[gentoo-dev] Kernel-Modules

[gentoo-dev] Kernel-Modules

[Achim Gottinger]

Hi again,

Currently the script /etc/rc.d/config/modules automatically generates
modules.conf
on startup as /etc/modules/{kernelversion} if that file does not exist.
If /etc/modules/{kernelversion} is newer than /etc/modules.conf it
copies /etc/modules/{kernelversion} to
/etc/modules.conf and only in this case it runs depmod -a.
I'm not sure why but it sometimes fails. Another bad thing about that is
that it overwrites /etc/modules.conf

I give you a short information how we want to handle module
configuration in the future.

On each boot /etc/modules/{kernelversion} get generated.
Then the script scans /etc/modules for files that match modules.*.
Then it generates /etc/modules.conf from {kernelversion} and adds the
/etc/modules/modules.* files to modules.conf
depmod -a runs every time.
The modules.* files in /etc/moules can include preprocessor commands
like

#IfModule ppp.o
<definitions here>
#EndIfModule

So you can configure your modules dependend on the existance of a
module.
Something similar is planned for /etc/modules.devfs

You should use /etc/modules/modules.conf for your private declarations.

With this method we can add modules configurations from other packages.
For example pppd requires some special aliases that could be added
automatic this way.

Additionally I will add a script that regenerates /etc/modules.conf in
the way described above and runs depmod -a
after that.
This script can be used from the commandline or from within packages
pkg_postinst functions.

This way of handling should make it in rc4.

Sould we make this method triggerable by a line in
/etc/rc.d/config/basic ?

MODULES_CONF="yes" <-> MODULES_CONF="no"

Comments please

achim~

Re: [gentoo-dev] Kernel-Modules

[drobbins]

On Wed, Feb 07, 2001 at 05:17:42AM +0100, Achim Gottinger wrote:

> I give you a short information how we want to handle module
> configuration in the future.

The entire concept sounds very good, since it'll allow things to be
more automatic, but at the same time, this plan doesn't alienate
knowledgable users from their modules.conf.

> The modules.* files in /etc/moules can include preprocessor commands
> like
> 
> #IfModule ppp.o
> <definitions here>
> #EndIfModule

Couldn't the filename simply be "mod.ppp", and then the contents would be the
literal definitions to be added to modules.conf?  Then we don't need a parser.
Or do you want to be able to add more advanced functionality, such as nested
conditional statements?  If so, we may want to look into using "cpp" instead
of writing our own macro processor.

> So you can configure your modules dependend on the existance of a module.
> Something similar is planned for /etc/modules.devfs

Explain how you'd like to handle devfs?

> Additionally I will add a script that regenerates /etc/modules.conf in the
> way described above and runs depmod -a after that.  This script can be used
> from the commandline or from within packages pkg_postinst functions.

We could create a script called "mod-update" (companion to env-update and
rc-update).  Eventually, maybe we'll have an administration frontend called
gentoo-update :)

> This way of handling should make it in rc4.
> 
> Sould we make this method triggerable by a line in
> /etc/rc.d/config/basic ?
> 
> MODULES_CONF="yes" <-> MODULES_CONF="no"

We should call the option MOD_UPDATE (yes/no), or create an option called
UPDATE which contains a list of "auto"-features to update, for example:
UPDATE="mod env devfs"

Once the new modules system is working, I think it should be enabled by 
default.

Best Regards,

-- 
Daniel Robbins					<drobbins@gentoo.org>
President/CEO					http://www.gentoo.org 
Gentoo Technologies, Inc.