From: Benno <benjl@cse.unsw.edu.au>
To: Gene Heskett <gene.heskett@verizon.net>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 10:33:40 +1100
Subject: Re: is killing zombies possible w/o a reboot?
Message-ID: <20041104233338.GA31392@cse.unsw.edu.au>
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On Thu Nov 04, 2004 at 11:07:49 +0100, Matthias Andree wrote:
>On Wed, 03 Nov 2004, Gene Heskett wrote:
>
>> >Yes it does - the problem is that not all resources are managed
>> >by processes.  Some allocations are managed by drivers, so a driver
>> >bug can get the device into a unuseable state _and_ tie up the
>> >process(es) that were using the driver at the moment.
>> 
>> This from my viewpoint, is wrong.  The kernel, and only the kernel 
>> should be ultimately responsible for handing out resources, and 
>> reclaiming at its convienience.
>
>Linux's driver model is the way it is. If you want the kernel to clean
>up after a driver has puked, you need something like a microkernel I
>believe, where only a minimal core kernel is a real kernel and where all
>the drivers are actually in user-space, but that's no longer Linux then.

Of course some drivers are already in user-space on Linux. (E.g: X
graphics cards). Work by the Gelato project has added support to the
Linux kernel to allow more complicated drivers (e.g: those requiring
interrupts) to be run outside the kernel on Linux.

http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/cvs/kernel/usrdrivers/

Cheers,

Benno
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