[CentOS-devel] C7 i686 kernel driver request

[Peter]

On 10/04/2015 10:57 AM, Ned Slider wrote:
> There is no responsibility on Red Hat to maintain drivers disabled in
> the RHEL7 kernel, so if CentOS enables drivers for a 32-bit kernel build
> that are disabled by default in the RHEL kernel, then CentOS would need
> to take responsibility/ownership for maintaining those drivers within
> the CentOS kernel, backporting security fixes as necessary.
> 
> That is a very different proposition than just rebuilding upstream
> sources, requiring a very different skill set and resources.
> 
> Further, down the line you will most likely find that the driver won't
> compile when enabled. For example, the wireless stack has been updated
> in the RHEL7.2beta kernel from kernel-4.1-rc6, yet the b43 driver in the
> kernel source will still be from the original 3.10.0 branch. It's
> unlikely to compile and will probably need backporting from 4.1.
> 
> Your best bet is probably to backport the driver yourself and build it
> out of tree - a lot simpler than building a whole kernel just for one
> driver.

All very good points, but I have never pulled a module and built it out
of tree before, and so right now the easier proposition for me is to
just tweak a config file and try to rebuild the entire kernel.  At some
point I may try to do what you're suggesting.

I did have a look and find these directions to help me:
https://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/BuildingKernelModules

...the above link will likely be my next step after just trying to
rebuild the kernel itself.


Peter