Re: [PATCH 1/4] kernel/module: Add AUTOLOAD option

[Alexander Smirnov <asmirnov@ilbers.de>]

On 03/07/2018 10:39 AM, Jan Kiszka wrote:
> On 2018-03-07 08:36, Alexander Smirnov wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 03/07/2018 10:19 AM, Jan Kiszka wrote:
>>> On 2018-03-06 13:40, Alexander Smirnov wrote:
>>>> Add possibility to set kernel module to be autoloaded.
>>>> Also add run dependency from 'systemd' because this package owns the
>>>> content of '/etc/modules-load.d'.
>>>>
>>>> Signed-off-by: Alexander Smirnov <asmirnov@ilbers.de>
>>>> ---
>>>>    meta/recipes-kernel/linux-module/files/debian/control | 2 +-
>>>>    meta/recipes-kernel/linux-module/module.inc           | 7 +++++++
>>>>    2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>>>
>>>> diff --git a/meta/recipes-kernel/linux-module/files/debian/control
>>>> b/meta/recipes-kernel/linux-module/files/debian/control
>>>> index 707f857..0eae9a4 100644
>>>> --- a/meta/recipes-kernel/linux-module/files/debian/control
>>>> +++ b/meta/recipes-kernel/linux-module/files/debian/control
>>>> @@ -7,5 +7,5 @@ Maintainer: ISAR project <isar-users@googlegroups.com>
>>>>      Package: @PN@
>>>>    Architecture: any
>>>> -Depends: linux-image-@KERNEL_NAME@
>>>> +Depends: linux-image-@KERNEL_NAME@, systemd
>>>
>>> Why this, BTW?
>>
>> See comment to the patch:
>>
>> 8<--
>> Also add run dependency from 'systemd' because this package owns the
>> content of '/etc/modules-load.d'.
>> 8<--
>>
>> So if this dependency is not set, the module.postinst script could be
>> run *before* '/etc/modules*' infrastructure is created.
> 
> ...and that means?
> 
> Also, is systemd now the only provider of this infrastructure in Debian?
> 

I have no 100% evidences. I see that there are mainly 2 ways to load 
kernel modules at boot time:

1. Add it to /etc/modules file. I've checked, this file is created by 
kmod package (kmod.postinst), so dependency from kmod should be added.

2. Create separate config file with module in /etc/modules-load.d. This 
folder is created by systemd. I've checked, this package is installed by 
default for all the distributions: wheezy, jessie and stretch. But in 
general I didn't find if that's the preferred way to load module.


Some official Debian wiki (https://wiki.debian.org/Modules) mentioned:

...
If you want to get a module to autoload when a device is accessed you 
can often add a file to /etc/modutils and run update-modules to generate 
/etc/modules.conf.
...

But 'man update-modules' states:

...
update-modules is an obsolete command which does nothing. Any program 
calling it should be fixed by not using it anymore.
...

So, no idea what is the mainstream now.

Alex