From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Mar 8 15: 8: 8 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from allegro.lemis.com (allegro.lemis.com [192.109.197.134]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 66FC914F44 for ; Mon, 8 Mar 1999 15:08:03 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from grog@freebie.lemis.com) Received: from freebie.lemis.com (freebie.lemis.com [192.109.197.137]) by allegro.lemis.com (8.9.1/8.9.0) with ESMTP id JAA01491; Tue, 9 Mar 1999 09:37:44 +1030 (CST) Received: (from grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.9.3/8.9.0) id JAA17992; Tue, 9 Mar 1999 09:37:42 +1030 (CST) Message-ID: <19990309093742.K490@lemis.com> Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 09:37:42 +1030 From: Greg Lehey To: Damian Boune , questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: LKM's (Kernel Options) References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.93.2i In-Reply-To: ; from Boune, Damian on Mon, Mar 08, 1999 at 10:29:15AM -0800 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog Organization: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8286 Fax: +61-8-8388-8725 Mobile: +61-41-739-7062 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Monday, 8 March 1999 at 10:29:15 -0800, Boune, Damian wrote: > > What exactly are LKM's? They were Loadable Kernel Modules. They are obsolete as of FreeBSD 3.1, though they are still supported. They have been replaced by klds (Kernel Loadable Modules), which are much the same thing. > The concept I have currently is that they are an extension of the > Kernel that can be loaded as needed. Correct. In many cases they can be unloaded as well. > Hence the option "ATAPI_STATIC" would prevent ATAPI support from > only being loaded when needed? Screen savers are LKM's because it > would be silly to build them into the kernel as they would bloat it > beyond acceptable levels, yet they need some sort of direct kernel > integration? Well, klds in fact use fractionally more memory than statically configured modules, so that's not an argument. What it does mean is that you can take a minimal kernel and add features without building a new kernel or even rebooting. > Is my concept correct? Why are the screensavers included with > FreeBSD LKM's? Probably because the person who wrote them preferred them that way. I certainly do: I strongly recommend that Vinum be uses as a kld. Greg -- When replying to this message, please copy the original recipients. For more information, see http://www.lemis.com/questions.html See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message