On Wed, Jun 30, 2004 at 01:40:52AM +0100, Colin Watson wrote: > It'd be rather nice if the new debian-installer could load the > therm_adt746x or therm_windtunnel modules, and register them so that > they're automatically loaded by the installed system. > > I can take care of the d-i implementation, but what's the best way to > decide whether the modules are required? As I see it, there are two > obvious methods: > > (1) Probe each module unconditionally on powerpc/powermac_newworld, > and register it in /etc/modules if modprobe exited 0. The modules > in question check for the required hardware themselves and exit > -ENODEV if they don't find it. > > Pros: simple; should be effective. > > Cons: brute-force approach; generates spurious errors which will > probably have to be logged just in case anything real goes wrong; > won't register the module if it's needed by the hardware but the > probe failed for some installer-specific reason. > > (2) Take the logic from the respective module *_init functions, > reimplement it in shell by poking about in /proc/device-tree (I've > looked at the kernel code and believe this is straightforward), > and probe and register whatever that says will work. > > Pros: accurate about what should go in /etc/modules, regardless of > glitches in the installer environment; no spurious errors, only real > ones. > > Cons: code duplication, so would have to stay in sync with the > kernel (although d-i's kernels won't rev very often once we go > stable); more complex. > > Do any kernel hackers have an opinion here?
I would go for the second method, since there is less chance of breaking stuff, it is more elegant, and probably also faster. Not sure i qualify as a kernel hacker though. Friendly, Sven Luther
