Features and Benefits of Autoconfiguration

The benefits of autoconfiguration are as follows:

• Main memory is used more efficiently because modules are loaded when needed.

• There is no need to reconfigure the kernel when new devices are added to the system.

• Drivers can be loaded and tested without having to rebuild the kernel and reboot the system.

Autoconfiguration is used when you add a new device (and driver) to the system. At this time, you might need to perform reconfiguration boot so that the system recognizes the new device unless the device is hot-pluggable. For information about hot-plugging devices, see Chapter 6, Dynamically Configuring Devices (Tasks).