Timeline for Since when are Linux drivers loaded as kernel modules?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 5, 2017 at 21:27 | comment | added | hobbs | @StephenKitt alright, no argument with any of that :) | |
| Aug 5, 2017 at 21:24 | comment | added | Stephen Kitt | @hobbs I’m not claiming everyone used initrd, or even the majority; but I am saying that initrd has been used on hard drives for a very long time (it was an option with Red Hat Linux 3.9 in 1996). My recollection is similar to yours, with a big change around 2.6 and udev, but even that was long ago: udev and the 2.6 kernel were released in 2003... We’ve had them for over half of Linux’s lifetime. | |
| Aug 4, 2017 at 5:01 | comment | added | hobbs | @StephenKitt definitely my first few Linux systems didn't use an initrd... if you were using a stock kernel you used the "IDE kernel" if your / was on an IDE disk or the "SCSI kernel" if it was on SCSI, the root fs was mounted directly, and the first process the kernel ran was the real init. IIRC the substantial changeover happened around the same time as 2.6 and udev. It was available before then, no doubt, but it wasn't the obvious or common thing. | |
| Jul 28, 2017 at 19:53 | comment | added | Jules | Regarding initrd, I believe that was a new feature introduced in the 1.3.x line (circa 1997 I guess). It certainly wasn't used in my 1.2.13 based system in 1996, but when I upgraded to 2.0 I'm pretty sure the new system used it. | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 22:30 | comment | added | Stephen Kitt | (See section 5.2 of the Red Hat Linux 4.0 user’s guide for details of initrd support.) | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 22:18 | comment | added | Stephen Kitt | Red Hat Linux 3.9 introduced modules instead of monolithic kernels in 1996. That’s not “reasonably new” in my book (at least, not as far as Linux history goes!). | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 21:51 | comment | added | Joshua | @StephenKitt: Red Hat sure didn't and I've got the OS install intact to prove it (pre-internet computer). Slackware didn't either. | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 21:09 | comment | added | Stephen Kitt | Citation needed... Initrd has been used on hard disks for a very long time, e.g. in Debian since at least 2002. You’re right about compiling drivers necessary to boot the system into the kernel. | |
| Jul 26, 2017 at 18:51 | review | First posts | |||
| Jul 26, 2017 at 20:08 | |||||
| Jul 26, 2017 at 18:46 | history | answered | Joshua | CC BY-SA 3.0 |