On 19.02.2011 17:13, Matthias Drochner wrote: > > jeanyves.mig...@free.fr said: >> I can't see why MONOLITHIC is needed in the first place > > I think before modular kernels are forced onto the masses, > at least 2 design problems should be fixed: > 1. Autoloading needs to be done differently: The kernel doesn't > have the smarts to know which module is needed in which situation, > and there is no fine-grained administrative control. I've > complained in some other mail about the idiotic behavior > in case of exec format loaders. > 2. I don't want tons of modules which I'll never need installed > into my root file system. As it was common in good old times (tm), > my root filesystems are as small as possible. Now, with modules > being added to the build, I have to squeeze out stuff after > each update to keep some percent free space in /.
1. modules can be turned into builtins, and so you will end up in the same situation as MONOLITHIC, without sacrificing MODULAR. You can preserve monolithic behavior, but still load modules if you want to. 2. issue is the same as with monolithic-like kernels: instead of having code provided as third party files, code is directly embedded in. So what you are gaining as space in one place, you are losing it in another. Smaller file-system, bigger kernel, or the other way around. Granted, kernel does not necessarily reside under / . As said, it's all a matter of choice (which I cannot make). i386 GENERIC was a PITA as all options(4) were modules, thereby affecting boot at the smallest occasion. MONOLITHIC was brought back. On the contrary, amd64 GENERIC was monolithic in nature (most modules are builtins), mimicking i386 MONOLITHIC (but still having modules as possibility), and that did not seem to bother people. So either way, it's fine; but please -- i386 and amd64 should share common grounds. If some want a MONOLITHIC amd64, it's even possible, although I can't see the point given the arguments above. That would also save us a kernel build for i386 release. -- Jean-Yves Migeon jeanyves.mig...@free.fr
