Am Samstag, 27. Dezember 2008 15:11:34 schrieb Harry Putnam: > Summary of request for help: > > Are there hardcore kernel builders in the house who can steer me to > a faster way of figuring out what the installed modules do... for > sure.
What could help you here is a "make xconfig". It's similar to "make
menuconfig" but has a nice QT user interface. I would recommend to browse
through it once and look at the help texts which are shown in the lower right
pane for each option you klick. Based on this information, you can then decide
wether or not to enable that option or even compile it as module.
> Details:
> I'm at a point where any pared down kernel config I've built and tried
> has some terrible thing wrong with it. Usually involving udev and
> openrc someway or other... things not getting started or mounted etc
> etc.
With udev, those things usually work automatically. However, you must make
sure that everything needed for accessing the root filesystem must be compiled
into the kernel. That usually includes the driver for the chipset that
operates your harddisks, harddisk support and the filesystem used for /.
> I'd think there would be some kind of cross reference somewhere that
> would connect module names to what they do, and what .config options
> are associated.
I don't know of any. But in most cases, the module name is listed in the help
text.
> Another path is to find the *.ko names in /lib/modules and use the
> absolute name to track them down in the kernel sources where there is
> usually a README of some sort in the tree leading to the *.ko.
Somtimes, you can also simply guess by module name, for example: joydev.ko ->
Joy(stick)Dev(ice).
> But my god what a slow and painful way to find out what these modules
> do.
Yes, that's true. The browsing method may give you a rough overview within an
hour or two.
> Just rmmod is another way but again a very slow and painful way.
> Maybe a module is used only occasionally and rmmodding may not show
> what it was for right away. What ever fails may not happen
> immediately.
Or try modprobe + dmesg instead. Usually a driver module tells wether it has
found some pice of supported hardware or not.
HTH...
Dirk
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