[CentOS-devel] C7 i686 kernel driver request

[Leon Fauster]

Am 03.10.2015 um 23:57 schrieb Ned Slider <ned at unixmail.co.uk>:
> 
> On 03/10/15 13:19, Peter wrote:
>> Is it beyond reason to request certain older drivers be enabled in the
>> i686 kernel for CentOS 7 to help support the older hardware that you
>> might find in 32 bit machines?  I have an old gateway laptop that I'm
>> trying it out on and it needs the b43 driver enabled.
>> 
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> 
>> Peter
> 
> The main issue here is one of security.
> 
> 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.


a candidate for a centosplus kernel, where such 
modification (enabling modules) were done. 
Implies a disclaimer; "not for production ..."


> 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.

good point. 

--
LF