RE: [PATCH]"drm: change DRM_MIPI_DSI module type from "bool" to "tristate".

From: Jani Nikula
Date: Wed Oct 12 2016 - 06:53:49 EST


On Wed, 12 Oct 2016, "Sun, Jing A" <jing.a.sun@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I think "installing a kernel with my changes for both drm and i915"
> takes more time and effort to complete than "only updating DRM/i915
> modules without rebuilding the whole kernel". In some cases, that's
> beneficial.

It's possible to change and rebuild and update just the drm and i915,
but you need to be careful to build against the same tree as the ones
you are replacing. This is like using out-of-tree modules (which is
something I can't recommend no matter what, but that's another
discussion).

However, this is completely different from planning to update drm and
i915 modules on a running production system by unloading the old ones
and probing the new ones. Don't do that. It will be a disaster.

> Also reloadablility is always a good thing to have and I truly hope
> Hajda/Iwai's patches would be accepted and merged. No downside of it
> after all.

I think it's good to be able to unload and reload modules for debugging
and development, but not for normal use.

BR,
Jani.


--
Jani Nikula, Intel Open Source Technology Center