Use modules for hardware drivers

[rn]

With module loading now working, we should move some device drivers to be compiled as modules.

As a rule of a thumb, we should only compile in device which are commonly used on Hypervisors (mostly virtio and hyper-v) and move all other device drivers to be compiled as modules.

This should speed up boot times on local hypervisors where we care most about these things

[justincormack]

It would be good to measure the boot time before and after, so we get a handle on the improvement.

Many of the network options can be changed to be modular too.

[nrocco]

cc @m4rcu5

[m4rcu5]

I started doing some initial moving to modules for block device drivers and network device drivers in a branch here
An initial comparison against for example the Arch linux kernel configuration showed 650 drivers/modules that could be build as module instead of build-in, but I think that everything related to the network stack (ipv4/6, netfilter) could stay build-in as it is an essential part of the OS here.

[rn]

@m4rcu5 thanks for the branch. I think we want the virtio drivers and a view others you move to modules compiled in. I would initially just move the drivers for real HV into modules

[pwFoo]

I replaced the linuxkit kernel (config) with a custom one because I need desktop kernel modules. Would be great to have additional kernel modules. Maybe as a separated image with shared /lib/modules? So additional / desktop required kernel modules could be optional.

[rn]

That doesn't work as we'd have to run depmod on the combined modules and we have a RO file system

…

On 21 Jun 2017, at 15:30, pwFoo ***@***.***> wrote: I replaced the linuxkit kernel (config) with a custom one because I need desktop kernel modules. Would be great to have additional kernel modules. Maybe as a separated image with shared /lib/modules? So additional / desktop required kernel modules could be optional. — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.

[pwFoo]

Ok, thanks for feedback, @rn