Kudzu (was Re: [Techtalk] Error installing the driver of my 10/100MB Ethernet card)

[Magni Onsoien]

On Fri, Nov 08, 2002 at 01:32:30PM +0100, Rebecca J. Walter said:

> I would like to know something about this thingie called "kudzu".  To
> me, kudzu is an evil groundcover that is taking over parts of the United
> States and causing serious environmental damage.  I think it was
> originally supposed to be good food for cattle but it ran rampant.
> 
> So when I hear "kudzu" and something to do with computers... I imagine
> something like Microsoft Windows... It tries to take over your computer
> and eradicate what belongs there.  Also, once it is there, it is almost
> impossible to get rid of.
> 
> So what is kudzu really and I am the only person who gets this sort of
> image from the name?

[magnio at nemi]:~> rpm -qi kudzu
[...]
URL         : http://rhlinux.redhat.com/kudzu/
Summary     : The Red Hat Linux hardware probing tool.
Description :
Kudzu is a hardware probing tool run at system boot time to determine
what hardware has been added or removed from the system.

So, basically it finds new hardware. It doesn not try to take over the
computer and is pretty easy to get rid off if you don't mind getting rid
of some configutilities at the same time :)
(It is however easy to get rid of at boot time: chkconfig kudzu off)

I guess the kudzu *you* imagined is http://www.cptr.ua.edu/kudzu/ - and
that just shows that choosing names for software and stuff is definitely
a cultural thing: I had never heard of this kudzu before :)


Magni (in Norway) :)
-- 
sash is very good for you.