initcall ordering is defined here:
http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/include/linux/init.h#L194
which is, for reference:
/*
* A "pure" initcall has no dependencies on anything else, and purely
* initializes variables that couldn't be statically initialized.
*
* This only exists for built-in code, not for modules.
* Keep main.c:initcall_level_names[] in sync.
*/
#define pure_initcall(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 0)
#define core_initcall(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 1)
#define core_initcall_sync(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 1s)
#define postcore_initcall(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 2)
#define postcore_initcall_sync(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 2s)
#define arch_initcall(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 3)
#define arch_initcall_sync(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 3s)
#define subsys_initcall(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 4)
#define subsys_initcall_sync(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 4s)
#define fs_initcall(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 5)
#define fs_initcall_sync(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 5s)
#define rootfs_initcall(fn) __define_initcall(fn, rootfs)
#define device_initcall(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 6)
#define device_initcall_sync(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 6s)
#define late_initcall(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 7)
#define late_initcall_sync(fn) __define_initcall(fn, 7s)
As module_init
is #defined to be device_initcall
, a general module with nothing dependent on it gets initialized towards the end of the sequence. To load your module early, you simply change its module_init
call to something else that occurs earlier (like subsys_initcall
, for example)
Note: just switching the order on things can break other dependencies, and you can get in a catch-22 dependency loop from hell.