Re: loading kernel mode setting drivers

[Julien Cristau <jcristau@debian.org>]

On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 18:24:56 +0000, Julien Cristau wrote:

> One issue that showed up is that i915 isn't getting loaded by udev,
> because /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf contains:
> 
> # This directive blacklists all devices which are members of the display class.
> # It has the main effect of preventing udev from autoloading the fb drivers.
> # vendor, device, subsystem_vendor, subsystem_device, class, class, class
> install pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc03sc*i* /bin/true
> 
> So right now it gets loaded by the initramfs if video=i915 is in the
> kernel command line, or by X when it starts otherwise.
> 
I tried to look at how other distributions handle this, and this
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file seems to be a Debianism.  From what
I can tell (looking at the ubuntu archive and a fedora 10 box) other
distros have a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf provided by the hwdata
package, which explicitly blacklists fb drivers, avoiding the above
issue.

The current version of that blacklist is:

#
# Listing a module here prevents the hotplug scripts from loading it.
# Usually that'd be so that some other driver will bind it instead,
# no matter which driver happens to get probed first.  Sometimes user
# mode tools can also control driver binding.
#
# Syntax:  driver name alone (without any spaces) on a line. Other
# lines are ignored.
#

# watchdog drivers
blacklist i8xx_tco

# framebuffer drivers
blacklist aty128fb
blacklist atyfb
blacklist radeonfb
blacklist i810fb
blacklist cirrusfb
blacklist intelfb
blacklist kyrofb
blacklist i2c-matroxfb
blacklist hgafb
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist rivafb
blacklist savagefb
blacklist sstfb
blacklist neofb
blacklist tridentfb
blacklist tdfxfb
blacklist virgefb
blacklist vga16fb

# ISDN - see bugs 154799, 159068
blacklist hisax
blacklist hisax_fcpcipnp

# sound drivers
blacklist snd-pcsp


Marco, what do you think of switching to this, or at least using its fb
part?

Thanks,
Julien