device.hints question

[Lowell Gilbert]

George Fazio <george at n3gqf.net> writes:

> I was installing apcupsd with an APC USB UPS, and found that I needed
> to disable the uhid driver. The instructions on the apcupsd site
> specifically say to recompile the kernel. But, I try to keep my kernel
> as generic as possible, so I tried entering the following line into
> the device.hints file.
> 
> hint.uhid.0.disabled="1"
> 
> This did not work, and I'm not sure if it's a syntax issue on my part,
> or if disabling this driver via device.hints is just not supported. I
> did a web search for information on device.hints and uhid, but did not
> find anything specific. Recompiling with a custom kernconf worked, and
> everything is up and running.. But, I'm interested in a little bit of
> background on why the device hint did not work. If anyone has a quick
> answer great. Like I said, everything is working, so it's not like I
> need an answer. But, I'm still fairly new to Unix and FreeBSD, and
> trying to learn the why behind how things work. So, any information
> would be helpful.

The hints aren't generated automatically, so there's no reason to
think a module disable would be in place unless someone found it
useful.  If you find it useful, then feel free to write the code and
submit it.

-- 
Lowell Gilbert, embedded/networking software engineer, Boston area
		http://be-well.ilk.org/~lowell/