localmodconfig

Posted Aug 22, 2009 4:09 UTC (Sat) by dirtyepic (guest, #30178)
Parent article: In brief

i'm guessing this wouldn't catch modules that are dynamically loaded when needed, like, off the top of my head, microcode?

localmodconfig

Posted Aug 23, 2009 17:07 UTC (Sun) by nevets (subscriber, #11875) [Link] (6 responses)

It catches all modules that have been loaded. Anything listed in 'lsmod'.

localmodconfig

Posted Aug 23, 2009 21:57 UTC (Sun) by dirtyepic (guest, #30178) [Link] (5 responses)

and microcode built as a module is loaded once during boot to update the microcode, and then immediately unloaded, so the answer would be "no". I'm guessing things like cpufreq modules that aren't currently in use would also be missed.

localmodconfig

Posted Aug 23, 2009 22:17 UTC (Sun) by mjg59 (subscriber, #23239) [Link] (4 responses)

We don't generally automatically unload unused modules these days, especially since there's no good way to tell the difference between an unused module and one that's in use but has a reference count of zero. Anything that's loaded at boot is probably still loaded.

localmodconfig

Posted Aug 24, 2009 2:19 UTC (Mon) by ABCD (subscriber, #53650) [Link] (3 responses)

> Anything that's loaded at boot is probably still loaded.

That usually isn't true in the special case of the microcode module, as the various distribution's init scripts generally load the module, update the microcode, then immediately explicitly unload the module.

localmodconfig

Posted Aug 24, 2009 14:21 UTC (Mon) by nevets (subscriber, #11875) [Link] (2 responses)

If there's a way to know about these, then certainly let me know. Email me at rostedt@goodmis.org. The localmodconfig is a start. But if we are missing necessary modules to boot the kernel, then we need to find a way to fix that.

localmodconfig

Posted Aug 25, 2009 1:35 UTC (Tue) by dirtyepic (guest, #30178) [Link]

that's the only one i can think of. i was mistaken about the cpufreq stuff of course. :) nice job, btw, this is something that was sorely needed.

localmodconfig

Posted Sep 22, 2009 19:49 UTC (Tue) by BobRobertson (guest, #2048) [Link]

I found out about this after posting a "wish list" to lxer.com which
included building a kernel .config that had only the actually used modules
compiled in, and everything else as loadable modules.

I'll add my own Thank You to the list.