Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:31:16 -0400 (EDT) | From | "Ryan C. Gordon" <> | Subject | Re: [RFC][PATCH 2/2] binfmt_elf: FatELF support for kernel modules. |
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On Fri, 23 Oct 2009, Jeremy Fitzhardinge wrote:
> Any open source driver should be encouraged to be merged with mainline > Linux so there's no need to distribute them separately. With the > staging/ tree, that's easier than ever.
Yes, absolutely. I agree.
But even for mainline drivers, there's a compelling use-case for this, even for a Linux distribution that's 100% Free Software.
Those that want to play outside the sandbox still have all the misery of having to keep up with kernel interface changes and supporting multiple kernel releases. That's the hard part for them, and I'm happy to continue to make it uncomfortable in that regard. How the kernel module gets loaded is probably not of great importance compared to the engineering resources they probably devote to just keeping up.
> Well, ideally a fat module would allow modules for multiple kernels to > be bundled together (same and/or different architectures), which is > primarily useful for 3rd-party binary distributions.
If the OSABI version doesn't change, they can't use FatELF to pack together multiple drivers for different kernel versions. fatelf-glue refuses to merge them, and the kernel will pick the first one, and if it fails to load, tough luck.
I think this should resolve the concern from a technical standpoint. They still have the same problems.
--ryan.
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