23-05-2012, 01:06 PM
WORLD KERNEL MODULE
WORLD KERNEL MODULE.doc (Size: 63.5 KB / Downloads: 27)
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
What Is A Kernel Module?
Modules are pieces of code that can be loaded and unloaded into the kernel upon demand. They extend the functionality of the kernel without the need to reboot the system. For example, one type of module is the device driver, which allows the kernel to access hardware connected to the system. Without modules, we would have to build monolithic kernels and add new functionality directly into the kernel image. Besides having larger kernels, this has the disadvantage of requiring us to rebuild and reboot the kernel every time we want new functionality.
How Do Modules Get Into The Kernel?
You can see what modules are already loaded into the kernel by running lsmod, which gets its information by reading the file /proc/modules.
How do these modules find their way into the kernel? When the kernel needs a feature that is not resident in the kernel, the kernel module daemon kmod execs modprobe to load the module in. modprobe is passed a string in one of two forms:
• A module name like softdog or ppp.
• A more generic identifier like char-major-10-30.
If modprobe is handed a generic identifier, it first looks for that string in the file /etc/modprobe.conf. If it finds an alias line like:
alias char-major-10-30 softdog
it knows that the generic identifier refers to the module softdog.ko.
Next, modprobe looks through the file /lib/modules/version/modules.dep, to see if other modules must be loaded before the requested module may be loaded. This file is created by depmod -a and contains module dependencies. For example, msdos.ko requires the fat.ko module to be already loaded into the kernel. The requested module has a dependency on another module if the other module defines symbols (variables or functions) that the requested module uses.
Lastly, modprobe uses insmod to first load any prerequisite modules into the kernel, and then the requested module. modprobe directs insmod to /lib/modules/version/, the standard directory for modules. insmod is intended to be fairly dumb about the location of modules, whereas modprobe is aware of the default location of modules, knows how to figure out the dependencies and load the modules in the right order. So for example, if you wanted to load the msdos module, you'd have to either run:
what we've seen here is: insmod requires you to pass it the full pathname and to insert the modules in the right order, while modprobe just takes the name, without any extension, and figures out all it needs to know by parsing /lib/modules/version/modules.dep.
Linux distros provide modprobe, insmod and depmod as a package called module-init-tools. In previous versions that package was called modutils. Some distros also set up some wrappers that allow both packages to be installed in parallel and do the right thing in order to be able to deal with 2.4 and 2.6 kernels. Users should not need to care about the details, as long as they're running recent versions of those tools.
Now you know how modules get into the kernel. There's a bit more to the story if you want to write your own modules which depend on other modules (we calling this `stacking modules'). But this will have to wait for a future chapter. We have a lot to cover before addressing this relatively high-level issue.
Before we delve into code, there are a few issues we need to cover. Everyone's system is different and everyone has their own groove. Getting your first "hello world" program to compile and load correctly can sometimes be a trick. Rest assured, after you get over the initial hurdle of doing it for the first time, it will be smooth sailing thereafter.
Modversioning
A module compiled for one kernel won't load if you boot a different kernel unless you enable CONFIG_MODVERSIONS in the kernel. We won't go into module versioning until later in this guide. Until we cover modversions, the examples in the guide may not work if you're running a kernel with modversioning turned on. However, most stock Linux distro kernels come with it turned on. If you're having trouble loading the modules because of versioning errors, compile a kernel with modversioning turned off.
Using X
It is highly recommended that you type in, compile and load all the examples this guide discusses. It's also highly recommended you do this from a console. You should not be working on this stuff in X.