PfSense and Mobile Broadband
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I don't personally know Scott, but it would be much easier to insert a pause in the build process to give you a proper chance of modifying code. As it stands right now you will have to do everything in a hurry because the build process does not wait for you. Also, providing the build process for the stable source code for pfSense would probably be too much to ask.
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If you load a KLD in /boot/loader.conf[.local] it can override the in-kernel drivers, we've done that with several network drivers in the past (at least fxp, em, igb) when someone needed support for a newer card on an older box. The same may work for u3g.
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Keep in mind that the usb subsystem needs to be rebuilt as well and it's a dependency of u3g.
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Hence my original question: is it possible to load the usbdevs as a module?
Somewhat uninformed speculation but…
Would it make any sense to not include u3g in the kernel but include it as a loadable module instead?Steve
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We have discussed moving many things to modules, so it's possible.
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It's possible to move both u3g and the whole usb subsystem (usb, uhci, ehci, usb_quirk, etc..) to dynamically loadable modules, but it's more of an architectural decision. The other option would be what I previously suggested, a pause in the build process to give you a proper chance of modifying code.
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A pause in the build process is just asking for trouble, and would unnecessarily delay builds for everyone that doesn't need such a delay (most of them).
There are ways to setup the builder config to apply your own custom patches or overlay your own files as a part of the build process, a delay is not needed.
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Actually no. What I meant by a "pause" is an option to continue with the build after user input. This is already implemented at different stages in the build process. The last stage includes fetching the kernel sources and compiling the kernel without giving you a proper chance of modifying it as this is all part of that last build_iso.sh script.
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That's what the patches file and directives are for. You can also set in the build config that you want to build certain components as modules, and add extra device directives to the kernel. For modifying the source, the patches are what you'd want. ./apply_kernel_patches.sh would be your friend in that case.
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That's more like it. I wrote a quick patch for the pfSense image build process:
–- ./sys/dev/usb/serial/u3g.c 2012-03-06 14:37:00.000000000 +0100
+++ ./sys/dev/usb/serial/u3g.c.new 2012-06-03 18:19:07.000000000 +0200
@@ -460,2 +460,3 @@
U3G_DEV(SIERRA, E6892, 0),- U3G_DEV(XXXXX, XXXXX, 0),
U3G_DEV(SIERRA, E6893, 0),
--- sys/dev/usb/usbdevs 2012-06-03 18:26:29.000000000 +0200
+++ sys/dev/usb/usbdevs.new 2012-06-03 18:26:22.000000000 +0200
@@ -2992,2 +2992,3 @@
product SIERRA E6892 0x6892 E6892
+product XXXXX XXXX XXXXX XXXXX
product SIERRA E6893 0x6893 E6893
Replace the XXXXX with your device information. Save as broadband.diff and place it under /home/pfsense/tools/patches/RELENG_8_3
Edit /home/pfsense/tools/builder_scripts/patches.RELENG_8_3 and add the following line:
~~broadband.diff
below ~~huawei_k4505.diff.
run ./build_iso.sh (the last stage) to build the images. (The build process will fail the first time, perform a cleanup and re-run ./build_iso.sh.)
That will re-fetch the kernel sources, re-apply the patches and build the images.
It should work for all Sierra and Novatel devices, and for the majrority of HUAWEI and ZTE.This applies to the pfSense build image process which is described at: http://devwiki.pfsense.org/DevelopersBootStrapAndDevIso
- U3G_DEV(XXXXX, XXXXX, 0),
