.107.5]:38152 "EHLO gold.muskoka.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Wed, 15 Aug 2001 00:51:44 -0400 Message-ID: <3B79FB42.66D55B63@yahoo.com> Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 00:32:02 -0400 From: Paul Gortmaker X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.04 (X11; I; Linux 2.2.19 i586) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Riley Williams CC: Linux Kernel Subject: Re: How does "alias ethX drivername" in modules.conf work? In-Reply-To: Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Riley Williams wrote: > > > You have six drivers loaded, when you only need three (i.e. > > io=0x340,0x320,0x2c0 for ne options etc. etc). So you end up > > wasting some memory, and a worse icache behaviour as well. > > Are you sure of this? My understanding (both from reading the code and > from what others I respect have said) is that it is impossible to load > any given module more than once, so the above will result in one copy > each of the ne, ne2k-pci and tulip drivers being loaded. Here is an example of what I was talking about: # insmod wd -o wd0 io=0x280 irq=10 # insmod wd -o wd1 io=0x680 irq=3 # insmod wd -o wd2 io=0xa80 irq=4 # insmod wd -o wd3 io=0xe80 irq=9 # cat /proc/modules wd3 2 0 wd2 2 0 wd1 2 0 wd0 2 0 8390 2 [wd3 wd2 wd1 wd0] 0 # rmmod wd3 wd2 wd1 wd0 # # insmod wd io=0x280,0x680,0xa80,0xe80 irq=10,3,4,9 # cat /proc/modules wd 2 0 8390 2 [wd] 0 # The 1st way (4 copies of the driver present) will work, but is not as efficient as the 2nd way (one copy present). [Don't look too hard at the I/O addresses or you will realize there was only one card in this particular machine anyway...] Paul.