From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Sep 2 20:08:12 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E14A316A4DE for ; Sat, 2 Sep 2006 20:08:12 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from opensrc.root@gmail.com) Received: from nz-out-0102.google.com (nz-out-0102.google.com [64.233.162.199]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A1B2B43D4C for ; Sat, 2 Sep 2006 20:08:11 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from opensrc.root@gmail.com) Received: by nz-out-0102.google.com with SMTP id 13so653496nzn for ; Sat, 02 Sep 2006 13:08:11 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type; b=qHYTxPhlLz4Gdp2NvbxKj0cdWxqb/A9LPDcnfpmjGoZWV9HTZW7c7T0sBwitE+nGUpES7mPnXQu5EUd1tPCDDEGHNeq1y4ydL/+1o5PaZIS3GQLOb0j0NzruZAlg/Zr4U95Mww6aGpCixnvKLPU2PRG2YhWfHJruFlko4NfBHhI= Received: by 10.65.151.6 with SMTP id d6mr1668377qbo; Sat, 02 Sep 2006 13:08:10 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.64.84.3 with HTTP; Sat, 2 Sep 2006 13:08:10 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2006 16:08:10 -0400 From: "David Wassman" To: "FreeBSD-Questions Mailing List" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Subject: Device Drivers and Kernel Modules X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2006 20:08:13 -0000 I am trying to figure out which would be best, to load all the device drivers through compiling them into the kernel or to load them at boot through loader.conf. I would think that loader.conf would be more convenient as changing hardware wuld not require a rebuild of the kernel. Is there a draw back to loading devices this way other than a longer boot up time (which should not be an issue as the system is 24-7)? I have also heard that loading modules through the loader.conf saves on RAM performance as the module in question is not loaded into memory until it is used as opposed to being loaded with the kernel. If this makes no sense, i appologize. I remember reading it somewhere on a mailing list several years ago and can't find the reference anymore. From memory it stated modules such as cd9660 could be loaded through entering CD9660_load="YES" in loader.confand that it would not be used in memory until a cd was mounted. I am assuming this is true (if it is) for other modules as well. Is any of these making sense or am I completely off? Thanks, David Wassman