[hsflinux] modprobe for hsf driver making machine hang

[Dave Driver]

Josh Green wrote:

> I also use gentoo and some of those posts were from me. Not sure if you
> saw the email or not, but I believe it was one of the Linuxant
> developers. It was mentioned that the problem is with module-init-tools
> and modprobe. It gets into a recursive dependency situation where an
> endless number of insmod processes get forked off, essentially forking
> your machine :)  The fix mentioned was to upgrade to 3.0 of
> module-init-tools. This doesn't work, at least with Gentoo, since the
> bug appears to be there as well (it was the first version I was using
> before I started trying older versions). For now I just have all the
> modules load at boot time using /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 (they
> load in the order of dependency) and removed the probeall lines from
> /etc/modules.d/hsf.

I installed the latest module-init-tools yesterday and it didn't seem 
any different. The generate-modprobe.conf script doesn't seem to have 
been updated, and even if it had I doubt that it could be made to do 
what is required of it in this particular situation.

Linuxant have taken the approach that they want to force all the modules 
to load, which sort of goes the opposite way from the module 
dependencies, hence creating the resursive dependency situation that you 
also observed. This can be fixed directly in modprobe.conf, but I don't 
know whether you can work it back as far as modules.d/hsf and still make 
it correct after two stages of translation.

I will mail you the solution separately and confidentially.

> 
> I can understand your reluctance to share your hard earned information
> to a project that isn't completely open. But unfortunately its the only
> option for us poor users who happen to end up with one of these Conexant
> software modems and want to use Linux (as I'm sure you know). I've been
> tempted to just purchase another modem at times since I've been less
> than satisfied with the Linuxant drivers and Linux kernel 2.6. Once I
> resolved the modprobe issue though, things have been working fine
> (despite some weired interaction from my ALSA PCM drivers and the modem,
> which I'll describe in another email). I just hope it doesn't break with
> the next kernel release. It just goes to show, with an open source
> operating system its nice to have open hardware as well (which is no
> fault of Linuxant's I'm sure). Cheers.
> 	Josh Green

If I had bought a Conexant modem that was a PCI card or a USB unit it 
would have been in the bin by now and replaced by a hardware modem 
costing maybe a pound more. Sadly mine is built into my Sony Vaio 
laptop. For a long time when I first bought the laptop I used a PCMCIA 
modem, but when the Linuxant free driver came along I tried it and it 
worked with kernel 2.4. Now I'd rather keep on using the internal modem 
if possible, since the PCMCIA modem gets hot, takes power, needs a 
dongle etc. Just looking for an ideal world like everyone else, but in 
that ideal world Conexant would have done the responsible thing and 
supplied their own driver to the Linux community. So they're the bad 
guys, not Linuxant, and I can understand Linuxant's position on this. 
However it's a bad precedent and if we had to pay for every driver we 
would be paying more for Linux than for a second rate Microsoft OS. If 
Linuxant are going to charge for the driver then they can't expect the 
users to fix their bugs for free. $15 should do it....