Re: custom kernel - disabling devices - broadcom qlogic NetXtremeII

[Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net>]

On 8/18/14, Darac Marjal <mailinglist@darac.org.uk> wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 18, 2014 at 09:48:50PM +1000, Zenaan Harkness wrote:
>> I am using "make xconfig" (the kernel qt configurator).
>>
>> How is it that I cannot disable:
>> Network device support
>> -> Ethernet driver support
>> -> Broadcom devices
>> -> Broadcom QLogic NetXtremeII driver?
>>
>> I can only select it as a module, or permanently built into the kernel. It
>> says:
>> Selected by: CNIC [=m] && NETDEVICES [=y] && ETHERNET [=y] &&
>> NET_VENDOR_BROADCOM [=y] && PCI [=y]
>
> As I  understand it, the  module you want  to disable is  being selected
> (for build)  because of the boolean  logic shown here. If  you have CNIC
> *and* NETDEVICES  *and* ETHERNET *and*  ... (and  so on), then  you must
> also have the Broadcom QLogic NetXtreme II driver.
>
> Now, a quick  check on the first  of those (I searched  the internet for
> 'linux kernel  CNIC', no quotes  and took the  first link) shows  me [1]
> that the CNIC driver "supports offload features of Broadcom NetXtreme II
> gigabit Ethernet cards".
>
> So, at the moment, you're trying to build the offloading driver for that
> card as  a module  ("CNIC=m") but not  the main driver  for the  card. I
> doubt that's going to work.
>
> I would suggest saying no to CNIC and you should then be able to disable
> the other driver.
>
> [1] http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/CNIC.html

Thank you.

"QLogic CNIC support" is the option immediately below that NetXtremeII
option, and it too can only be set to m or yes. It says:
SCSI_BNX2_ISCSI [=m] && SCSI_LOWLEVEL [=y] && SCSI [=m] && NET [=y] &&
PCI [=y] || SCSI_BNX2X_FCOE [=m] && SCSI_LOWLEVEL [=y] && SCSI [=m] &&
PCI [=y]

When I set it to module, NetXtremeII can be set to m; when I set it to
yes, NetXtremeII cannot be disabled. I would like both to be disabled
- I am able to disable the other "Broadcom devices" drivers, just not
these two.

And there is no general disable switch for "Broadcom devices" section
(at the moment at least), whereas, for example, there is for the
"Atheros devices" section.

I enabled menu Option -> Show Name, and went through all the items I
could find in:
Device drivers -> SCSI device support
and could not find SCSI_BNX2_ISCSI.

Finally I found the Edit -> Find menu, and these two devices options are under
SCSI device support -> SCSI low-level drivers
-> Qlogic...
where they can be disabled.

Could that be considered a bug of sorts? That seems rather awkward to
search around, to disable something you're looking at, to then have to
come back to where you were - surely it should just disable from where
I am in the first instance?

There seem to be at least a number of such instances around - the
kernel config tool is not intuitive, or doesn't seem to work very well
from this dum user's perspective. It's going to take a really long
time to disable things I don't need, at least with this user
interface.

Thanks again,
Zenaan