Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: A generic kernel compatibilty code | From | Ben Hutchings <> | Date | Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:00:58 +0000 |
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On Fri, 2009-11-20 at 12:45 -0800, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote: > Everyone and their mother reinvents the wheel when it comes to > backporting kernel modules. It a painful job and it seems to me an > alternative is possible. If we can write generic compatibilty code for > a new routine introduced on the next kernel how about just merging it > to the kernel under some generic compat module. This would be > completey ignored by everyone using the stable kernel but can be > copied by anyone doing backport work. > > So I'm thinking something as simple as a generic compat/comat.ko with > compat-2.6.32.[ch] files. > > We've already backported everything needed for wireless drivers under > compat-wireless under this format down to even 2.6.25. [...]
If you think 2.6.25 is old then I don't think you understand the scale of the problem.
OEMs still expect us to support RHEL 4 (2.6.9) and SLES 9 (2.6.5) though the latter will probably be dropped soon. Some other vendors apparently still need to support even 2.4 kernels!
Ben.
-- Ben Hutchings, Senior Software Engineer, Solarflare Communications Not speaking for my employer; that's the marketing department's job. They asked us to note that Solarflare product names are trademarked.
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