5.5. Driver Update Program

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, it is possible to build updated kernel module packages that depend upon the current kernel ABI version and not on a specific kernel release number. This facilitates building kernel modules that can be used against a range of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernels, rather than a single release. The project website at http://www.kerneldrivers.org/ contains more information about the packaging process, as well as several examples.

Note that the following issues have also been identified:

These issues will be addressed in a future update of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The module loading behavior on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 has changed from previous releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The modules shipped in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel package are signed, as was the case in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernels, however, it is no longer possible to load a signed module from another kernel build.

This means that a module shipped with the initial Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 distribution cannot be loaded in future updated kernels. This helps prevent users from loading unsupported modules on a system. Red Hat only supports modules that are signed and included in a distribution.

If you want to load an older module, you can try rebuilding it without a signature. Alternatively, you can remove the signature from the binary file using the following command:

objcopy -R .module_sig <module name>-mod.ko <module name>-nosig.ko

It is recommended that you consult with a designated Red Hat Global Support Representative before attempting to load unsigned modules.