[WISH] Linux kernel as drop-in replacement in FreeBSD?

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On 2006-02-08 10:29, Dieter <freebsd at sopwith.solgatos.com> wrote:
>>>> since Linux' support for some hardware is better than FreeBSD's, it
>>>> would be nice to have an *optional* way of running a FreeBSD system
>>>> (userland, including all third party programs) on top of the Linux
>>>> kernel.
>>>
>>> I'd prefer to have a way to use a Linux device driver with a BSD
>>> kernel.
>>
>> Of course, but if I understand drivers correctly, that would be
>> nearly impossible... unless the interface between linux device
>> drivers and the rest of the linux kernel consisted of a well defined
>> API (perhaps it does, I don't know). Basically, a driver can access
>> ANY data structure of the kernel, and that's why it's not trivial to
>> combine a Linux driver with the FreeBSD kernel.
>
> If the driver is loaded with "modprobe", wouldn't that have a well
> defined API?

Only as far as loading & unloading is concerned.  Once a driver gets
loaded, even before module_load() finishes some times, the driver has
full access to the guts of the kernel and can wreak havoc all over the
place without any serious problem :)

- Giorgos