Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 28 Dec 1998 22:52:07 -0800
From:      David Greenman <dg@root.com>
To:        Warner Losh <imp@village.org>
Cc:        freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: kld and on demand device loading 
Message-ID:  <199812290652.WAA20403@implode.root.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 28 Dec 1998 22:54:02 MST." <199812290554.WAA23027@harmony.village.org> 

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> Once upon a time, I recall that the linux kernel had a way to
> dynamically load drivers and unload them on an as needed basis.  Need
> to make a slip connection, the slip driver would load.  Once it was
> done it would unload.
>
> In the long term, I'd love to see something like that.  I believe that
> it dovetails well with the new-bus project nicely.  In the near term,
> an area that it fits fairly well is the pcmica stuff.  When a card is
> inserted, the module is loaded, and when removed it is released.  I
> was thinking of hacking pccardd to do this, but then got to thinking
> better of it and thought I'd ask for people's input before jumping
> into that.

   The automatic on-demand driver loading has always been our goal with
loadable modules. Unloading is more tricky and may be undesirable in
certain circumstances. Memory is also cheap enough that unloading isn't
a very high priority. ...not that I'd be anything less than enthusiastic
to see it implemented, though.

-DG

David Greenman
Co-founder/Principal Architect, The FreeBSD Project

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199812290652.WAA20403>