> > Hi All
> >
> > Im running a Quad Xeon with 1Gig of ram with Kernel 2.2.10 since 2 weeks with no
> > Problem
> > but yesterday i got the following oops:
> >
> > It happens when my backup starts and the module for the symbios scsi-controler
> > det loaded.
>
> That hole is plugged in 2.2.10-ac1+ and hopefully will
> get into 2.2.11 . The solution isn't great:
> fail the 'insmod sym53c6xx' but it is better that
> an oops.
>
> You will be pleased to hear that your system ran out
> of memory under the 16MB level even though your
> sym53c8xx could have used any available RAM for
> DMA purposes.
Hmmm... If you are severe each time you discover that something that
worked fine years ago does not work at the moment, you may end-up thinking
that all ancient programs had been write by stupid guys and obviously this
is absolutely _untrue_. The problem of the current SCSI code is that it
hasn't been maintained as it should have been, and it is a good thing that
people like you decided to maintain this code.
> If you really don't want to see this again then
> build that driver into your kernel. [It is also
> less likely to happen if you send that 1 GB of
> memory to me and replace it with 16 MBs :-)]
Using modules when it is not needed, is the wrong thing to do, in my
opinion, especially for drivers that deal with the hardware and when you
have enough memory for the statically linked drivers not to make
significant difference.
This may be usefull if you need to replace such a driver by another
version or another driver while the system is running, but I doubt
such a facility is often really needed.
This seem also usefull for commercial distributions and for users that
donnot want to look under the hood.
If you look into the module unload path and really think of what may
happen if you ever are unlucky, then you also will not want to use modules
for drivers that deal with the hardware when it is not absolutely needed.
A 'make' of the kernel is just a few minutes with modern CPU and not
taking advantage of a tailored kernel is way stupid in my opinion.
Thus, the first thing user should want to do once a distribution has been
installed is to go to /usr/src/linux and to build the custom kernel that
fits his needs and trends.
No need to say that I donnot use modules at all for drivers that deal with
the hardware and that I am not going to ever do so, on any system it has
been my own decision to use.
BTW, module support had been added in the early time of the ncr53c8xx
driver for testing purpose. Module unloading is maintained, and is
supported provided that you cross fingers of both your hands and feet
while the module unload is processing :-).
Gérard.
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/