Behaviour of arch_initcall macro
 

Hi,
I always thought that the arch_initcall and the other *initcall stuff registered functions called at a startup of the kernel.

I have compiled my own kernel which contains certain driver (not compiled as a module). Source code of this driver (arch/powerpc/sysdev/ppc4xx_gpio.c) provides an initialization function (registered with arch_initcall) that must be called in order to work with the GPIO hardware. My problem is that this function isn't called at the start of the system. When I compile this driver as a module (*.ko file) and insert it to the kernel with insmod, everything is ok, the function is called properly and the hw gets initialized.

So, my question is - are there any situations (e.g. kernel configuration), when the macro arch_initcall is ignored?

Kernel: 2.6.30 from Denx distribution for powerpc. But I think this is not so important, because of character of my question.

I have the exact same problem and does not know how to resolve it. Did you by any chance know the root cause for the problem and resolve it? Please let me know if you.

Thanks.

-Hin