Maxim Sobolev writes:
> Mike Meyer wrote:
>
> > Donn Miller writes:
> > > Mike Meyer wrote:
> > > > I do read cvs-all, and I missed it. Not did I find device.hints in the
> > > > relevant Makefiles. Can you provide a pointer to details on how
> > > > /boot/device.hints is used in the build process, or how having an
> > > > empty one keeps you from shooting yourself in the foot?
> > > Actually, device.hints isn't used in the build process.
> > In that case, why does the kernel build process fail if it doesn't
> > exist?
> Probably because you have `hints "BLABLA.hints"' line in your kernel config
> file.
That doesn't really answer the question. Yup, I use
GENERIC.hints. That exists. I can see why that not existing would
cause problems, but not /boot/device.hints? *Especially* when I'm
building a kernel for a different machine?
> > > KERNEL.hints file is hard-coded into the kernel when your kernel is
> > > built (assuming you use one). /boot/device.hints is used to override
> > > the "hardcoded" values of hints, KERNEL.hints, at boot time. Sometimes,
> > > people can make a mistake in KERNEL.hints, and it's necessary to
> > > override those hints with /boot/device.hints. So, device.hints is
> > > created after-the-fact, and not part of the kernel build. Of course, if
> > > you don't have any hints to override, then just install an empty
> > > device.hints file.
> > Will the system fail to boot if there isn't an empty device.hints
> > file?
> No, it will boot, but some devices (like keyboard, console etc) would not work.
That's clearly not true - I just removed an empty /boot/device.hints
and rebooted, and all those things work fine. I can believe that such
things won't work if they aren't specified in some hints file, but an
empty /boot/device.hints doesn't do anything more to specify them than
one that isn't there.
<mike
To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
