Managing Systems and Workgroups: A Guide for HP-UX System Administrators

Conﬁguring a System

Reconﬁguring the Kernel (Prior to HP-UX 11i Version 2)

Chapter 3 287

Managing Dynamically Loadable Kernel Modules

This section presents the concepts and procedures which are necessary

to understand, conﬁgure, and manage Dynamically Loadable Kernel

Modules (DLKMs).

This section is divided into the following three topical sections:

This section focuses on conﬁguring and managing loadable device

drivers, as they constitute the majority of supported module types for

HP-UX release 11.0 and later.

NOTE The HP-UX kernel infrastructure provides the ability to dynamically

load and unload DLKM drivers. While the base set of drivers shipped

with HP-UX release 11.11 are not DLKM enabled, many Independent

Software Vendors (ISVs) are coding DLKM enabled drivers for the

hardware they provide. HP provides DLKMs for Fire-GL graphics

support on 11.0 and 11.11. DLKMs ar also used as the only means of

graphics support of Itanium-based systems.

Check the documentation that shipped with any 3rd-party drivers you

have to determine if they are DLKM enabled.

Table 3-7 DLKM Topical Sections

Topic Description

DLKM Concepts This section provides an introduction to DLKM,

important DLKM terms, and detailed technical

DLKM concepts.

DLKM Tools This section provides a summary of tools

collectively known as the Kernel Conﬁguration

Tool Set which are used when installing,

conﬁguring, and managing DLKM modules.

DLKM Procedures This sections presents the key DLKM

procedures used in the three phases of

managing DLKM modules: Preparation,

Loading, and Maintenance.