modutils doesn't build kerneld by default

[scot@…]

This isn't exactly a show stopper, but mosutils doesn't build/install kerneld by default, it must be enabled with ./configure --enable-kerneld

Modutils has always behaved this way and its not "necessary" but kerneld is the daemon you want runnig if you want automatic module insertion and removal.

I jsut started messing with modules (for a slower laptop) and I "discovered" this. kerneld isn't even mentioned in the book at all, and if its not something we want to use by default, we should at least mention it as an alternative ./configure option the same way we do for FHS compliance notes.

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If you want to automatically insert and remove modules when they are needed, you need to build modutils thusly:

./configure --enable-kerneld && make && make install

And don't forget to make a startup script that loadproc /sbin/kerneld

and

ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/kerneld /etc/rc.d/rcsysinit/S05kerneld && ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/kerneld /etc/rc.d/rc0.d/K98kerneld && ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/kerneld /etc/rc.d/rc1.d/K98kerneld && ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/kerneld /etc/rc.d/rc6.d/K98kerneld

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I personally think it should be at least built in the default LFS modutils build, and if the user wants to enable it themselves, that's fine...I can't understand why you wouldn't want it started at boot time sometimes. But it should be built.

[gerard@…]

kerneld has a replacement in the kernel itself:

Run menuconfig, go to "Loadable module support" You're looking for the option "Kernel module loader"

Help info from it:

Normally when you have selected some drivers and/or file systems to be created as loadable modules, you also have the responsibility to load the corresponding modules (using the programs insmod or modprobe) before you can use them. If you say Y here however, the kernel will be able to load modules for itself: when a part of the kernel needs a module, it runs modprobe with the appropriate arguments, thereby loading the module if it is available. (This is a replacement for kerneld.) Say Y here and read about configuring it in Documentation/kmod.txt.

So I'm pretty sure we don't need kerneld at all anymore and it's just inside modutils in case you can't use the kernel based auto loader.

[gerard@…]

* Bug 472 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. *

[gerard@…]

Confirmed, kerneld is not longer used. From the INSTALL file:

--disable-kerneld The default is not to compile kerneld, this

utility has not been used since kernel 2.1.91.

kerneld has been replaced with the kernel module loader that's now part of a stock kernel.