Understanding hardware support

[Janina Sajka]

Hi, Debee:

You've got it essentially correct. It seems no one has told you how to spot running modules. Try:

lsmod

I am presuming zipspeak provides this command, but I'm not certain.

The only thing I'm not reading in any of the responses you got--and you got some very good ones--is the understanding that one can choose, at the time of configuring the kernel build, whether certain device drivers will be built as stand alone modules which can be inserted into, or removed from the kernel ; or, whether they are to be compiled into the kernel itself. In the latter instance they are "compiled into a monolithic kernel." Not all can be compiled in. Some must be built as modules.

By the way, modules also make the kernel more flexible. You could not compile in mutually incompatible drivers, but you can compile them as modules. You just can't load both at the same time.

Debee Norling writes:
> Saqib,
> 
> Thank you so, so much for taking time to answer these questions.
> 
> Yes, I have been reading Linux Documentation project information, and your
> response clarified much of what I have already read.
> 
> So are you saying that a module is the same thing as a device driver and
> that this driver can become part of the kernel (if it is compiled with the
> kernel)? And are you also saying  the same module also can be external, that
> is, a user can choose to have it running or disabled?
> 
> If I have finally got it right,  then much of what I've been reading
> suddenly makes a whole lot more sense.
> 
> You are correct about my motives;  I don't want a fully working system,
> because I do want to solve problems. My only frustration was in not being
> able to find  information about some very basic details. There is plenty of
> beginner-oriented material about UNIX out there, but it typically shows you
> twenty ways to display the date, and tells you nothing about how to get a
> system working. More advanced docs  tell you about system internals,
> assuming you already know the basics.
> 
> 
> --Debee
> 
> 
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-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina at afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175