[Nix-dev] [Nix-commits] SVN commit: nix - r33428 - in nixpkgs/branches/kmod-MODULE_DIR/pkgs: applications/virtualization/virtualbox applications/virtualization/virtualbox/guest-additions build-support/kernel os-specific/l...

[Shea Levy]

On 03/26/2012 11:28 AM, Yury G. Kudryashov wrote:
> Shea Levy wrote:
>
>> On 03/26/2012 11:15 AM, Yury G. Kudryashov wrote:
>>> We'll maintain /lib/modules/modversion symlink instead. This way both
>>> module-init-tools and libkmod will work without patches.
>> I really don't like this approach. Given that the kmod tools accept a
>> --dirname=DIR option that allows you to point to the modules directory,
>> why add this additional impurity?
> This way we're closer to what upstream supports.

Upstream supports --dirname=DIR for modprobe. We don't even need a patch 
for this.

>
> Why do you consider this to be an impurity? You can't have two kernels
> running at the same time anyway. And if you want to load a module from
> another directory, use `-d` or `insmod`.

Because a package might search /lib/modules during install for some 
reason. Many kernelPackages do so (and need to be patched to fix this), 
and if there were a /lib/modules symlink then you'd have problems 
building a kernelPackage for a kernel that's not the currently running one.

> Eelco Dolstra wrote:
>> I dislike introducing a /lib/modules.  What was wrong with using an
>> environment variable to point at the modules tree?
> E.g., next udev version relies on libkmod (not `modprobe`) to load modules.
> This way we can switch a symlink on nixos-rebuild switch. Any ideas how to
> do it with env var?

Patch udev to call kmod_new with the appropriate directory, or patch 
libkmod to respect the env var.