Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Mon, 8 Jan 2001 19:26:01 +0100 | From | Ookhoi <> | Subject | Re: The advantage of modules? |
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Hi Michael,
> On Fri, Jan 05, 2001 at 10:50:20PM -0600, Evan Thompson wrote: > > I'd like to know (I know, I'm being slightly off topic, while still > > staying on topic, so I'm on topic...er...yes) if there is any > > advantage, be it memory-wise or architectuarally wise, to use > > modules? > > > > I already know the obvious points of if you are creating a distro > > that it is usually good to make a very modular kernel for those > > wishing not to recompile their kernel, but I was wondering if there > > were any other advantages to using modules vs. making a monolithic > > kernel for a kernel to be used only on one machine (with no other > > hardware support at all)? > > A couple of thoughts: > > 1) A full kernel with everything compiled in might not fit on boot > media such as floppies, while modules allows you to not load stuff > that isn't needed to until after the main booting is accomplished. > > 2) There are several devices that have multiple drivers (such as > tulip, and old_tulip for example). Which particular driver works > depends on your exact particular hardware. If both of these > drivers are linked into the kernel, whatever the kernel chooses to > initialize first will talk to the device. > > 3) Having drivers as modules means that you can remove them and > reload them. When I was working in an office, I had one scsi > controller that was a different brand (Adaptec) than the main scsi > controller (TekRam), and I hung a disk in a removable chasis on the > scsi chain in addition to a tape driver and cd-rom. When I was > about to go home, I would copy all of the data to the disk, unmount > it, and then unload the scsi device driver. I would take the disk > out, and reload the scsi device driver to get the tape/cd-rom. I > would then take the disk to my home computer. I would reverse the > process when I came in the morning.
You don't need modules for this to work.
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