Harald Schreiber wrote:
>
> Tom Berger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> > Hi there!
> >
> > I just wondered (again):
> >
> > If you define aliases in /etc/conf.modules how does the system know which
> > device they refer to?
> >
> > An example:
> >
> > If I load
> >
> > alias scsi_hostadapter [module-name]
> >
> > it works. What if I'd type
> >
> > alias my_yummy_scsi_card [module-name]
> >
> > ?
> >
> > Valid kernel-parameters are described in kernel-parameters.txt, but what
> > about valid module-aliases?
> >
> > Obviously I am missing something. May anyone help me?
> >
> [...]
>
> Hi Tom,
>
> in the special case of "alias scsi_hostadapter [module-name]"
> this entry is only needed by the shell script "/sbin/mkinitrd"
> line 158-165:
>
> ----------8<--------------------8<----------
> if [ -f /etc/conf.modules ]; then
> scsimodules=`grep scsi_hostadapter /etc/conf.modules | grep -v '^[ ]*#'
>| sort -u | awk '{ print $3 }'`
> for n in $scsimodules; do
> # for now allow scsi modules to come from anywhere. There are some
> # RAID controllers with drivers in block/
> findmodule "" $n
> done
> fi
> ----------8<---------------------8<----------
>
> If you change the entry in /etc/conf.modules
>
> alias scsi_hostadapter [module-name]
>
> to
>
> alias my_yummy_scsi_card [module-name]
>
> your initial ramdisk will not contain the module for
> your SCSI hostadapter and your machine will not boot
> if you are booting from a SCSI drive and have your
> SCSI host adapter support not built in the kernel.
Hi Harald,
thanks a lot for your explaination but I still don't understand ;-).
I see the case with mkinitrd, but what if I don't need any SCSI devices on
startup and the card driver is built as a module?
If there is now a request *at runtime* (let's say to a SCSI CD burner)
modprobe looks into /etc/conf.modules and sees the line
alias scsi_hostadapter [module-name]
How does it know that the string 'scsi_hostadapter' refers to a SCSI host
adapter?
Or did I got the wrong way round and modprobe doesn't need to look up
conf.modules since the card has been detected during boot? Does modprobe
query /proc/scsi first? Does your explaination mean that I don't need this
entry at all if I don't need SCSI during init?
Sorry if I seem to look exceptionally dim but I really want to understand
this correctly.
I really hope you take the time to enlighten me about it.
> If you change the corresponding line in /sbin/mkinitrd
> as well, you can write
> alias my_yummy_scsi_card [module-name]
> in /etc/conf.modules and everything will work fine.
>
> Other entries with special meanings are for example
>
> alias sound [module]
> and
> alias midi [module]
>
> which are referred to in the script "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit".
>
> Entries like
> alias char-major-xy [module]
> are obvious I think.
yep
> Hope this helps
> Harald
>
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Harald Schreiber, Nizzaalle 26, D-52072 Aachen, Germany
> Phone: +49-241-9108015, Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks!
Regards
tom
--
"Never trust a Shoggoth!"
Thomas 'tom' Berger, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
LSTB - "advancing the community", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
UMS: +49-(0)89-1488-208756 fon: +49-(0)30-45809013
