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Date: Sun, 24 Dec 1995 00:39:34 +1100
From: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Message-Id: <199512231339.AAA24716@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
To: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, j@uriah.heep.sax.de
Subject: Re: device npx0 (was Re: your mail)
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>> > Well, for one thing, the npx0 device is not optional, you _must_ put it 
>> > back in.  You don't have a choice on that.
>> 
>> Maybe programs like config should check for non-optional devices
>> and warn the user if any are missing.

The warning at link time is almost as good.  All devices except possibly
one of isa/eisa/pci are more or less optional, but there are many
combinations that may fail mysteriously, e.g., if you remove sc and
pcvt then the boot will appear to hang unless you have the console
(sio0) attached.

>Did anybody ever attempt to declare npx as `standard' instead of
>`optional' in sys/i386/conf/files.i386?

This might work on 486's and above, but would fail if the npx device
is really necessary - the device wouldn't have an irq or an interrupt.

Bruce