usb modems and com devices into GENERIC

[John Baldwin]

On Wednesday 03 January 2007 15:58, Ulrich Spoerlein wrote:
> M. Warner Losh wrote:
> > I'd like to place the following in GENERIC.  We're getting more and
> > more questions about these devices that we wouldn't be getting if we
> > had them compiled in by default.  The really imporant ones are marked
> > with a '*' below
> > 
> > device		ucom		# *
> > device		umodem		# *
> > device		umct
> > device		uark
> > device		ubsa
> > device		ubser
> > device		uftdi		# *
> > device		uplcom		# *
> > device		uvisor
> > device		uvscom
> > 
> > the cost isn's so much, and we can filter them out from the
> > installation kernel if size is an issue.
> > 
> > Comments?
> 
> Hi Warner,
> 
> why not do it the other way round? Keep them out of GENERIC, but have
> loader(8) load some of the most used modules (snd_driver!) per default.
> 
> That way, people can easily disable these (without needing to
> recompile).
> 
> I mean, what point is there in the whole KLD infrastructure, if we are
> going to add every device into GENERIC anyway?

It works great when you are developing a driver that lives in a module. :)
The point is to give people tools to use, it's up to different people to
use them as they see fit.  I pretty much never use kernel modules (except
for either working on a driver or test modules I write) but use static
kernels since kernel debugging tends to be simpler when you avoid modules.
It can also be a larger pain to manage if you are administering a lot of
machines.  You also then have the extra task of making sure kernel and
modules are always in sync ABI-wise (a static kernel is always 
self-consistent).

-- 
John Baldwin