Messages in this thread | | | From | Dmitry Torokhov <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH] VMware balloon: force compiling as a module | Date | Thu, 1 Jul 2010 15:31:50 -0700 |
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On Thursday, July 01, 2010 03:18:35 pm Andrew Morton wrote: > On Tue, 29 Jun 2010 09:40:38 -0700 > > Dmitry Torokhov <dtor@vmware.com> wrote: > > On Tuesday, June 29, 2010 09:28:59 am Bruno Pr__mont wrote: > > > On Tue, 29 June 2010 Alexander Clouter <alex@digriz.org.uk> wrote: > > > > Dmitry Torokhov <dtor@vmware.com> wrote: > > > > > VMware Tools installer requires the upstream driver to be compiled > > > > > as a module in order to detect its presence and avoid installing > > > > > our own version on top of it. To avoid surprises with 2 versions > > > > > of the driver being installed and fighting with each other, let's > > > > > force the driver to be compiled as a module unless user selects > > > > > CONFIG_EMBEDDED. > > > > > > > > *barf* > > > > > > > > This surely is a problem in the installer and not the kernel? Can > > > > you not nosey around in /sys/class/misc or where-ever your driver > > > > appears? If it does not, then I would probably suggest a patch to > > > > your balloon driver that dumps some details in there, including > > > > module version information. > > > > > > > > Eugh. > > > > > > In addition, the installer may check under /sys/module/ for it (as for > > > any/most code that can be built as a module), even for built-in code. > > > (if balloon driver does not show up there when built-in it would be > > > better to get it to show up there) > > > > When driver is built-in the only thing exported in /sys/module/XXX are > > module parameters. > > > > We also need to handle scenario when module is not loaded into the > > kernel. > > - check for the /sys/module directory.
Empty.
> > - if that failed, modprobe the driver >
Succeeds since the driver name changed (we renamed it to vmware_balloon before submitting into mainline to avoid confusion based on our experience with pvscsi; the existing one in the wild is called vmmemctl).
Now we have 2 drivers fighting. There is no backing device and so driver core will not save us by refusing to bind to already claimed device.
> - if that failed, error out > > The patch really is pretty icky. Adding restrictions to kernel > configuration to work around problems in some installer program?
It is probably not the prettiest patch, I agree, but users still have an option of building this stuff in if they care that much (CONFIG_EMBEDDED).
Thanks.
-- Dmitry
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