Options for a New Kernel

[Benjamin Walkenhorst]

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 13:36:56 -0500
Gerard Seibert <gerard-seibert at rcn.com> wrote:

> I am still trying to learn how FreeBSD works. Can I create a new
> kernel file with the following entries or are they just for use in the
> loader.conf file?
> 
> hint.acpi.0.disabled=0      # enable ACPI (i386 only)
> hw.ata.ata_dma=1             # enable  IDE DMA
> hw.ata.atapi_dma=1         # enable ATAPI/IDE DMA
> hw.ata.wc=1                        # enable  IDE disk write cache
> hw.eisa_slots=0                # disable probing for EISA devices

To quote /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC:

#To statically compile in device wiring instead of /boot/device.hints
#hints          "GENERIC.hints"         #Default places to look for
                                        #devices.


The disadvantage of this approach is that you cannot change any hints
after you have compiled the kernel, unless you compile again everytime
you change one of the hints... 
I'm not sure this is a wise thing to do, but as you see, it's perfectly
possible. =) If your device-hints aren't like to change it's quite safe,
but I don't think your system's going to boot faster or something like
that.
Anyway, just write all of your device-hints to a file of your choice and
add
---
hints		"your_device_hints.hints"
---
to your kernel-config, "make kernel", reboot and enjoy. =)

I'm not entirely sure, but to be on the safe side, you probably place
the hints-file in the folder of your kernel-config
(/usr/src/sys/<arch>/conf).

> Thanks!
> 
> Gerard Seibert
> gerard-seibert at rcn.com

Hope it helps,

kind regards,

Benjamin