mdev

[Denys Vlasenko]

Hi Vladimir,

Please keep busybox at busybox.net CCed.

On Wednesday 15 April 2009 18:13, Vladimir Dronnikov wrote:
> Some devices though have no /dev node, require loaded modules to be
> working. The key example is serial ports, which need 8250*.ko be
> loaded. Info about that modules come via $MODALIAS in the hotplug
> events. mdev now doesn't respect $MODALIAS. To be a good hotplug
> helper it should do, IMHO.
> My question is:
> 1) whether it is acceptable to add to mdev hotplug portion:
> if (action == "add" && getenv("MODALIAS")) spawn_and_wait("modprobe -q
> $MODALIAS");

Why not. Maybe as another syntax for 1st field,

ABC=regex

to match any env variable we want. Something like this syntax:

[-]MODALIAS=.* 0:0 0660 @modprobe -q $MODALIAS

> 2) whether it is acceptable to add to mdev coldplug portion:
> find /sys/devices -name modalias | while read I; do modprobe -q `cat $I`; done

Maybe it can be added to docs/mdev.txt as a recommendation
how to load such devices?

Also, take a look at mdev's usage text - does it explain
this to the user? If you would start afresh and try to adapt
your system to use mdev, without knowing all mdev's
secrets from reading its source - does this text help you?

Rob's concerns are valid, we need to be careful about bloating mdev.

Are there problems with executing "mdev -s" and then
running above script?

I rely on you as a tester :)
--
vda