[Debian-eeepc-devel] Some experiences with kernel 2.6.31

[Alan Jenkins]

On 10/11/09, Luca Niccoli <lultimouomo at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/10/11 Alan Jenkins <sourcejedi.lkml at googlemail.com>:
>
>>  - load eeepc-laptop as normal when udev starts, but avoid blocking
>> the rest of the boot process on it
>>  - avoid a confusing "blacklist" entry which isn't really a blacklist
>>  -  allow the user to add "blacklist eeepc-laptop" and have it work as
>> normal
>
> Ok, I made this try:
>
> Add to /etc/modprobe.d/eeepc.conf:
> install eeepc_laptop modprobe --ignore-install eeepc_laptop $CMDLINE_OPTS &
>
> Applied the attached patch the /etc/init.d/eee-acpi-scripts:
> it makes the change you suggested (I only added --ignore-install to
> the modprobe call, otherwise it forks to background), plus it makes
> SHEngine calls fork to background, as they're awfully slow (up to 4s
> on my 901).
> These two changes together make a whole lot of difference on my system.
>
>> Then we should also change the eeepc-laptop driver to initialise
>> asynchronously when it is built in to the kernel.  Otherwise building
>> it into the kernel will slow down the boot process, which is
>> unpleasantly counter-intuitive.
>
> You mean making the whole module init an async call?
>
>> Does that make sense?  Do you want to work on this yourself, or should
>> I add it to my TODO list?
>
> I think the kernel stuff could be a bit hard to merge upstream...

Forget it, I was being thick again.  The kernel can't hide a 3 second
delay inside a 1-second boot.  (The kernel waits until all async calls
are finished before starting userspace.  The kernel is effectively one
big module; all the same reasons for waiting apply).

Alan