Reducing the need to compile a custom kernel

[Alexander Leidinger]

Quoting perryh at pluto.rain.com (from Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:17:46 -0800):

> Alexander Leidinger <Alexander at Leidinger.net> wrote:
>> On Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:05:02 -0800 perryh at pluto.rain.com wrote:
>> > Alexander Leidinger <Alexander at Leidinger.net> wrote:
>> > > On Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:40:41 +0100 Thierry Thomas
>> > > <thierry at FreeBSD.org> wrote:
>> > > > is there another place to put options to atkbd and sc, like
>> > > > these ones:
>> > > >
>> > > > options 	ATKBD_DFLT_KEYMAP	# specify the built-in
>> > > > keymap makeoptions	ATKBD_DFLT_KEYMAP=fr.iso.acc
>> > > > ...
>> > >
>> > > No, there is no other way to add the keymap to the kernel
>> > > directly (if you want to have it working correctly in
>> > > single-user mode) instead of loading it with rc.conf.
>> >
>> > Might it be feasible to make it into a sysctl, so it could be
>> > set in loader.conf?
>>
>> There is already a way to configure this as soon as you have a
>> working userland. What this setting is doing is to replace the
>> compiled-in default keymap with a different one, so that you have
>> the one which matches your keyboard even when you enter the very
>> first keystrokes in single-user mode (root-pw, path to shell, ...).
>
> My point is, if it were made into a sysctl, it could presumably
> be set in loader.conf -- thereby providing the correct keymap for
> those "very first keystrokes" without needing a custom kernel.
>
> I know that's not how it works _now_, but is there some reason why
> this approach is not feasible?  It seems like something that could
> potentially go on the the list of projects to reduce the need for
> custom kernels.

Feasible: depend upon your definition of "feasible". You would have to  
add all keymaps statically into the kernel. No idea which parts  
exactly we talk about, but:
---snip---
% du -h /usr/share/syscons/
  40k    /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps
570k    /usr/share/syscons/fonts
1.1M    /usr/share/syscons/keymaps
1.8M    /usr/share/syscons/
---snip---

I wouldn't mind for 40k, but 1.8M looks more like the value to  
calculate with. Anyway, this is out of the scope of the original  
question.

Bye,
Alexander.

-- 
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boxes will never decrease.

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