Once upon a time, John Summerfield <debian@(protected):
> The kernel uses it (or did) to identify, in order, your SCSI adaptors'
> drivers.

Not the kernel, but modprobe and the init scripts (the kernel doesn't do
anything to load modules anymore; it is handled in user-space).

> I expect that, without it, the SCSI adaptors will work if their driver
> is loaded. How they might be ordered is indeterminate (unless you know
> better) and might not be consistent.

The important one is the first one; it has to be in the initrd or your
system won't boot. The others should be auto-loaded after boot even if
they are not listed.

> [1] I'd not be surprised if it predates Linux modules, it might still
> have provided a means of ordering adaptors.

No, this came much later. Without modules, the ordering was determined
by a static list in the kernel source and then by link order. Woe to
the person that added a second adapter that used a different driver that
was earlier in the list; suddenly, all your sda, sdb, etc. are changed
(and nothing handled device names changing).

--
Chris Adams <cmadams@(protected)>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.

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