Disable EISA and probes

[Greg KH]

On Sat, Sep 05, 2020 at 09:17:43AM -0400, Jeffrey Walton wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 5, 2020 at 7:37 AM Greg KH <greg at kroah.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Sat, Sep 05, 2020 at 07:31:13AM -0400, Jeffrey Walton wrote:
> > > On Sat, Sep 5, 2020 at 2:15 AM Greg KH <greg at kroah.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > On Fri, Sep 04, 2020 at 10:57:38PM -0400, Jeffrey Walton wrote:
> > > > > Hi Everyone,
> > > > >
> > > > > I would like to disable EISA and its probes during boot. I found the
> > > > > docs at https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/driver-api/eisa.html,
> > > > > but it does not discuss how to disable EISA or the probes.
> > > > >
> > > > > I also found https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1543919,
> > > > > where folks are wondering why EISA is enabled by default nowadays. And
> > > > > one person asks about a kernel option to disable it (like I am doing).
> > > > >
> > > > > I'd like to add a boot param like eisa=0 or eisa=off, but I suspect
> > > > > it's not that easy. Looking at the three documented kernel parameters,
> > > > > they all enable EISA and probes.
> > > > >
> > > > > How do I disable EISA and the probes?
> > > >
> > > > Build a kernel without EISA in it at all?  That's the simplest way as
> > > > you must have some custom hardware that doesn't like this, so a
> > > > custom-configuration seems like the best option.
> > >
> > > Nothing custom. I just have modern hardware.
> > >
> > > What's the purpose of including EISA by default? It has not been used
> > > in 25 years.
> >
> > distro kernels have to support everything.  The kernel should still just
> > work just fine with it enabled but not present, right?
> 
> Modern distros and their minimum requirements preclude EISA. One
> cannot meet a distros minimum requirements and have EISA.

Then file a bug with your distro to have it removed from their kernel
images.

> > > > Did you try that and it did not work?  What is the problem of EISA at
> > > > boot anyway?
> > >
> > > No, I did not build a custom kernel. I was looking for kernel options
> > > to disable it.
> >
> > Again, why?  What is breaking because it is enabled in your kernel?
> 
> Why do you assume something is broke?

Why would you want to disable it?  It's not running on your system, so
how can it affect you?

greg k-h