[CentOS-devel] Loading pre-built for Red Hat kernel modules

Fri Aug 20 15:44:46 UTC 2010
Ross McKerchar <bulk at flat5.org>

Hi Guys,

I have a product which requires it's own kernel module. The vendor
provides pre-built kernel modules that are compiled against the stock
Red Hat kernels but the product does not successfully identify and
load these binary modules on my Cent OS machines. I'm in a discussion
with the vendor about fixing this so that the product successfully
identifies the Red Hat modules as compatible. However we're not sure
if these binary modules will indeed be 100% compatible with the
corresponding Cent OS kernel for any given version. The concern was
that tiny differences between the kernels, say, the name of the build
host, could change the address of a data structure in the kernel which
the pre-built module attempts to use.

Does this sound like a valid concern? Where does the attempt to
provide 100% binary compatibility end? The source for these kernel
modules is actually available but I am trying to avoid having to build
custom modules.

Thanks for your help!

-ross