Baslinux mailing list

[qwms-avib AT dea.spamcon.org]

keesan2 AT cyberspace.org wrote:
> 
> How large is modprobe?  

It's not just modprobe.  You need /etc/conf.modules.
You need depmod (to compute the dependencies).  And
you need modules.dep (the dependency database).

> Seems like it would have saved some time here.

It only saves time the first time you run a new module.
After that it wastes time and space.

> Or does BL2 already have a way to determine dependencies 
> of modules?

All module dependencies are listed on the Slackware 7.1
CDrom or mirror (in /modules/2.2.16/modules.dep).  If 
you insmod a new module and get unresolved-symbol errors, 
find that module in modules.dep and it will probably have
dependencies listed after it.  Just insmod those modules
first.

> The BL2 kernel is about 512K and the bare.i kernel 
> (needed in order to install sound modules) about 894K. 

The lowmem.i kernel (479kb) can also do sound -- but 
it does not do networking.  

> Do I understand correctly that the BL2 kernel was compiled
> to support adding network modules but not to contain the 
> actual network drivers? 

There are many different network cards.  Putting drivers
for all those cards in the kernel would waste space.  By
using a module, the user can install the exact driver 
needed by his card (and none of the others).

> And that lowram.i will not work for BL2 users who want to 
> go online because it does not support adding the ppp module?

Because it does not support TCP/IP networking.
 
Cheers,
Steven