[ale] Weird stuff with PC

[Todd B SanMillan]

On Fri, 7 Jun 1996, Randy Dunlap wrote:

> I think that one of the things that Linux could do to be more than a
> free Unix would be better system resource allocation and management,
> such as in the area of I/O space and IRQ assignments.  It seems very
> antiquated to me that you must build a kernel with these assignments
> statically built into it and if you change your Ethernet card's
> I/O or IRQ, then you must rebuild the kernel.
> 
> Or am I off base here?  Has Linux already gone a step (or several
> steps) beyond Unix on this?

Yes, and yes.  That step is called modules. You compile your kernel with 
the option to use modules and then you compile modules for what you need, 
eg. filesystems, sound cards, NICs, etc. Those modules can then be 
dynamically loaded and unloaded as needed. They first appeared in the 
1.2.xx kernels, so they are getting pretty robust.

Todd SanMillan


> 
> Regards,
> Randy