[Cbe-oss-dev] [PATCH] Make PS3_SYS_MANAGER default y, not m

[Geoff Levand]

Hi Michael,

On 12/09/2007 08:17 PM, Michael Ellerman wrote:
> Currently it's impossible to build a ps3_defconfig which will reboot
> without modules installed. This makes it all too easy to find yourself
> with a PS3 that won't reboot.
> 
> This is because the system manager driver, which provides the reboot
> mechanism, is only selectable if PS3_ADVANCED is set, else it defaults
> to m. In ps3_defconfig PS3_ADVANCED is not set, therefore the system
> manager is built as a module.
> 
> It would be desirable IMHO for the defconfig to produce a kernel that
> boots and reboots, without needing modules to be installed.

Sorry, I will say NACK at this point in time.

I think it is just user error not to install the modules along with
the new kernel.  If the user's environment is such that this doesn't
happen with INSTALL_MOD_PATH and make modules_install, then a user
script should be made that does whatever extra is needed to get them
installed.

I'm thinking to make as much of the ps3 kernel as possible built as
modules by default.  My reasoning is two fold.  The first is that
many bugs seem to stem from modular drivers, and having them built
in the def config exposes them early.  The other is that now we have
sparsemem vmmemmap the 128 MiB of boot mem is getting too fragmented
(see http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/12/3/137) and reducing the kernel
image size will ease this.

-Geoff