NICs not in GENERIC

[Alexander Leidinger]

Quoting Navdeep Parhar <np at FreeBSD.org> (from Wed, 22 Feb 2012  
01:55:40 +0000):

> On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 05:44:01PM -0700, Scott Long wrote:
>>
>> On Feb 21, 2012, at 10:51 AM, Navdeep Parhar wrote:
>>
>> > On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 03:56:56PM +0100, Alexander Leidinger wrote:
>> >> Hi,
>> >>
>> >> is there a specific reason that the following NICs are not (or shall
>> >> not be) in GENERIC (at least on i386)?
>> >
>> > No specific reason for these two:
>> >
>> >> - if_cxgb
>> >> - if_cxgbe
>> >
>> > But I do prefer to load them as modules (and as late as possible --
>> > after sysctl.conf has been processed and any nmbclusters, nmbjumboXX
>> > settings have taken affect).
>> >
>> > Other than root over NFS, is there any reason to have NIC drivers in
>> > GENERIC?
>> >
>>
>> GENERIC is the kernel profile that's used during installation, and the
>> installer (at one point in time) supported installing over NFS and FTP.
>
> If the installer itself can come up without the NIC driver it should be
> able to load any NIC driver KLD it wants and then reach the "install
> media" (NFS, FTP, etc.) over the network.  Or is it that the installer's
> root fs didn't have any KLDs back then?

Do we have support for that in our installer?

Anyway, the case where a cxgb* NIC is the only or preferred NIC (no  
idea if such systems exist) and the admin wants to net-boot into the  
installer is an use-case we should not overlook.

BTW: I prefer to load a lot via modules myself, and I want to get a  
modular kernel config into FreeBSD. The work on the modular kernel  
config let me discover those NICs which are not in GENERIC. Apart from  
that only WAN/leased-line/pseudo-NICs and 2 wireless drivers which  
need firmware from ports are not in GENERIC.

Bye,
Alexander.

-- 
Bill Dickey is learning me his experience.
		-- Yogi Berra in his rookie season

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