From owner-freebsd-chat Fri Mar 7 12:25:48 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3F3F737B401 for ; Fri, 7 Mar 2003 12:25:47 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail.speakeasy.net (mail14.speakeasy.net [216.254.0.214]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 424EB43F85 for ; Fri, 7 Mar 2003 12:25:46 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jhb@FreeBSD.org) Received: (qmail 11855 invoked from network); 7 Mar 2003 20:25:52 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO server.baldwin.cx) ([216.27.160.63]) (envelope-sender ) by mail14.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with DES-CBC3-SHA encrypted SMTP for ; 7 Mar 2003 20:25:52 -0000 Received: from laptop.baldwin.cx (gw1.twc.weather.com [216.133.140.1]) by server.baldwin.cx (8.12.6/8.12.6) with ESMTP id h27KMfhT055533; Fri, 7 Mar 2003 15:22:41 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from jhb@FreeBSD.org) Message-ID: X-Mailer: XFMail 1.5.2 on FreeBSD X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <3E68F79D.817B46E6@mindspring.com> Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2003 15:25:59 -0500 (EST) From: John Baldwin To: Terry Lambert Subject: Re: A question about kernel modules Cc: Damien Tougas , freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On 07-Mar-2003 Terry Lambert wrote: > John Baldwin wrote: >> > The GENERIC kernel is loaded from a CDROM controller BIOS faked-up >> > floppy drive, which is how CDROMs are able to boot. Even if all >> > other issues were resolved, this floppy image would be unable to >> > contain all the necessary modules. For the modules to be read off >> > the CDROM or other boot media, all the code in the module loading >> > path would have to be statically present (ISO9660 FS, ATA and SCSI >> > drivers, CDROM driver, etc., etc.). By including all the drivers >> > in the GENERIC kernel, it makes it much more likely that you will >> > b able to actually install FreeBSD in the first place. >> >> FreeBSD hasn't used the floppy-emulation mode of CD booting since >> 4.6. See /usr/src/sys/boot/i386/cdboot/cdboot.s and an El Torito >> standard for more details. > > Oops; I was looking at a 4.5 box, which is what I mostly use to > do scratch work. > > The main point was that we get to load only one file, and have no > CDROM access after that, except through drivers which must be > present in the kernel. I think that's still valid to say. Nope. cdboot loads up a /boot/loader and you are free to load whatever modules you want off the CD just as if you were booting from a hard drive. That said, I personally favor static kernels and only use modules when I'm testing things. -- John Baldwin <>< http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ "Power Users Use the Power to Serve!" - http://www.FreeBSD.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message