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OpenBSD Drops Support For Loadable Kernel Modules
jones_supa writes: The OpenBSD developers have decided to remove support for loadable kernel modules from the BSD distribution's next release. Several commits earlier this month stripped out the loadable kernel modules support. Phoronix's Michael Larabel has not yet found an official reason for the decision to drop support. He wagers that it is due to security or code quality/openness ideals.
"...Michael Larabel has not yet found an official reason for the decision to drop support. He wagers that it is due to security or code quality/openness ideals."
I know Phoronix is infamous, but, wow...
The OpenBSD mailing lists are right there. You're already reading them! Many developers frequent them daily. All you need to do is post a question! Hell, send an email to Ted himself if you're that shy. Why bother writing this article without doing the most basic of research?
As far as I'm concerned, the OpenBSD developers are as close to infallable as software developers could ever hope to get.
If they've decided to do this, then it's just the correct thing to be doing.
HP rep - a HP-UX sales guy - once told me that their kernel doesn't support loadable modules to prevent even the remote possibility of a malicious driver.
But why OpenBSD choose to do it, I have no idea. Frankly, I was under impression that OpenBSD didn't support loadable kernel modules at all.
To some the kernel drivers might seem a norm, but even 15 years ago they were still considered a novelty. And everybody was still making jokes about Microsoft's Plug-n-Play.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
This is it. Old implementation, low quality, and NOTHING USES IT. Bye bye!
The official changelog also says they removed LKM http://www.openbsd.org/faq/cur...
I'm more alarmed that procfs is going away.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
As an avid OpenBSD user and fan, this puzzle me because it would seem like a giant step backwards. Yes, loadable kernel modules do weaken the security some but it makes adding hardware drivers difficult. I really like OpenBSD as the OS does so many things very well but the team members are far from fallible. The community isn't as supportive and tends to be very exclusive, responding with RTFM sometimes a little too often. I can understand RTFM, but I cannot understand being told to read when I've read it already and I'm still unclear.
bzzt. wrong. clearly you've never used openbsd. I actively switched to openbsd from linux because some updated packages were only available on openbsd MONTHS before being available in packaged format that works on linux distros i tried. As OP mentioned, BSD just works. For eveything else where you want to spend hours tweaking before it works... there's Linux.