colinux-devel

[coLinux-devel] Modules?

[Jaroslaw K. <ja...@zd...>]

Hi guys!

Recently a patch has been introduced that makes additional kernel features
available as modules.

This is good because we have new functionality available in coLinux, some
very useful (a firewall), but at the same time it introduced a dependency
between the root images and the running kernel.

You're no longer able to use just any root image - you have to use the one
that has the appropriate modules. I was wondering what can be done to
improve this.

Here are some ideas:

1. Compile everything statically.

2. Provide a way to automatically install "vmlinux-modules.tar.gz" under
"/lib/modules/kernel-version". This would require some smart script on the
linux side, but I think it's doable. The only problem I see is passing the
vmlinux-modules.tar.gz down to the linux guest. I think we'd need something
like /dev/cocd (character device as opposed to /dev/cobd).

3. Provide a mini-partition that would contain the modules instead of the
tar.gz. This can could be mounted in fstab under "/lib/modules".

Out of the above ideas, I find "1" to be the easiest to implement and most
trouble-free. What do you think? Is there anything that MUST be installed as
a module and cannot be compiled-in?

What do you think?

Jarek

RE: [coLinux-devel] Modules?

[peter g. <plu...@p1...>]

atm i see colinux as a work in progress :) ie not really for newbies

provided smbfs (or better hostfs when/if it appears) are compiled in it is
not too hard for a techie to install the modules file.

btw the format of the modules tarballs i have seen was horrible there is
nowhere in the filesystem where you can simply extract it and have it work
you always have to extract and move



-----Original Message-----
From: col...@li...
[mailto:col...@li...]On Behalf Of Jaroslaw
Kowalski
Sent: 17 April 2004 21:58
To: col...@li...
Subject: [coLinux-devel] Modules?


Hi guys!

Recently a patch has been introduced that makes additional kernel features
available as modules.

This is good because we have new functionality available in coLinux, some
very useful (a firewall), but at the same time it introduced a dependency
between the root images and the running kernel.

You're no longer able to use just any root image - you have to use the one
that has the appropriate modules. I was wondering what can be done to
improve this.

Here are some ideas:

1. Compile everything statically.

2. Provide a way to automatically install "vmlinux-modules.tar.gz" under
"/lib/modules/kernel-version". This would require some smart script on the
linux side, but I think it's doable. The only problem I see is passing the
vmlinux-modules.tar.gz down to the linux guest. I think we'd need something
like /dev/cocd (character device as opposed to /dev/cobd).

3. Provide a mini-partition that would contain the modules instead of the
tar.gz. This can could be mounted in fstab under "/lib/modules".

Out of the above ideas, I find "1" to be the easiest to implement and most
trouble-free. What do you think? Is there anything that MUST be installed as
a module and cannot be compiled-in?

What do you think?

Jarek



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Re: [coLinux-devel] Modules?

[Dan A. <da...@co...>]

On Sat, Apr 17, 2004 at 10:17:32PM +0100, peter green wrote:

> btw the format of the modules tarballs i have seen was horrible there is
> nowhere in the filesystem where you can simply extract it and have it work
> you always have to extract and move

Well, you know who to complain to about that :)

-- 
Dan Aloni
da...@co...

Re: [coLinux-devel] Modules?

[Dan A. <da...@co...>]

On Sun, Apr 18, 2004 at 12:26:45AM +0300, Dan Aloni wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 17, 2004 at 10:17:32PM +0100, peter green wrote:
> 
> > btw the format of the modules tarballs i have seen was horrible there is
> > nowhere in the filesystem where you can simply extract it and have it work
> > you always have to extract and move
> 
> Well, you know who to complain to about that :)

I'll also turn all the file in the tarball to root-owned.

-- 
Dan Aloni
da...@co...

Re: [coLinux-devel] Modules?

[Robert C. <rw...@al...>]

On Saturday, April 17, 2004, at 04:17  PM, peter green wrote:
> atm i see colinux as a work in progress :) ie not really for newbies

Yup.  Working on it.  Run coLinux in just three steps: download, 
extract, install.  See method 1:

   http://cwelug.org/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi?CoLinux

Regards,
- Robert

Re: [coLinux-devel] Modules?

[Max <ma...@al...>]

Jaroslaw Kowalski wrote:

>Hi guys!
>
>Here are some ideas:
>
>1. Compile everything statically.
>
>2. Provide a way to automatically install "vmlinux-modules.tar.gz" under
>"/lib/modules/kernel-version". This would require some smart script on the
>linux side, but I think it's doable. The only problem I see is passing the
>vmlinux-modules.tar.gz down to the linux guest. I think we'd need something
>like /dev/cocd (character device as opposed to /dev/cobd).
>
>3. Provide a mini-partition that would contain the modules instead of the
>tar.gz. This can could be mounted in fstab under "/lib/modules".
>
>What do you think?
>  
>
I like solutions 1 and 3.

However, I think long term, it might be better to boot the kernel out of 
the image, using some grub-like magic to read the file system.  I 
realize this would be a pain right now since the kernel changes daily.   
However, this would also allow us to patch and compile the kernel within 
linux and just leave it there.  Eg, more like grub than loadlin.  Or we 
can give up on modules.  Since the hardware in the guest is pretty much 
always the same, there's no need for modules.

>Jarek
>  
>
Max

Re: [coLinux-devel] Modules?

[Leo A. <le...@ya...>]

For method 2 you might not need a char device.  With
tar you can tar to and from a block device directly.  
I used to this all the time with floppies (that way
you don't have to have the proper module for the
filesystem of the floppy).  I don't have the time to
try it right now, but you might just have to point a
"/dev/cobd" to the "vmlinux-modules.tar.gz" file in
the default.colinux.xml file and just use tar in
linux.  Something like this:

# tar -xzvf /dev/cobd#


--- Jaroslaw Kowalski <ja...@zd...> wrote:
> Hi guys!
> 
> Recently a patch has been introduced that makes
> additional kernel features
> available as modules.
> 
> This is good because we have new functionality
> available in coLinux, some
> very useful (a firewall), but at the same time it
> introduced a dependency
> between the root images and the running kernel.
> 
> You're no longer able to use just any root image -
> you have to use the one
> that has the appropriate modules. I was wondering
> what can be done to
> improve this.
> 
> Here are some ideas:
> 
> 1. Compile everything statically.
> 
> 2. Provide a way to automatically install
> "vmlinux-modules.tar.gz" under
> "/lib/modules/kernel-version". This would require
> some smart script on the
> linux side, but I think it's doable. The only
> problem I see is passing the
> vmlinux-modules.tar.gz down to the linux guest. I
> think we'd need something
> like /dev/cocd (character device as opposed to
> /dev/cobd).
> 
> 3. Provide a mini-partition that would contain the
> modules instead of the
> tar.gz. This can could be mounted in fstab under
> "/lib/modules".
> 
> Out of the above ideas, I find "1" to be the easiest
> to implement and most
> trouble-free. What do you think? Is there anything
> that MUST be installed as
> a module and cannot be compiled-in?
> 
> What do you think?
> 
> Jarek
> 
> 
> 
>
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> This SF.Net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux
> Tutorials
> Free Linux tutorial presented by Daniel Robbins,
> President and CEO of
> GenToo technologies. Learn everything from
> fundamentals to system
>
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> _______________________________________________
> coLinux-devel mailing list
> coL...@li...
>
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-- 
Leo Amendola