observations on 2.5 config screens

From: Robert P. J. Day (rpjday@mindspring.com)
Date: Wed Jan 01 2003 - 14:55:01 EST


  while i read a recent post stating, essentially, "it's unlikely
that the overall hierarchy of the config screens is going to
change much," i find the 2.5 layout pretty much as confusing
and illogical as the 2.4 screens. some petty and not-so-petty
examples and suggestions:

Loadable module support
    
    Does "Module unloading" mean whether or not I can run "rmmod"?
  And if I deselect this, why can I still select "Forced module
  unloading"? Either I can unload or I can't, no?

    And what's the rationale behind making unloading an option,
  anyway? If I want loadable module support, is it really a
  big deal to assume I'll want the ability to unload them as
  well? Just curious, that's all. Under what circumstances
  would I explicitly *not* want the ability to rmmod? Tight
  space embedded kernels, possibly?

Processor family

    It seems that the final option, "Preemptible kernel", does
  not belong there. In fact, there seem to be a number of
  kernel-related, kind of hacking/debugging options, that
  could be collected in one place, like preemption, sysctl,
  hacking, executable file formats, etc. "Low-level kernel
  options", perhaps?

Bus options (PCI, PCMCIA, EISA, MCA, ISA)

    First, there's no hint from that heading that hot-pluggable
  settings are hidden under there as well.

    In addition, why does "Bus options" not include the USB bus,
  the I2C bus, FireWire, etc? A bus is a bus, isn't it?

Multimedia devices

    How come "Sound" is not here? And (as we've already
  established), Radio Adapters is not a sub-entry of Video for
  Linux. :-) (And is there a reason why Amateur Radio Support
  and Radio Adapters are so far apart in the config menus?

Wireless networking/protocols

   Yes, I realize there's no such category, but there *should*
  be, which would include:

        Wireless LAN (non ham-radio)
        Bluetooth
        IrDA

  anyway, just some observations from someone who doesn't
know any better.

rday
        

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