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9.6 Kernel Daemon Configuration

Kernel Daemon Configuration

As discussed in Chapter 6, Red Hat Linux includes kerneld, the Kernel Daemon, which automatically loads some software and hardware support into memory as it is needed, and unloads it when it is no longer being used.

The tool shown in Figure 65 manages the configuration file for kerneld. While kerneld can load some things, such as filesystems, without explicit configuration, it needs to be told what hardware support to load when it is presented with a generic hardware request.

Figure 65: Kernel Module Management

For instance, when the kernel wants to load support for ethernet, kerneld needs to know which ethernet card you have, and if your ethernet card requires special configuration, it needs to know about that, too.

9.6.1 Changing Module Options

Changing Module Options

To change the options being given to a module when it is loaded, click on the line to select it, then click the Edit button. kernelcfg will bring up a window which looks like Figure 66 The options which kernelcfg knows about them (normally all available options) each have their own field. Normally, you will want to ignore the Other arguments field. Some modules normally take no arguments; just in case, they have an Arguments field which allows you to enter configuration information.

Figure 66: Editing Module Options

9.6.2 Changing Modules

Changing Modules

To change which module gets invoked to provide a generic service, such as an ethernet card or SCSI host adapter module, you need to delete the old one and add a new one. To delete a module, select it by clicking on it, then click on Delete. Then click on Add to add the new module, as explained in the following section.

If you have changed your SCSI controller (scsi_hostadapter), remember to make a new initial ramdisk with the /sbin/mkinitrd command as documented in section 6.1.2.

9.6.3 Adding Modules

Adding Modules

To add a module of any type, click on the Add button. You will be presented with a dialog box (Figure 67) asking you to choose a module type. Ethernet is eth, Token Ring is tr, SCSI controllers are scsi_hostadapter, and so on. Click OK to continue to

Figure 67: Adding a module

the next dialog box. If there is more than one module which can be used for the module type you have chosen, you will be presented with a dialog box (Figure 68) which asks which module you want to use, and may also ask for specifics about the type of module; for ethernet, for example, you need to choose from eth0, eth1, etc. When you are done, click OK again to continue to specify any module options in the next dialog box (Figure 68), which is the same as the dialog for editing a module.

Figure 68: Selecting from available modules

9.6.4 Restarting Kerneld

Restarting Kerneld

The changes that you make with the Kernel Daemon Configuration tool will be made in the /etc/conf.modules file, which kerneld reads whenever it is started. Once you have made changes, you can restart kerneld by clicking on the Restart kerneld button. This will not cause any modules which are currently in use to be reloaded, it will only notify kerneld to use the configuration when it loads more modules in the future.


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