GENERIC and DEFAULTS

[Roland Smith]

On Sun, Oct 30, 2005 at 03:22:09PM -0800, Pete Slagle wrote:
> >>I've seen that 'GENERIC' file has been modified, moving some lines to
> >>'DEFAULTS':
> >>
> >>device          isa
> >>
> >>device          mem             # Memory and kernel memory devices    
> >>device          io              # I/O device
> >>
> >>Why?
> >>What does it mean? Should we include 'DEFAULTS' in our customized 
> >>'GENERIC'?
> >>Or those lines are no more mandatory?
> >>
> >
> >No, you don't need to include 'DEFAULTS', config(8) will take care of 
> >that for you.
> >
> >http://docs.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200510271713.j9RHDNTo013082
> >
> >AFAICT, this was done in order to automatically include devices which 
> >are essential in most cases so less experienced users won't accidentally 
> >break their systems and later complain that e.g. X doesn't work anymore.
> 
> The whole mechanism seems like an obvious POLA violation.  All the more 
> so without a note in UPDATING.

Agreed. A heads-up in the beginning of GENERIC would also be nice.
 
> Personally, I prefer less automated "help."  In general, it might be 
> better to encourage those who need a nanny to run Windows, leaving 
> FreeBSD unencumbered for those who don't.  IMHO.

HMO exactly. Spreading the kernel configuration over two different files
that interact in a non-obvious way is a PITA. Do I now have to create
two files to build a custom kernel? Let's keep it simple and stick to
one kernel config file, please.

Roland
-- 
R.F.Smith (http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/) Please send e-mail as plain text.
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