Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1764089AbXJTMxT (ORCPT ); Sat, 20 Oct 2007 08:53:19 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751692AbXJTMxI (ORCPT ); Sat, 20 Oct 2007 08:53:08 -0400 Received: from 133.90.227.87.static.ehn.siw.siwnet.net ([87.227.90.133]:59730 "EHLO 133.90.227.87.static.ehn.siw.siwnet.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751431AbXJTMxH (ORCPT ); Sat, 20 Oct 2007 08:53:07 -0400 X-Greylist: delayed 623 seconds by postgrey-1.27 at vger.kernel.org; Sat, 20 Oct 2007 08:53:06 EDT Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:42:38 +0200 From: Henrik Carlqvist To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: tristate and bool not enogh for Kconfig anymore Message-Id: <20071020144238.4f258c8c.hc1@poolhem.se> In-Reply-To: <200710201257.55616.nick@ukfsn.org> References: <200710201257.55616.nick@ukfsn.org> X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 0.9.2 (GTK+ 1.2.10; i686-pc-linux-gnu) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1662 Lines: 32 I think there is a need for Kconfig to specify that a functionality could be built as a module or not built at all. Some drivers require that firmware is loaded when the driver is initialized. The kernel has functionalities for this by using a userspace program. However, this userspace program is only usable from modules and not during boot while any initrd or any other file system has not yet been mounted and yet less any processes started. For example, Slackware 12 has a huge kernel with a lot of drivers for different file systems and scsi cards built in. This kernel is supposed to be a non optimized kernel that works on almost any machine even without an initrd. In that kernel CONFIG_SCSI_QLA_FC is set to y but still it is not possible to boot from any of those cards as the driver requires a firmware file. Even together with an initrd image containing the firmware file it is still not possible to use the driver as the driver require the firmware file before any processes has been started from the initrd image. For such drivers requiring firmware files, or if there is any other reason that the driver doesn't work when built into the kernel it would be useful with another choice than bool or tristate. Best regards Henrik -- NOTE: Dear Outlook users: Please remove me from your address books. Read this article and you know why: http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/08/21/143258 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/