[CentOS-devel] C7 i686 kernel driver request

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.

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.