[CentOS] Compile driver for new kernel rpm

Wed Jun 24 12:46:15 UTC 2009
Filipe Brandenburger <filbranden at gmail.com>

Hi,

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 07:29, Chadley Wilson<chadley at pinteq.co.za> wrote:
> I have a driver source xxxxx.c file and a Makefile with it.
> I want to recompile the kernel to include the driver

You may not need to recompile the kernel, instead compile your driver
only. There are (extensive) instructions for how to do it here:
http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/BuildingKernelModules

If building the driver without adding it to the kernel does not work,
and you really think you should build a new kernel package that
includes the driver, see these instructions instead:
http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Custom_Kernel

> and rebuild the initrd.img.

This should be a matter of running "mkinitrd" with the right
parameters. If you include a line for your driver in
/etc/modprobe.conf it should be included in new initrd.imgs by
default.

> Where do I copy the file in the kernel sources?
> I currently have it in a sub folder of the drivers directory in the kernel
> source folder.

This would be usually said in the driver's documentation, but what you
said implies there is none... If that works for you just go ahead...

> There is one more question if I may, it does not have a xxxx.h (header file)
> do I need it? The driver does compile perfectly without it. But I am not
> sure if I need to compile it into the kernel?

I don't think it would be required.

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HTH,
Filipe