-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Somebody in the thread at some point said: | Cesar Eduardo Barros wrote: | [...] | > I haven't tested the peripheral chips (GSM, BT, GPS); however, sound | > works (this defconfig has everything built-in instead of using modules, | > which is much better than having sound as a module). | [...] | | Hello. | | Can anyone tell me (or point me to some documentation) why it's better | to have mostly static kernel than using modules (for a FreeRunner's | kernel)?
I wouldn't say it is just "better", each way has some advantages. Static kernel ~ - the devices are up before you bring up your rootfs. So you have the possibility to use the driver features to provide the rootfs. This is why many modules have to be in the monolithic kernel, like jffs2, ext2, vfat, mtd, sd card... ~ - you can do testing without needing to keep the rootfs /lib/modules in sync with anything, it's a bit faster if you compile and try hundreds of kernels a week which happens here. Modules ~ - You don't need to take up space for the code and data in memory unless you needed it. For example, if you simply don't use ipv6, you can save hundreds of KBytes by not having the modules in. ~ - As we saw recently, some drivers are mutually exclusive. We put Ethernet over USB gadget into the monolithic kernel, it meant you could never use the other gadget drivers. So pushing the mutually exclusive set out into modules allows the end user to configure how and when he likes ~ - For some development, it is much quicker to put the driver in a module and keep updating it against the same kernel. It means you just modprobe -r the old module, scp the new one, and modprobe it in again without rebooting. - -Andy -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Fedora - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAkiW2JwACgkQOjLpvpq7dMrCugCffSWsQrj3EJKBV9qFz7xX48Pw ywMAn1kV2py/VK+W2vrRqUtYXUXdgHUX =/JUC -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
