Re: Suggestion for handling of boot-time driver options

Stephen Williams (steve@icarus.icarus.com)
Sun, 14 Dec 1997 13:59:58 -0800


> 3. This allows the use of binary-only drivers with monolithic kernels.
> (are there such beasts?)

I would be *delighted* to be able to deliver binary modules, linked or not.
I deliver boards to customers, including Linux device drivers, but the
customer may not necessarily be up to (or interested in) compiling the
driver for himself. It would be so cool if I can make a binary RPM that
includes driver and other support tools, and expect the user to actually
be able to install and use it.

The trouble is, symbol versioning (as of 2.0 at least) makes such a thing
pretty close to impossible. I need a way to express that any 2.0 kernel
is fine. It usually is, frankly.

Note that this is independent of whether I provide source for the driver.

-- 
Steve Williams
steve@icarus.com
steve@picturel.com

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And lines to code before I sleep, And lines to code before I sleep."