Kudzu Segmentation Fault

[Tim Writer]

Taavi Burns <taavi-LbuTpDkqzNzXI80/IeQp7B2eb7JE58TQ at public.gmane.org> writes:

> On Tue, Jan 06, 2004 at 01:01:31PM -0500, Madison Kelly wrote:
> > Hi Tim,
> > 
> >   That's one way of doing it but where then would I go to 
> > discover/enter all the nitty gritty details of the chipset et. al.? 
> > Besides, it drives me crazy to know there is a problem and not fix it. :)
> 
> lspci and /proc contain a wealth of information about devices connected
> to your computer, as does /sys on systems with kernel 2.6.  There are probably
> other bits that the software looks at in various other places, too...but you
> can usually look at these yourself.  KDE also has "Look at the hardware"
> programs (the "KDE Info Center").

And once the system's been correctly configured, there's little use for this
information.  For example, on my Debian home system (which uses a stock
Debian kernel), I need to load the piix.o module to enable (DMA etc.) support
for the Intel IDE chipset.  With this loaded (via /etc/modules), I can use
hdparm to tune my IDE disks which I do in a custom startup script.  Once this
has been done, information on the IDE chipset is of little use to me.

While kudzu can be useful on an initial install (although I find KNOPPIX's
hardware detection does a better job), I remove it or disable it because more
often than not it's a source of trouble.  Consider a remotely managed,
headless server.  Now suppose you ask an unskilled individual who's on-site
to install an additional NIC for you which you will configure remotely.  If
you've left kudzu enabled (pehaps unwittingly), it will helpfully ask the
user to deal with the new hardware.  But since the system's headless, there's
no one to interact with kudzu and the system won't come up.  This has
happened to me.  I've also seen kudzu hang a system simply because someone
unfamilar with Linux plugged in a mouse.  And I've seen it hang a failed
system that was recovered by replacing the mainboard.

While I understand your desire to "fix it", when an application that is
completely optional is broken, the simple fix is just to remove it.

-- 
tim writer <tim-s/rLXaiAEBtBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>                                  starnix inc.
905.771.0017 ext. 225                           thornhill, ontario, canada
http://www.starnix.com              professional linux services & products
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