Bugzilla – Bug 548445
[Kernel:HEAD/kernel-desktop] drivers are built-in and not modules
Last modified: 2011-08-31 19:50:51 UTC
Overview: Devices drivers updates are impossibles, because drivers are built in the kernel and not as modules. Actual results: All builtin drivers could NOT be updated by just a driver update compiled for this kernel flavor and installed as my-driver-update.ko in /lib/modules/<kernel>/updates. Expected: All the drivers modules should be compiled as modules and NOT builtin. Others distros and other flavors generally compile these drivers as modules, as this is required to be able to compile and use a driver update without recompiling the whole kernel.
Please read http://en.opensuse.org/Bugs/Definitions#Bug_Priorities
Not my call. Reassign to kernel-maintainers list.
(In reply to comment #0) > Overview: > Devices drivers updates are impossibles, because drivers are built in the > kernel and not as modules. Which drivers exactly? It is built-in to speed up the boot process. > Actual results: > All builtin drivers could NOT be updated by just a driver update compiled for > this kernel flavor and installed as my-driver-update.ko in > /lib/modules/<kernel>/updates. Why would you update single drivers?
I encountered these problem with drivers for touchscreen on my HP laptop (ntrig driver), but it could happen with any other driver. It's NOT a good idea to have drivers built'in just to speed up the boot process because the price to pay is too heavy : unusability of OpenSuse with many hardwares.
(In reply to comment #4) > I encountered these problem What problems exactly? > It's NOT a good idea to > have drivers built'in just to speed up the boot process because the price to > pay is too heavy : unusability of OpenSuse with many hardwares. If you want to have highly modular kernel, don't use kernel-desktop. Kernel-desktop is optimized for desktops and has some modules built-in to speed up booting.
That's THE problem !!! kernel desptop seems to fit well for a laptop, no ? I do not ask for a "highly modular kernel", just for a kernel that works with touchscreens. I assume that's not too exotical as many harwares now include such devices ... If OpenSuse maintaineers fails to have built'in support for touchscreens, at least, you should NOT built such modules in the kernel, for reasons exposed above.
(In reply to comment #6) > If OpenSuse maintaineers fails to have built'in support for touchscreens, at > least, you should NOT built such modules in the kernel, for reasons exposed > above. Once again, could you specify which modules you try to add and which you don't want to be built-in?
Once again : n-trig driver. BUT the fondamental problem is not restricted to one specific module : the real problem is to force some users to recompile a whole kernel just to support some now commons hardwares.
(In reply to comment #8) > BUT the fondamental problem is not restricted to > one specific module : the real problem is to force some users to recompile a > whole kernel just to support some now commons hardwares. No, it's not a problem, updating modules is simply not supported. And if you still want to do it on your own risk, you can use kernel-default. Or you may add a patch to your own OBS home project with kernel-desktop.
Updating modules is supported on other distros, like Ubuntu.
openSUSE 11.1 is no longer supported. If this is still an issue on 11.4, please open a new bug for this.