Keith,
Thanks for your input.... I guess I understand the "legalese" that your
referring to. I'm most questioning that in the Emulex readme there are
references to two makefiles, one for a standalone and the other for the
kernel, both of which are part of the Emulex TARball. They too are vague
(basically nonexistent) on which is the preferred way to build the
driver. I'm more adapt at setting up large storage installations and
tuning accordingly, not at tweaking at the kernel level, so I was hoping
to hear more about the technical implications of building into the
kernel subtree.
I do not want to get into a situation that if/when the system is further
upgraded that I have to worry about continual kernel modifications.
Would I be correct in assuming that <<IF>> I build and install as
loadable modules this will not be an issue?
Thanks again for your input
Matt
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-linux-xfs@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-linux-xfs@xxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Keith Owens
Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2001 8:34 PM
To: Matt Avila
Cc: linux-xfs@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: FW: Suggestions on Emulex Driver build w XFS
On Sat, 8 Dec 2001 18:19:07 -0500,
"Matt Avila" <mavila@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I've been following this discussion group for some time and am
> currently running kernel 2.4.9-13 w/ XFS 1.0.2 on an Intel board/CPU
> combo. I've also installed dual Emulex LP8000's that will be AL_PA
> connected to storage in the interim. Ill be moving these to FC_SW in
> the near future.
>
> My questions are I have a few choices in building the driver (for the
> fibre cards) either as a standalone module or to install it under the
> /usr/src/linux kernel subtree. Any suggestions on "best practices" for
> configuring this with XFS? Anyway, I've got a bit more than 1/2 TB
> that I'm just itching to format & run with.
Speaking for myself, not for SGI.
IMHO building the Emulex drivers into the kernel violates the GPL.
lpfc-i386.tar contains a binary only object (lpfcdriver) which is copied
to lpfcdriver.o then linked into the kernel. I discussed this with
Linus when Emulex first asked for help on linking their drivers into the
kernel, his response was unambiguous, binary only objects linked into
the kernel violate the GPL.
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