[Buildroot] How can I compile a module into the kernel?

[Patrick Doyle]

For security reasons, I would like to disable loadable modules in my
kernel.  But my wireless driver is only available as a module.

I could drop the module into the source tree, possibly with a minor
tweak to the Makefile, and just include it that way, but then I would
have to maintain a source tree separately from my vendor supplied
source tree.  And I hate proliferating yet another public git
repository clone of a clone of a clone of the Linux kernel.

Or I could drop the module into my source tree and convert it into a
large patch which I would apply to the kernel as part of the build
process.  But those sorts of patches get messy to maintain.

What I would really like to do is to tell buildroot and/or the kernel
"Link this external module into the kernel at link time, not at
runtime".

Does anybody have any thoughts as to how I might do that?

--wpd