are drivers in the kernel?

shanenin · 01-03-2004, 11:36 AM

When I enable support directly in my kernel or in the form of a module, for example my sound card, is this the actual driver, or does this enable the kernel to use the driver. Being the kernel is as small as it is, it can't possibly have all of the drivers built in , can it

trickykid · 01-03-2004, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by shanenin
When I enable support directly in my kernel or in the form of a module, for example my sound card, is this the actual driver, or does this enable the kernel to use the driver. Being the kernel is as small as it is, it can't possibly have all of the drivers built in , can it

That's one reason you can install built-in or compile as a module. If you build the driver in the kernel, yes, its in the kernel per se. But I would hope you don't compile a kernel with support for everything, then that would be a fairly large kernel. Drivers are usually fairly small, so that is why the kernel is anywhere from 800k to 2 megs now.

shanenin · 01-03-2004, 11:49 AM

thanks

Hackeron · 01-03-2004, 04:03 PM

trickykid · 01-03-2004, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Hackeron
yes

Is there more you wanted to share or contribute to make your thread actually constructive?