Re: 2.6.4, or what I still don't quite like about the new stable branch

[Peter Williams <peterw@aurema.com>]

Grzegorz Kulewski wrote:
>>4. Module autounloading. Is it actually possible? Will it be possible?
>>If not, why? The old method of periodically invoking "modprobe -ras" via
>>cron doesn't seem to accomplish anything and I really liked the idea of
>>keeping only the required modules in memory at any given moment without
>>having to log in as root to unload the unneeded ones - after all, if the
>>autoloader can only add them what's the point of not going the
>>monolithic way? The docs on the new approach towards modules are
>>virtually nonexistent in the kernel source package and while I suppose I
>>could simply write a script which would scan the list of
>>currently-loaded modules for the unused ones and remove them one by one,
>>but this approach feels terribly crude comparing with the elegance of
>>the old solution. I use module-init-tools-3.0, a serious improvement
>>over 0.9.15 if I may say so but, unless I'm thinking about it with
>>completely wrong base assumptions, still far from perfect.
> 
> 
> As far as I know, the new preffered way of handling modules, is to load 
> them when device is detected (hotplug and udev, at boot or later) 
> and (optionally) remove when device is removed, not as in older kernels, 
> when module was added or removed depending on its use. This way (as 
> opposed to monolithic kernel) you can have "generic" kernel by placing 
> everything in modules. And what is the point in unloading not currently 
> needed modules?

It enables you to update a module (e.g. to fix a bug) without having to 
do a reboot.  I think that people trying to use Linux for useful work 
would find this useful.  So unloadable modules is certainly a 
functionality worth aiming for.

> They should not use much resources when not needed...
> And if you want to put your system to sleep, you must put to sleep all 
> devices (in the right order) *including* these not currently used but 
> present in the system. If you will not do this, you can probably get big 
> crash. So you need loaded module, that knows how to put device to sleep.
> 
> 
> Grzegorz Kulewski
> 
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-- 
Dr Peter Williams, Chief Scientist                peterw@aurema.com
Aurema Pty Limited                                Tel:+61 2 9698 2322
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